DE discussion

[UB29]

I bought a new Smoky Lake 6-plate press recently. I see discussion on DE quantity per plate all over the place. Typically filtering 5-10 gallon batch per session.
One says 3-1/4 cups per plate...........others say 2/3 cup for 1st gallon, the 1/3 cup per gallon thereafter.
Any help from Smoky Lake pressers out there?
Thanks, Bill

[Pdiamond]

Didn't you receive instructions for use with the press? I would follow those to begin with.

[maple flats]

I'm not familiar with how large the hollow plates are on a Smoky Lake filter press, but one reason you see numbers all over the place is because different presses have widely varied capacities in the hollow plates. Most older ones had about 1" thick hollow plates, many newer ones have gone with more capacity, some 1.25". some even as thick as 2", others somewhere in between.
As you follow any directions you need to know the size of the filter press and the number of plates. The thickness will only affect how many gallons you can filter and along with that how much DE it will take before the filter is filled and requires cleaning.

[Ghs57]

I have a similar SL press. It works great, except for the time I put the end plate on upside down. If you go to the SL website, there is a video linked (one of us Mapletraders, Flower City Maples - by the way) where he demonstrates how to load up the press. SL does have their own instructional vids too. This technique works well, but I will have to watch again because it's been a year you know. Clearest syrup I've ever made.

[Wolfcreek Maple]

We have same filter press Ghs57 is correct on watching end plate orientation. The press takes 9 cups to fill plates we start with 3 cups in 1.5 gallons of hot syrup (200+ degrees) to prime press then mix in 5 to 5.5 cups into rest of syrup then filter ,we can do about 15-20 gallons at one time.