raised flue pan self draining

[amasonry]

Hey Traders, so I purchased a new raised flue pan with both floats boxes. on the syrup pan side after I'm done boiling the float slowly riases and drains my flue pan on the floor. do others have this problem? what am I missing? thought about two butterfly valves, but puts the float box kinda in the way and the butterfly valves are in tight spots too. i can't be the only one .what have you guys done to stop this?

[n8hutch]

Sounds like you have a bad gasket possibly on your float valve?

[amasonry]

this has happened twice and not back to back. will check the gasket while cleaning the evaporator later. did not think of that as it is brand new, well 6 boils in it.

[Bricklayer]

I had a similar problem on my float box when I first got it.
Found 2 problems.
1. The vent tube on the float was too short and was somehow getting condensate in it thus making the float not float properly. I threaded the end of it and put a cap on it.
2. The gasket wasn’t sealing properly. Tried flipping it around. That worked kind of. But what I ended up doing was cutting a piece of stainless the size of the gasket and putting it behind it like a spacer. This moved the gasket out 1/4” and havnt had a problem since.

[johnallin]

I have a Leader Patriot raised flue pan with a butterfly valve at the syrup pan float box. The floats work great when boiling, but due to the head pressure in the head tank and flue pan they can have a hard time being 100% and I've learned to work around that...

After flooding and diluting the front pan from 1" to 6" and losing the time and wood to start over, I now close all valves when I shut down.
I would try to find a sure-fire way to isolate the flue pan with either a plug or valve of some kind.

[BCPP]

I've had the float valve between the evaporating pan and finishing pan get stuck slightly open several times, usually after I've closed down for the night and I come in the next morning to find the finishing pan flooded. Most irritating! I now close the manual valve between the two pans. Used to worry that the latent heat in the arch might burn the finishing pan but experience has shown it does not and usually means i have a finishing pan close to syrup when i start the next day. Nearest i can determine it's small bits of nitre getting stuck in the float valve and holding it open just a fraction of an inch.

[amasonry]

so I ended up putting two butterfly valves in. one on the flue pan and one on the cross-flow pan. the gasket between pans is made of a soft foam. never saw one like it?

[maple flats]

I also had that issue, not during a boil, but overnight. The remedy was to just close the ball valve between the raised flue pan and the syrup pan. Fortunately mine never went on the floor, I had my syrup pan made 4" taller than a typical syrup pan (Also had 4" taller flue pan too). Before I started closing the ball valves (I have two, same side reversible) I did get greeted with a flooded syrup pan a few times, but it was about 5" down from the top. I didn't pump the excess back into the flue pan, I just opened the feed line to the flue pan, once the flue pan was at 1/4" above the flues I lit the fire. It took a while to get down to 1" in the syrup pan, but it worked. I'm not saying this is the best way, it's just how I did it. I could have rather easily pumped it back into the flue pan, I just didn't.

[DrTimPerkins]

A good proportion (many or even most) float valves will leak a little....whether clean or especially when covered in niter or splooge....it's just the way they are. Left that way overnight it can pass a lot of liquid. Best not to rely on them to keep the sap/sweet where you want it. If you want the liquid to stay where it is...a ball valve is the way to go.

[tcross]

could you get a few pan pugs for your rig? i put on in the hole where the hot sap enters the syrup pan, upon shutting down.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Just keep an eye on the plugs. They can loosen up with temperature changes and slush/ice pushing against them, if real cold. We clean our float box every boil, leave it on and plug it at the inlet in the box. If some does seep out it will just stay in the box. The other end of the flu pan and both connections on the syrup are all ball valves. Those really are the way to go.