considering a Leader Vermonter to upgrade a DIY setup

[linearb]

I have about 150 trees on gravity. I'm putting up new lines this year and a sap guzzler pump (and cheap bucket RO) which has me looking at the sketchy diy arch and pans I have, it's 4x3 but only boils around 10-12 gallons per hour.

looking around locally (VT), I've got my eyes on a (wood fired) Leader Vermonter. The half pint even with the supreme pan seems unlikely to meet my needs, but I think the Vermonter will? This is purely a hobby for me, up until now I've only sold a few gallons a year to friends and family and a little bit online, and I'm only scaling up because it's addictive to do so.

are there other evaporators I should be looking at? It's enough money that I feel obligated to be as informed as possible.

[Pdiamond]

Is the evaporator you are looking at the 2 x 4 with the raised flue pan?

[On the ledge]

I would suggest looking into something from Bill Mason , in my opinion his arches are much better than leaders.

[linearb]

Is the evaporator you are looking at the 2 x 4 with the raised flue pan?

yes, that's the one.

[BAP]

I don’t know if you are on Facebook but in the Vermont Sugaring Equipment For Sale group Someone in Barre, VT has a 29”x63” Dominion and Grimm evaporator with a rear flue pan and front flat pan for sale for $3000. I don’t know anything about it other than seeing the add listed. Looks like it is in good shape in the picture.

[linearb]

I don’t know if you are on Facebook but in the Vermont Sugaring Equipment For Sale group Someone in Barre, VT has a 29”x63” Dominion and Grimm evaporator with a rear flue pan and front flat pan for sale for $3000. I don’t know anything about it other than seeing the add listed. Looks like it is in good shape in the picture.

Thanks! I am going to go try to see this unit, if it's not already sold (someone is in line in front of me...) -- seller says it does 20GPH which is close to the vermonter, it's a bigger footprint but also has a warming pan and a ton of stuff with it and just looks like a good deal at that price. (For reference, the arch I'll be selling is a DIY 3x4 firebox with 2 2x4 pans on it with one partition each, boils 10gph, and I will likely try to sell the whole thing with bricks for about $750 when I have a new unit down there).

If this doesn't work out, I will probably just grab a Vermonter before the sales end at the end of the month.


I would suggest looking into something from Bill Mason , in my opinion his arches are much better than leaders.

Thanks, those look real nice, but he's also artisanal build-to-order, and... supply issues being what they are, I'm pretty motivated to just buy something that's in stock now and get my whole rig set up for next year before the cold comes.

[tcross]

not sure where you are in Vermont, but i got a rig from Thor a few years ago. they are in Cawansville QC... just above the border between lake memphremagog and Champlain. it was bout an hour drive for me. the rig i bought was about 70% the cost of all the similar rigs i looked at locally from the big name guys. craftmanship was great, service was great, price was better than great (take into account Canadian exchange) and it was close to home. They even let me split up the bill with a buddy who went up with me so i didn't have to pay the tariff coming back to the states. Mine is a bit bigger than what you're looking for... mine is a 2.5x8 raised flue. i ordered it in june and it was ready early August. Just another option for you.

[BAP]

Keep us posted on how things work out for you.

[linearb]

Thanks! And thanks again Bap; that used one looks like it could be the real deal for me and I am going to go check it out tomorrow. It's a much nicer unit than what i have. Is there anything specific I should be on the lookout for? I was assuming on doing as thourough an inspection as I can of the firebox and whole arch with an eye for any heat damage, inspecting the weld lines on the pans and everything else, and probably pouring water through it to make sure there's nothing leaking, if that doesn't sound like overkill?

Gonna look at it tomorrow, I already measured it out in my shack and it would fit just fine; gonna ask the current owner how many taps they have and what their production has been like, etc. They also have a blower for it they are including and have never even used.

This is a bigger footprint than the Vermonter for a slightly lower boil rate, but it's also $2000 cheaper and I generally like buying stuff used when possible from the perspective of cash and environment.

My feeling is that if there's nothing significantly wrong with it, someone will buy it, and probably I should just put down a deposit and then go back the next day with a truck to pick it up. (I'd be renting a truck, so it's easier to make two trips than rent a truck for a unit I haven't even seen, even if it means double the driving if it works out....)

tcross I reached out to thor, and thanks for the tip on taking a buddy with me and splitting the bill!

[linearb]

I don’t know if you are on Facebook but in the Vermont Sugaring Equipment For Sale group Someone in Barre, VT has a 29”x63” Dominion and Grimm evaporator with a rear flue pan and front flat pan for sale for $3000. I don’t know anything about it other than seeing the add listed. Looks like it is in good shape in the picture.

thanks!! this is sitting in my sugarhouse in pieces now. it's one of the galvanized arches, but the former owner had well insulated and bricked the entire arch, and the metal has done some rust but nothing scary. the pans look great to my relatively untrained eyes, we ran water through the whole thing before i took it apart and unbricked it.

I'm going to pull the arch insulation, wire brush the metal. then reinsulate and put the bricks back in. I'll get some pictures on here sometime.

this is much nicer than my single partition flat pans, which I'm probably going to sell to a neighbor who is boiling on hotel pans now. the circle of life.

[BAP]

thanks!! this is sitting in my sugarhouse in pieces now. it's one of the galvanized arches, but the former owner had well insulated and bricked the entire arch, and the metal has done some rust but nothing scary. the pans look great to my relatively untrained eyes, we ran water through the whole thing before i took it apart and unbricked it.

I'm going to pull the arch insulation, wire brush the metal. then reinsulate and put the bricks back in. I'll get some pictures on here sometime.

this is much nicer than my single partition flat pans, which I'm probably going to sell to a neighbor who is boiling on hotel pans now. the circle of life.
Sorry didn’t answer you sooner was away a few days. Great it worked out for you getting it. It looked really good in the picture. I boiled on a 20x66” CDL drop flue for 5 years until I upgraded to a used 2x8. I think you will really like having the real evaporator pan setup. Glad that I was able to help. My arch had been repainted by previous owner with black stove paint and looks good and has held up well.

[linearb]

Sorry didn’t answer you sooner was away a few days. Great it worked out for you getting it. It looked really good in the picture. I boiled on a 20x66” CDL drop flue for 5 years until I upgraded to a used 2x8. I think you will really like having the real evaporator pan setup. Glad that I was able to help. My arch had been repainted by previous owner with black stove paint and looks good and has held up well.

Hey, one more question that I hope is no big deal! I didn't notice this when inspecting on site.

looking straight down, all these flues look totally straight, but there's actually a couple small bends visible when using a light at an angle:

https://i.imgur.com/enQdBfL.png
https://i.imgur.com/LYOGf6E.png
https://i.imgur.com/lY3srHr.png

The bends actually look worse in the pictures than in reality because we're seeing them reflected in the other side here, and the shot from the bottom is just distorted by light reflection. Running my hand along the side of the flue I can feel a very slight distortion there, but it's pretty minor. The metal appears completely normal and doesn't show any discoloration or other sign it's been subjected to scorching or unreasonable heat.

From reading around and looking at pictures of other pans this doesn't seem like it's nearly significant enough to worry about, but just wanted to double check. The former owner said they had made some small double digit number of gallons off this last year and had pics of it all running.

I am going to see about ordering more arch insulation and then get to work on rebricking; I'd really love to just to a test boil with water in ~a month, and then cover my chimney and cover the whole thing with tarps and figure I am raring to go as soon as stuff starts to flow next spring.

Especially since I still need to: run new mainlines, run ~30 new drop lines, set up a sap guzzler and test vacuum, move the location of my tank, and look at an RV water pump for pumping up from the tank to a feeder reservoir to feed the warming pan here....

[BAP]

You should be fine. Mine has a few wavy areas in it and a lot of them get that way over time. As far as insulation, I don’t know where you are located in VT, but most maple equipment dealers carry insulation and are very competitive on price, particularly after you pay shipping buying elsewhere.

[linearb]

You should be fine. Mine has a few wavy areas in it and a lot of them get that way over time. As far as insulation, I don’t know where you are located in VT, but most maple equipment dealers carry insulation and are very competitive on price, particularly after you pay shipping buying elsewhere.

All good info! I am like 20 mins from an actual CDL store, I will just go there first.

[linearb]

I am trying to sell my old setup and I was wondering if people could weigh in on the price:

https://vermont.craigslist.org/grd/d/ripton-4x3-flat-bottom-maple-evaporator/7486078833.html

I think this is fair just because getting a brand new set of pans from OKHardware, delivered, is going to be around $850 these days, plus a bit more for the valves. Steel isn't getting any cheaper, the pans are in great shape, and while the arch definitely needs some work it's structural and I am tossing in, I dunno, some hundred(s) in firebrick as well.

I think this is a good deal for someone, does anyone think I should be starting lower?