Unable to pump syrup - Smoky Lake filter press

[TrentonMaple]

Desperate for help here:

Smoky Lake Short bank filter press with the bosworth hand pump.

5 gallons of syrup, heated to 200, and 5 cups DE mixed in. Unable to pump more than a couple strokes before backflow and bubbling back though the feed hose, and the pump pressure is WAY too high, no way to pump it. I've checked, rechecked, and triple checked that no plates are backwards or incorrect. All the flapper valves seem to be ok. Fresh filter papers. Could I be using too much DE? Maybe, but I can't even get more than a quart of syrup INTO the press, so how could it clog so quickly? I just cannot pump syrup into the thing. No kinks in hoses, etc.

This is supremely frustrating! I've got a huge mess in the kitchen, cooling syrup with DE sitting in it, and I wasted a ton of syrup in the process.

One more thing - can syrup that already has DE in it be reheated and filtered again in a day or so?

UPDATE! Solved the problem! It was 100% caused by the non-maple DE I bought off of Amazon. I replaced my DE with food grade, Dicalite 5000 DE from Smoky Lake, and the press works perfectly now. When I compare the two kinds of DE side by side, you can really see a difference in the texture and consistency. The maple DE is much finer and more consistent. So for anyone reading this, don't skimp on your DE. Get it from a maple supplier, not Amazon!

The Amazon DE is going into the chicken coop and the garden.

Thanks to everyone for helping out. There is a lot of good info in this thread aside from the demonstration of my ignorance

[Bricklayer]

5 cups of DE would barely fill a plate or 2 in the smoky lake press.
Did you try pumping water through it to check the hand pump is working correctly ?
Is this late season syrup ? Sometimes syrup will just not filter. I’ve blown papers apart trying to force late season unfilterable syrup through the press.

Did you contact smoky lake. ? They are usually very good on getting back to you with technical stuff. I’m sure they are busy right now though.

[heus]

Watch one of their videos on YouTube. One of them explains how a check valve can become stuck which won't allow anything to pass through.

[TrentonMaple]

Totally at a loss here. I tore the entire thing down, made 110% sure everything was assembled correctly.

Heated my syrup back up from last night. Corrected the density. It already had 5 cups of DE in it. The first gallon went through slowly, but it went. Then it got harder and harder to pump, and the syrup exiting the press slowed to a trickle. At that rate it would take me until midnight to get through 5 gallons. I was putting all the pressure on the pump I felt was safe, and then the flapper valve in the Bosworth pump blew out and it was all over. Again, I had a press full of hot syrup, a sticky mess, and I only managed to get 2 gallons filtered.

Here is a pic of what the papers looked like after I broke down the press. 23114.

I can't even pump water through it without tremendous pressure, and all I get out is a trickle.

I did not pre-filter my syrup coming off the evaporator. Maybe that is an issue? It was clogging up the pre-filters so fast that I was in constant danger of overflowing, so I ditched the cone prefilters that I sometimes use to filter the syrup as it comes off the evaporator. So maybe my syrup is muddier than usual? But still, to only get 2 gallons through a press? Doesn't seem right.

At this rate, I have no idea what to do. I'm sitting on 40 gallons of unfiltered syrup and people begging me to purchase it.

[DRoseum]

Looks like you had all 3 window plates in?

You need more DE. Each pane hols 3.5 cups on that press. You want them totally full of DE. You should double the DE.

[MajorWoodchuck]

I just used my new badgerland for the first time running 10 gallons through 2 plates (i kept one out). The bagerland is just the aluminum version of the smoky lake. Each plate will run 8 gallons through and you should be adding at least 3 cups of of de per plate. I agree that you should of put 9-10 cups of de through if running three plates. Also you need to recycle the hot syrup through the press and back into the pan and make sure the press is up to temperature before pulling the syrup out to bottle. Twards the end it was hard pushing but i just was slow and steady and it got through. Also you should be filtering at 190 because above that more niter can come out. I feel your pain though.

[Pdiamond]

My SL filter press has the guzzler hand pump on it. I thought I cleaned it really well last year when I was done, and when I went to filter today it wouldn;t pump. I called and Jimmy answered the phone and told me right away what to do, how to check it, and that if the two things that could be bad were bad they could be ordered on the website. The flapper was coated with syrup and caked on DE and stuck. It is a lot of work taking all those screws and nuts off, but definitely worth it. Cleaned up everything and it works as it should now.
1. Lesson learned - end of season - take it apart and clean it then put a little dab of vegetable oil on the diaphragm and flapper and rubber under handle.

[TrentonMaple]

Thanks everyone for all the advice. To say this is frustrating is putting it *very* mildly.

I'm going to try increasing the DE tomorrow. Also, I may leave out a window plate and only go with 2 and see if that helps.

Finally, I have been doing a lot of reading on here - one thing I have come across is the kind of DE you are using....

I am using some generic "Food Grade" DE I got off of Amazon. Not a maple supplier's specific DE. I wonder, I wonder...could this be the problem? Maybe that would explain why this seems to have happened out of the blue (In the past I used the DE that Smoky Lake shipped me along with the press and things worked fine)

Going to order some DE from Bascoms ASAP.

[TapTapTap]

I suggest starting with no DE and gradually add a couple of cups.

I've been using way less DE this year, with great success. I have a 10" CDL and I prime it with about 5 cups and then a cup every occasional drawoff. Your press is a lot smaller than mine. Worst case would be you blow out the papers.

Also, what temp is your syrup?

Ken

[DRoseum]

Finally, I have been doing a lot of reading on here - one thing I have come across is the kind of DE you are using....

I am using some generic "Food Grade" DE I got off of Amazon. Not a maple supplier's specific DE. I wonder, I wonder...could this be the problem? Maybe that would explain why this seems to have happened out of the blue (In the past I used the DE that Smoky Lake shipped me along with the press and things worked fine)

Going to order some DE from Bascoms ASAP.

That is also mostly likely part of the issue. You need a specific size granular/grit of DE. Do not reduce number of plates, that reduces filtering volume and will clog quicker.

As other have stated, you want to fill your window plates. For 3 on that press you need ~9 - 10 cups of DE. You need to rirc to build up the filter cake and heat up press. Keep heat on your syrup to keep it all at ~180F going thru press.

They send a really nice user booklet with that press. I highly advise reading thru it. It covers all this and how much DE to use.

I respectfully disagree on the "lesss DE" advise. DE is what does your filtering. You want more of it to maximize the filtering matrix and reduce clogging. It's also cheap compared to syrup and filling your plates with it reduces the wasted syrup in the press at the end.

Lastly, push boiling water thru the press when you are done filtering syrup and pushed all you can put (getting air only). You can keep the first quart to half gallon of that and throw back into your pan the following day. The rest should rinse to clear and then disassemble press and dump cakes and rinse plates.

[TapTapTap]

I respectfully disagree on the "lesss DE" advise. DE is what does your filtering. You want more of it to maximize the filtering matrix and reduce clogging. It's also cheap compared to syrup and filling your plates with it reduces the wasted syrup in the press at the end.

My syrup has been crystal clear with excellent flavor. And, some DE is better than a filter membrane alone which is what many smaller producers do with filter cloth alone. I used to add, add, add and the press would work harder and harder until it would almost stopped pumping which shouldn't be with my press at my syrup production level. I realied that backing off the DE level helps processing and maintains quality. And when the press slowed it just meant that the syrup spent more time in the drawoff tank so it cooled more - making it harder to push through the press.

And, my point to the op is that as a start he should try to run the hot syrup through without DE to see if the press is working (and obviously to heat it up), then to gradually ramp up DE as an effort to diagnose the problem and to see where it performs best.

I agree that using DE made specifically for maple is good (that's what I use). But switching might not solve the problem.

Ken

[TapTapTap]

Another thing worth considering is your defoamer and how much you're applying. The photo looks like the spent DE is greasy. I think over applying any defoamer could be part of your problem, and I'd advise against using anything but specialty maple syrup defoamer.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Going to order some DE from Bascoms ASAP.

That's your issue, wrong DE. Not sure of the best way to get the old stuff out or if you can, but you need the right DE.
Honestly, I thought the coating of DE on your plates looked sufficient. On Saturday, we filtered 18 gallons through our 7" short bank and only used 5 cups of DE. +/- 1/4" thick coating is what we look for. I would try it with 4-5 cups of the right DE.

[DMF]

We have a Smoky Lake short bank filter press with the air-diaphragm pump. We use approximately 1/2 cup of DE per gallon we're filtering. We tend to make 12-13 gallons of syrup per boil so we are running 6 cups almost every time. We heat the syrup up to 180-185 degrees, and start mixing in the DE. once it's all mixed, we start running it through the filter and back into the tank. We recirculate it like this until the press comes up to temperature. Once it's warmed up, we typically pump a small sample into a clear glass to check the clarity. We will also take a small taste sample to make sure we are not tasting any "grittiness". If it isn't as clear as we'd like, we keep recycling until it is. Once it is perfectly clear, we continue pumping it through the filter and into the steam bottler.

Things we've learned:
1. Constantly stir the DE as you're filtering. You need to keep the DE suspended in the syrup; if it settles to the bottom, it's no good. This is probably the key take-away we have gotten.
2. We have had best luck using Smoky Lake filter papers vs. the ones we've bought from Bascom. No idea why really, although it did seem like the holes in the filter papers line up better from SL.
3. We first tried filtering by the "direction book" that came with the press and it didn't work. I called Jim and he suggested using more DE rather than less; that had mixed results. It was only when we watched this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jot6BiMi4vI&t=35s where we started having regular success on filtering. There are things in this video that don't match what the instruction manual says.

Good luck!

[maple flats]

I don't suggest using more DE. When I filter using a 7" Lapierre, 5 bank filter press, for 5 gal of syrup, I'd start with 1.5 cups of DE, maybe 2 cups if sugarsand was very heavy. If I had more syrup to filter I'd mix in 1.25 cups DE into up to 6 gal syrup and run that.
If the plates will hold more DE, don't think that is what you start with, it's the point when the filter is full and it must be broken down , papers changed and you start again.
In fact, the next time you have syrup to filter, start with about 2 gal syrup, mix in 1.5 cups DE (if it has 5 sets of plates, 5 hollow plates, prorate for more or fewer plates) and filter it thru the press and back into the mixing pot until the syrup sparkles. Then pump and send it to be packaged. Then mix 1.25-1.5 dups DE into up to 6 more gallons, but this time it does not need to be filtered back into the mix pot, the first time was to coat the filter papers with a DE filter cake, subsequent batches can be filtered without that extra step.

[Drslyr4]

So i have this same press and by the looks of it your filters are gummed up. Someone suggested no DE and that is what I would do. Run all the plates and new filters no DE. You need to filter under 180 or you will get more sand. I did that mistake last year and tried at 190 and ended up running it thru again to clean it up. While DE might help filter smaller particles out when used, it can clog the filter up when it restricts too much. You can always run it thru twice to get the same result and a clear jar.

[heus]

I too have the same press, but with a cdl diaphragm pump. I start by mixing 3 cups of de with about a gallon of syrup. Recirculate until the syrup is crystal clear, then send it to bottler. Eventually I will use 9 total cups of de for 10 or so gallons of syrup. Not sure about the logic of doing this without de. The de IS the filter. The papers are only there to hold it within the plates. I agree that the problem is with the type of de being used.

[TrentonMaple]

Thanks to everyone for the help. I updated the original post. It was 100% the fault of the non-maple DE I got off Amazon. I used the proper DE from Smoky Lake, Dicalite 5000, and the press functions perfectly now.