Evaporator + Steamaway + Hood

[Ultimatetreehugger]

How tall should I build my sugarhouse in order to accommodate a 4x14 evaporator with a steam away and hood?

Thanks in advance.

[BAP]

To start off, I would contact 1-2 manufacturers of such evaporator and get dimensions unless you already own one. Then add at least 3-4 feet (5-6 feet even better) on to that height measurement to have room to lift up the steam hood, then steam away pan and spacer to get them off the evaporator to get to the bottom pan to clean. Also, design your rafters such that they are strong enough to attach some sort of pulley or winch system to lift up and off the various components. It will make life soooo much easier cleaning and putting back together. When we put an evaporator in with steam away way back in the 80’s when they first became commercial available, we had to modify our roof trusses to gain more height above the evaporator to be able to remove the various components for cleaning. Even then it was hard because we didn’t have height enough with the modifications to make it work well because there was only so much room to work with with the trusses and have them still safe. One thing to consider is to not use a truss design rafter in the evaporator area but use a pitched rafter design to gain more height in the area over the evaporator.