Auto Draw Off Valve

[Pibster]

I picked up a used homemade Auto Draw Off. The valve is a plunger style that hasn't worked in some time. The owner instead used a light bulb to indicate when it reached temperature. I want to replace the broken plunger with a working valve. I am wondering if I should buy a solenoid valve or a ball valve. I have a 2x4 Smokey Lake hybrid pan so I am drawing off small amounts throughout the boil.I am worried that the ball valve will release too much syrup due to the time needed to open and close. The solenoid opens and closes very fast. I was hoping to hear a few recomendations for a small set up like mine. Thanks, Pibster.

[Brian]

That is why most sugar makers put another ball valve behind the auto draw off and just crack it so that way it wont draw off to much at a time.

[Pdiamond]

I have a Smoky Lake arch and pan set (2 x 4 raised flue) with an auto draw, and it has just a ball valve that I barley open. What happens when the auto draw valve opens is the syrup will trickle off, because of the controlled flow of the other valve. What you have to watch for is if the syrup temperature starts to climb to high as itis coming of the pan, then you may have to open the valve just a hair more.

[darkmachine]

I use the same setup with my homemade auto draw off. the expensive auto draws have the ability to regulate how open the draw off valve is based on the temperature.

[Bricklayer]

I have used all different configurations off valves for my auto draw when I had my homemade auto draw. I found the best setup is to put the flow control valve in front of the auto draw valve. This way it won’t get clogged with nitre. I had a few scary scenarios when I had the valve in front of the motorized ball valve.
I then installed a tee then a 90 of each side of the tee. I put a regular ball valve on the 1 side to act as an emergency valve in case anything failed. Then the other side of the tee had the 90 then the motorized ball valve then a regular ball valve that was used to control flow. Most of the time it was 3/4 or fully open.
Buy a stainless steel motorized ball valve. Get one that is power on power off. Think they are 3 wire type. Don’t waste your time with a solonoid valve.
Should be easy to wire up into the PID of the auto draw unit. The valve requires a constant hot ran to it. A neutral and a on off line controlled by your PID. Pretty simple.
So basically the two wires that go to your light bulb. Then a constant hot wire.

[Pibster]

Thanks for the input everyone. I was planning to install a valve ahead of the auto draw off but now I will install it after the motorized valve. What is the purpose of the third wire?

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Definitely put the valve in after the motor. The Smoky Lake valve setup we bought with the Simplicity auto-draw is pretty slick. Check it out on their website.
Temperature spikes during a drawoff will happen unless you are making enough syrup to be continuous draw. In a multi-channel syrup pan, it's not uncommon for the middle channels to be a little hotter than the outer channel where the draw-off is typically located. Check the "batch" draw when its done for density and adjust as needed. Don't over adjust, a couple tenths at a time. I've started boils way under and way over and when we go to bottle a batch from a couple boils it is usually pretty close. First drawoff of a new boil is usually a bit heavy. You can also narrow it down by checking baro pressure, etc. but we just start from where we left off last time and adjust the first 2 draws then usually good to go for the ngiht unless weather is moving in.

[Pibster]

I like the way the Simplicity draw off is plumbed. It will take a lot more fittings and two additional valves but it looks like it will work great.

[Bricklayer]

There are a couple different types of motors for the ball valves. The one you want is power open / power close 3 wire meaning that your valve will open woth 120v and close with 120v
The other option usually 2 wire is power open/ capacitor close. Meaning that you get the full 120v to open the valve. And the capacitor charges while it’s open and then runs off capacitor to close. I had one of these valves when I first built my unit and it’s ok if you have nice king draw offs. But once it starts opening a closing a lot. Then you run into problems where the valve won’t close. Not good.

This is the valve you need.
NC 3 wire stainless steel 1”. ( you could go bigger if you want but usually 1” will work )

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/124156751751?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=JWlaQP6dSVW&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=OaVMgSdXTC6&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

I like the way the Simplicity draw off is plumbed. It will take a lot more fittings and two additional valves but it looks like it will work great.

It does work good. Having the second valve allows you to operate manually and bypass the solenoid. This is nice for checking the syrup density as it close to temperature.

[Pdiamond]

The Simplicity draw off is what i have of my set up.

[Pibster]

That’s the one I will order. Thanks for posting the link.