Float Valve

[skinny78]

I have a leader half pint evaporator and I am working on putting a float valve system on it. I plan on making a bracket on the back on the evaporator to sit the reservoir pan on and I have a watts brass float valve to connect to it. I need some pictures or info on how the float and linkage should be made so it will operate correctly. Also how big must the float be to keep the valve from leaking?

Thanks,
Matthew

[jemsklein]

take a look at my pic's under new evaporator there are some pic's of are float valve

[Uncle Tucker]

That is exactly what I did with my Half Pint. The best thing to do is remove the “preheater” pan , because any advantage you get with heating the sap you loose with the condensation dripping back into the pan and it dose not really heat the sap.

I just used ½ “ aluminum angle and screwed the two pans together. I replumbed the draw offs and added a drain to empty the pans. The stovepipe needs to be extended to clear the float pan, and with the heat from the pipe, it is a true preheater. I managed to raise the temperature from 34’ to 75’ before the sap hit the syrup pan and on condensation dripping back in the pan.

I hope your pan is the older 4 section flat pan because you can mount the preheater pan to the sap pan, with the three-section pan you would have to disconnect and spin the pan to change sides.

Look at my pictures under Half Pint and you will see what I am talking about.


Hope this helps.



P.S.
I set the level in the morning and never touched it the rest of the day.

[skinny78]

Thanks for the info Tucker, my pan is the new style with three sections. Looks like that would work pretty good, I don't have a big tank feeding the evaporator so I wanted to use the preheater pan for the tank with the float in the evaporator pan. Do the larger evaporators have the float in the pan or do they put it in a float tank? I have seen square stainless floats in catalogs but haven't seen where they mount them or what the linkage looks like.

Thanks,

[Uncle Tucker]

Just about all the new evaporators have the floats on the out side. They do this so if you put a hood on the pan you can adjust the level with out sticking your hand in the steam and being burned. Some older styles pans (like mine) have the float in the pan; the problem is that the boiling bubbles make it hard to get a good reading. They don’t put the float over the flues because the float would most likely jump out of the pan.



I have an idea!!!
What if you put unions on both draw off valve, and a union on your preheater pan, plug the port in the preheater that you are not using. You could put the float in the preheater pan, and connect the other union where the draw off is on the feed side of the pan. You will have to make some sort of brackets to hold the preheater pan level with the syrup pan. Now the draw off that has the preheater on it becomes the feed and the float will control the level. Now when you want to switch sides you would switch the draw off and the preheater via the unions.
As for the feed tank problem, buy a 20-gallon tote and put a bulkhead fitting in it. Screw a ball valve into the bulkhead and run a hose from the ball valve to the float. Just put the tote higher than the float and your golden.


There are many details to work out, but it might even work.

[RileySugarbush]

The commercial evaporators have the floats on an arm that provides some leverage for the valve. Not having one of those,or a bib float box, I made a direct acting float valve that seals the bottom of a vertical copper feed pipe. I put this in a stock pot that I connected to the feed fitting on the sap pan. It works fine. You can see some details in the yahoo photo link in my signature if you are interested.

[Sugarmaker]

John,
Great shots of your sugarhose and boiling! Nice evaporator!

Chris

[flour miller]

Just about all the new evaporators have the floats on the out side. They do this so if you put a hood on the pan you can adjust the level with out sticking your hand in the steam and being burned. Some older styles pans (like mine) have the float in the pan; the problem is that the boiling bubbles make it hard to get a good reading. They don’t put the float over the flues because the float would most likely jump out of the pan.



I have an idea!!!
What if you put unions on both draw off valve, and a union on your preheater pan, plug the port in the preheater that you are not using. You could put the float in the preheater pan, and connect the other union where the draw off is on the feed side of the pan. You will have to make some sort of brackets to hold the preheater pan level with the syrup pan. Now the draw off that has the preheater on it becomes the feed and the float will control the level. Now when you want to switch sides you would switch the draw off and the preheater via the unions.
As for the feed tank problem, buy a 20-gallon tote and put a bulkhead fitting in it. Screw a ball valve into the bulkhead and run a hose from the ball valve to the float. Just put the tote higher than the float and your golden.


There are many details to work out, but it might even work.

I had Stainless Creations build a small box with a 1 in. pipe nipple on the side .I then drilled a hole in my pan and used two 1in. brass jam nuts to attach the box to the side of the evaporator. Then I drilled a hole in my float box and installed the 1/4in. watts float valve I got from grainger. I tested it the night before last and it worked great.

[RileySugarbush]

Thanks Chris. I'm looking forward to some time in there in a few weeks.

[skinny78]

John,

I am interested in looking at your evaporator pictures but your link says yahoo photos is closed.

Does anybody have pictures of there evaporator with a commercial built float system like the flat stainless floats in the catalogs?

Thanks

[RileySugarbush]

I'm working on a new set of photos. yahoo was working up until recently.

[jemsklein]

i just treid it and it is still working for me

[skinny78]

Well I figured out why I was getting the yahoo photos error, I was logged into my yahoo account and they are not accepting new accounts. So I had to log out to view the pictures. Good pictures John, my dad was trying to come up with a way to shut off the end of a pipe with a float, looks like that would work good.

[RileySugarbush]

I lightened up the photos and placed them here.

http://web.mac.com/jabushey/Riley_Retreat/Float_assembly.html