maintianing gradient

[Brent]

the thread below about keeping the pans warm overnight got me thinking I should ask about maintaining gradient.

I recall some comments about the value of maintaining the sugar concentration gradient in the pans and that overnight the sugar would naturally seek equilibrium throughout the pans. These could be a simple piece of stainless sheet, maybe 4" square and clipped in position with some of he woodworkers quick clamps with the padded tips.

So I am thinking that I should make some small baffles or plugs for each of the 2 or 3 main partitions to minimize the migration to equilibrium. It seems it would get the desired concentration and flow restored faster the next morning.

Anyone else doing anything like this ???

PS If this works reasonably well I was also thinking I could use a small pump and brush to clean each partition of sand each morning, circulating the sap out of one partition, through a filter, and back into the same partition. I did something like this in the Half Pint last year and it avoided complete emptying and refilling with what became a homogeneous mix.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I haven't seen much evidence of equilibrium in the front pan if your pan dividers are completely sealed off along the bottom of the syrup pan.

[802maple]

Most of the older pans had such a system that you talk about but have since been eliminated unless ordered that way. We run the whole front pan thru the filter press every night when we get done boiling

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Jerry,

Are you running it thru the press and back into the pan and does this eliminate the need for mid season cleaning by keeping the sugarsand low??

[maple flats]

Brent, I have noticed very little migration and I do not block off the sections. On your idea on filtering, I have done that for 3 seasons, several times a season but not everyday. I have a small elec pump I use, I have a suction hose and then it goes thru the pump and discharges back into the same section with a double cone pre filter attached to the discharge hose outlet. This seems to get rid onf a large amount of sugar sand but I am going to try not doinhg it this season because I am beginning to think it leaves a higher amount of very fine niter behind. This is then harder to filter out even with my filter press, making a higher amount of filter aid necessary.

[Brent]

I was actually thinking of running it through the filter press. It's got the pump already in the rig. I never had a filter press before ... actually I'm still cleaning up the antique I bought. I'd love to do it while that syrup pan was still hot and rub with a bristle brush while cycling through the filter.

I figure the syrup pan will be about like the last channel in the Half Pint last year. What I am nervous about is that it seems on the Half Pint, anywhere I touched the bottom while it was boiling, something happened to the sand and syrup and it seemed to carmelise there and start a hot/scorch spot. I don't know if that will still happen after the boiling stops and I try the cleaning. Just going to have to try it to find out.

How often do you guys clean the flues in the sap pans ??

PS
No work outside today around here ... temp is about 10F and blowing about 50 ... wind chill is fierce ... and we're getting snow streamers from the lake effect sometimes I can't see the woods which is about 600-700 feet away.

[802maple]

It helps in the sugar sand and nitre stuck to the pan. We had a continous flow evaporator and this allowed us to not change pans for atleast 2 to 3 days of boiling or 400 or 500 gallons made, depending on what came first. It doesn't help as far as cleaning the flue pan as that still needed to be done on a regular basis depending on what kind of season it turned out to be. When we would get done at night there would be nitre stuck to the pans and we would let it draw off into our drawoff tank at the speed of the filter press and right back into the syrup pan by the float box and recirculate it for a hour or so until the pan was clean on the bottom. You could ony do this 2 or 3 times and then it would not clean the pan anymore and we would have to change the pan out.

We would filter the whole front pan every night.

[jemsklein]

i hear what you are saying brent it has been snowing here for the hole day most of the time i can't see 70 feet in front of me

[Sugarmaker]

Brent,
The older King I have I can block off the compartments and "keep" the sweet container so that when I start up the next day I can be ready to make syrup. If you leave it flow back and mix will all be 10%-15% mixture the next day. If your pans dont have plugs it may be hard to seal it up and keep it in contained? I Also change sides when the sugarsand is building up. I usually do this before I start up for the day when everything is cold. I plug and draw and switch the syrup from on side to the other. I do not scrub or rinse the front pan I let the action of the raw sap clean and loosen the sand.

Chris