Used Leader evaporator for sale

[eye8astonie]

I saw a local ad for an old Leader Evaporator, 3 x 12 ft. w/arch, parts, fittings, $600

I called on it and the pan is English tin... are there any drawbacks to this?

Seems like a good deal for that size set-up, but I'm not familiar with English tin.

Any input?

Thanks all.
Duane

[Brent]

the biggest disadvantage of this unit for you is that with 50 taps you would have to save the sap for several days before you could light the fire

Got more trees ???

the fittings could be worth $600 if they're stainless.
you could grab it and get a new set of pans made.

[peacemaker]

well a few things to know and look at one is they have lead in them ... two make sure there not wicked rusty..and they dont leak ...as far as price its good but thoose pans are expensive to replace

[eye8astonie]

Thanks for the replies. I'm looking to tap more trees in the coming years, so for the right deal I'd buy something now to prepare for that.

Peacemaker, just to make sure I understand your post, are you saying that English tin pans do have lead in them? Or is it something to check for?

Thanks,
Duane

[danno]

I think I saw that add - and it certainly peaked my interest. I've already made my purchase, but I'm sure interested what a 3x12 for 600 would look like. Go take a look and let us all know.

Regarding english tin, I boiled on a 30"x5.5" english tin flue pan for the past few years and had absolutely no problem. When I got it, it had a few small leaks - but it soldered up nicely and never had another leak. A certain liquid flux and solder were recommended and it did the trick fine. Just make sure to clean the solder spot perfectly before begiing to solder.

Regarding lead - I'm gonna take a wild guess and say 75% of Traders are boilling on lead pans, including myself. Unless I was trying to produce organic sap, I'd be leaping on a decent 3x12 for $600.

[mark schaefer]

I don't think Leader went to lead free solder until 1994 or 1995. But I have seen some well cared for tin pans that were over 20 years old and still shined! Definitely sounds like it would be worth looking into. A nice 3x12 arch would be worth all of $600. I'm curious to hear about it. Mark

[peacemaker]

yes from leader them selves the old english tin has it ... and like others said there are some very nicely taken care of tins but wouldnt believe there selling for 600

[Brent]

I wish someone with appropriate knowledge would chime in here. My limited knowledge tells me a unit this size is suitable for 300 to 600 taps. You're better off with an evaporator too small than too big. If it's too big you can never get a flow going and end up with a huge tank of half finished syrup that starts to run dry on the top of the flues and risking a scorch.

You said you were thinking of a few more taps. Better preface that with
"hundred" as in a few hundred more taps than your present 50.

This doesn't mean it won't be a good buy. I hope you get better advice here than mine, but I think the numbers are pretty close.

[peacemaker]

nope your right brent a 3x12 will boil at about 95 to 100 gals a hour ... say with his 50 taps it would take him several days just to have enough to fire up let alone make syrup...i know a fella in shaftsbury he has a 5x12 with a steam away he cant even start to boil until he has over 500 gals of sap...

[peacemaker]

dano whats it take just to fill your pans u have a 3x10 correct

[Sugarmaker]

I would think that the statements her a right on the 3 x 12 should be in the 100 + GPH and the taps could range from maybe 150 at the very low end to 700 near the upper end. So at $600 it could be a good deal or it might need a very lot of restoration work.

Yes I would say the English tin pans would have lead solder.

Our 3 x 10 boils at about 80-90 GPH and I like to have severl hundred gallons of sap ready when I light the fire. We have 400 taps and it fits the rig about right. A very large run avg 2 gal per tap = 800 gallons and thats 10 hours of boiling plus clean up time.

Chris

[Dave Y]

I have a 3x12 Grimm that was made in 93 and is lead free. It has some enhancements on it and will boil well over 100gph I would not consider lighting a fire with less than 500 gal of sap. startup and shut down would take almost 200 of the 5 hundred. I had a 30"x10 English tin and it leak like sieve and I could never get it to stop completely. A 3x12 rig is well worth 600. At least you have a good start with the arch. And who knows you may get a good deal on some used stainless pans

[danno]

Peacemaker - I don't know, but I'll let you know after my first boil:) I know it only took about 50 gallons to fill my 30x8, and I'd start a boil if I had 200 gallons of sap.

[maple flats]

Back when English Tin pans were made there was no such thing as lead free solder in common use. Might possibly be low lead, might not. You can often find used pans for sale, syrup pans are much easier to find than flue pans.

[eye8astonie]

Thanks for all the input, guys. I'm going to pass on this deal for now... it sounds like it is way too big for any number of taps that I'm likely to have anytime soon, and I have enough going on with getting ready to move and keep up with the sap I'm getting.

By the way, what's a good boiling rate for a 2x3 flat pan? Seems like we're getting about 9 or 10 gallons per hour on a roughly made barrel arch.

If anyone wants the phone # for the Leader, let me know and I'll look it up.

Thanks,
Duane

[Brent]

our Leader half pint ranks 5 GPH but when we put the blower on it we cranked that up to nearly double that.

The Half Pint sits a small pre-heat pan on top of the flat pan, which does warm the sap but not much and it also condenses back into the sap.

Someone on this forum has a Half Pint type unit that has the preheat pan on a bracket at the back. Could be he used a very short extension out the back to make room for the pan before the stack came up vertical. I think this would be a great improvement to what I did. If you could put a couple cheap and simple hand bent pieces of sheet metal around it you could capture a huge amount of heat from the stack ... and not get any condensation back in the pan.

Good luck