canner problem

[Fred Henderson]

Last year I got a new 16"x16" canner and put a 3/4" 1/4 turn valve on it with a few fittings for controling the flow when canning. The problem is that when we shut the valve off it seems to drizzle forever. With all the fittings the syrup only has to travel about 3" from the shut off to the jug. What has anyone do to stop this drizzling. We have learn thru trial and error how to control the bubbles. I am not interested a auto foot operated one at the tune of several hundred dollars.

[maplecrest]

dont ya love it. makes a mess. put an elbow on the valve leave it loose enough to turn it up when you shut the valve off.the syrup will stay in elbow till you start your next jug, that will solve your problem. solved mine. but does not solve the foam issue.

[fred]

i put an elbow on past the valve and necked it down to 1/4", on the first bottle open it all of the way up and then back down to half or three quarter. ive never had a problem with mine. gallons take a while but no foam or bubbles either

[Fred Henderson]

I knew there had to be a better way. I called a friend to see if he had one and he does. I will pick it up tomorrow afternoon. You can also go on ebay and get yourself one 330202045598. My friend uses one and never drizzles a drop. When mine comes I will give his back to him.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I have one of those 1/2" Chrome bottling valves($ 20) I got from Bascoms a few years ago. It is necked down quite nicely and what I do is that I leave it wide open and behind it and between it and the finisher(16x24) canner pan, I have a 1/2" stainless ball valve. I run the ball valve about 1/2 open and it doesn't cause hardly any bubbles in the syrup jugs and when the jug gets close to full, I slow down the flow and then shut it off when it is full. Within 2 seconds, drips are pretty much taken care of and it takes between 25 and 30 seconds to fill a quart bottle and since pints are smaller, you can do one in about 10 seconds as you can run the flow a little faster and not have to worry as much about the bubbles as the syrup is only falling aprox 1/2 as far.

Hope that makes sense.

[brookledge]

Fred,
The biggest problem is the 3/4 is too big. Reduce your pipe size down to around 1/4" and the viscosity of syrup will hold the syrup in the pipe even if it is vertical so when you shut the valve off ther will be no dripping. Or you can get one of those chrome valves that was mentioned. Another thing that ball valves do is create turbulance as the hot syrup flows through the partial opened valve that is why some will use two valves so that the second one will give the syrup a chance to slow down and not give you as much foaming.

Keith

[Dave Y]

I put a tapered stainless hose nipple on mine and it works great no run no drips no errors. It is a dairy fitting.

[Sugarmaker]

Great suggestions!
I do something a little different. I have a 3/4 inch elbow after the ball valve with a short nipple and a half coupling threaded on to that. But I place several layers of cheese cloth over the end and rubber band it in place. Several things happen.
- The Cheese cloth stops most of the drips.
- I can fill at a good rate.
- I still sometimes find small bits of debris in the cheese cloth when I am done. So this is a final filter right at the jug.
- Bubbles don't seem to be a big problem.

Chris

[Dave Y]

Chris,
Buy a filter press and you will only have to filter it once!:)

[Jim Brown]

Well said Dave Y. the syrup we made the first year was really nice in a glass jar. two trips through the felt and pre filter No runs-no drips-no-errors. 4 months later there was so much 'gray matter' in the bottom of the jars I was scared to death. The next phone call was to Bill Mason and a new Wes-Fab short 7 arrived in three weeks.Best money a syrup maker will ever spend if he intends to package a lot in glass.
my two cents

Jim

[Dave Y]

Jim,
I like to use a filter press and I don't bottle in glass. But I may do some this year.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I use a press too and I don't use glass. I sure love the sparkling clear syrup. You can filter 10 to 15 gallon in 2 to 4 minutes and your hands never touch the syrup. That's one of the main things I didn't like about gravity was you were touching filters and changing them with hot syrup present.