coal

[SUGARSMITH]

Avybody ever throw coal in with their wood? It might extend the periods between charging the wood box and even raise the temp a little. Might have to wait a week for it to burn out however.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Sugarsmith,

I have thought about it as my parents heated their house 20+ years with coal but I don't think it is a real good idea. The biggest problem is that the grates int he evaporators are not designed for it as coal gets a lot hotter than wood and I don't think they would stand up to it. You would only have to fire the evaporator every couple of hours and where I live, coal is cheap as we mine a ton (no pun intended :lol: :lol: :lol: ) in this state.

The biggest problem is that it takes hours for coal to burn out, so you would have a fire under there that you could never get rid of.

I heard of prople throwing tires in once it gets burning good. :o

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I am sure burning tires inside the evaporator would probably double the gph rate, but if the epa found out about it, would we would probably be visiting someone behind bars. :( :(

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Jeremy,

I bet if you could get it piled up under the pans, it would probably make the pans boil right out the top. I know that is not possible, but I am sure it would work.

Sure would work good for a back yarder with a small flat pan that he could lift off at the end of the day. He could fire it every two or three hours and set the sap to run constant and he would be set.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Jeremy,

I agree there and a backyarder with say a 2x4 pan could really make the syrup. He could set his feeder at a certain level and just check it every hour or so and refuel it every two or three hours with a little coal.

Maybe someone will experiment with it sometime in the future! :D

[SUGARSMITH]

I was thinking of throwing a few shovels in [color=red]with the wood

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Sugarsmith,

With an evaporator, I don't think I would advise it unless you want the evaporator to keep boiling for several hours after you fired it.

[michaelh05478]

If ya want to boil, GO with OIL!!!!!!!! 8)

[FarmerJohn]

Several years ago, I was short on wood and had no time to gather such, so at a friend's suggestion, I tried coal. That season I used 6 tons of Pittsburgh seam coal in my 4x12. I found that it burned like very dry oak or locust. As far as shut-down, I did not find that to be a problem, as the coal bed(0f hot coals) did not seem to take much longer than a comparable bed of wood coals. However, I did find that the back pan flues really sooted up and had to be cleaned midseason. Also, I don't like the smell of coal smoke or the clinkers.

My recommendation: try it if you must, but I don't intend to use coal again.

[Sugarbear]

Back in the days before stainless pans there were some guys who tried to burn coal in their evaporators.The sulfur in the coal ate the pans out quickly.Rubber was worse.Some people tried burning scrap rubber from a factory.It was really hard on the pans.When I was a kid dad took over the neighbors bush when he retired.There used to be a pile of rubber next to his old sugarhouse left over from when he tried it.My mom could see the stacks of our old sugarhouse from her kitchen window.My grandfather would go down early and get things going and when it was time for mom to come down there he would throw a tire in one of the evaporators.Mom could see the smoke and know it was time to go.No cell phones in them days!Sorry to ramble but your posts touched off some memories.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Sugarbear,

What kind of year was it in Ohio this year for syruping as far as production goes??

Since you are not to far north of me, I was wondering if your year was any better than down here?? :?:

[Sugarbear]

Hey Brandon,pretty much a normal season for us.A little later than normal when we started.We made 98 gallons with 415 taps,all buckets.The syrup was a litle darker than I would of liked but the flavor was good.I have heard from some producers farther north and they all said they had about normal production.