Evaporator direction

[thenewguy]

I'm soon going to be building a new sugarhouse to enclose my 2x8 homeade evaporator. I fellow sugar maker was telling me he heard somewhere that your firebox door should face a certain direction. What direction does your firebox door face?? Where I'm located, we generally have a west wind, should I face by firebox west to east? Do you think that it would make a difference to which direction your evaporator faces?? thanks

[RileySugarbush]

Shouldn't make a difference unless you plan on having lot's of windows and doors open all the time. I'd plan your layout for ease of firing and moving wood, handling visitors, etc. Don't worry so much about orientation except for natural light and access.

[Russell Lampron]

Set up your evaporator so that the doors are close to the wood supply. Mine point toward my wood shed which is also east.

[super sappy]

I was told by a verry well respected sugarmaker (stefan Rasher of shushan NY) that the evaporator should point north and south. He had worked with people from ( I think he said Cornell) and found that when a evaporator sets anyother way that the Gradient in the syrup pan will be affected. He went into a discussion about rotation of the earth etc... My evaporator is set up with doors pointing right into the west wind and consistantly with 2 different evaporators I tend to draw off in batches on the south side and a continous flow on the north side of the syrup pan. Massey jack sets his doors north and has none of these issues. Jack was there the day that we tried to learn some of Rashers secrets Maybe he can add something to this. -SS

[maplecrest]

the old timers always had there evaps north ,south. the fire doors on the south side. smoke stack on the north. when i set up my oil fired rig, i put the guns south and stack north. have come across old sugar camps that the evaps went east,west. fireing on the west side, stack to the east. must be they learned something when they relocated. on this farm every generation for the last 8 has relocated there sugar houses.i can find the sites of 5 of them. 2 are east west and 3 are north south

[thenewguy]

sounds like an interesting topic, i figured if I set my doors towards the wind, (which generally comes from the west) the incoming air might help "push" the air in and increase boiling rate....

[sapman]

Sappy,

I visited with Steffan Rasher once. Sure was a clean operation. Do you know if he's making syrup still? Some friends that live near him told me he had a stroke a few years ago and hasn't done much since. Tis a shame, as I know he made award-winning syrup!

Tim

[RileySugarbush]

I wouldn't count on the prevailing wind helping, though I've heard of some who have draft problems when the wind is strong out of certain directions. A taller stack would probably minimize that problem. Similar effects could apply to the cupola, but I wouldn't know which way to put one. I just adjust the cupola doors until it draws well!

I don't put any credence in the feng shui of sugar houses. (or other buildings for that matter!)

Put your efforts into designing a good working layout.

[super sappy]

Sap man- I do not know if he had a stroke or not but i guess something is up with is health. He has not sugared for many years now. All of his stuff is for sale as a package deal. His sugarhouse has more labor saving gizmos etc. We cought him on a good day and he felt like talking. When we left we had alot of things to discuss. He also was cleaned out by caterpillars for several years in a row. Note. he never drove a machine in his woods wile thinning but lugged everything by hand to avoid soil compaction. Alot of locals thought he was arrogant but I think he was just passionate about sugaring and offered advise when he felt like it. What I do know about him though is that all of those blue ribbons on his sugarhouse wall dont lie.The guy knows his stuff. -ss

[Sugarmaker]

I think it was the old edition of the NY maple book that recommended having the arch doors to the south and the stack to the north. That is the way we set up and it works well. Not sure if there is really any thing that proves this is correct.

Chris

[sapman]

Sappy,

I remember before he let us in his sugarshack, we had to be sure our feet were very clean. Our friends up the road from him own one of the premier alpaca farms in the country, and he used to tap their trees, but he seemed to give her kind of a hard time about those high-priced animals they have. I could tell he definitely was passionate about his operation, and I just tried to be agreeable during my brief visit and learn something. I kick myself now for not buying some of his syrup to try!

Tim