Flue pan boiling over

[Grade "A"]

How often do people put de-foamer in the flue pan? I had my first boil yesterday and after a while I saw the hood drains running full pipe. I found that the flue pan was boiling so hard it was rolling over the sides (about 8" high). I put in 2 drops of de-foamer and calmed it down. I can not see anything inside the hood because of steam so it is hard to see whats going on. I even have a hard time seeing sap/syrup in the syrup pan with all the steam coming off of that. I hope when it gets closer to syrup there will be a little less steam.

[Jerome]

how deep are you running your sap? how high are your sides?

[Maple Restoration]

I the past we were not putting defoamer in the flue pan, but I had a chance to talk to Bruce from Leader when he brought up a new steamaway up for a friend last spring, and he was telling me to start the drops of defoamer just after the sap comes in and it will run the length of the system as the sap flows, trying this last spring keep the hold evaporator foam free and we used less defoamer this way.

[3% Solution]

We put a couple of drops in when needed.
We really don't like putting it in the flat pan.
We also put it in the EEU, which is like a steam-away.
Yeah so it won't hurt putting it in the flue pan or anywhere else it's needed.

Dave

[Grade "A"]

how deep are you running your sap? how high are your sides?

I am running about 1"-1.5" of sap above the top of the flues and it is about 8" from the top of the sap to the top of the pan. The flues are about 8" deep and the pan hold about 27 gal. of sap, so it get rolling in there.

I think I will put in a drop of two every so often in my back float box to keep things down.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I think your problem is the walls on your flue pan. My walls are 15" above the flues or I would have a real problem. If you get it boiling hard, especially at the front and back of the pan it is going to be jumping higher than 8".

[maple flats]

I attended a class by a rep from Leader at the Winter conference in Verona in Jan. He (?) said that you should add a drop of de foamer every time you re fuel on a wood fired. I don't know what oil fired would be but might be every 5 minutes. This is way more than i have ever done but yesterday I added 1 drop every other firing or every 10 minutes. I never had any foam. I think I will try every 15 minutes next time to test it. If I get foaming I might go back to 10 minutes. In the past I have just tried to look but hard to see into hood with steam. I am also going to try adding at the float box instead of in the flue pan.

[hard maple]

I'm using the powdered stuff this year, with a defoamer cup that hangs over the side of the pan.
Works great, just adjust cup to desired height and it's auto pilot!