Does your evaporator talk to you?

[mapleman3]

So as I'm boiling, I get noises that are telling me things.. like popping in the back pan when it foams... the woosh of sap coming in , the popping of the front pan when I'm near syrup... how bout you guys, what does your evep say to you???

[VtSugarhouse]

I find when ever you are boiling you listen to the evaporator. By doing this you know what is going on. You can tell if the sap is coming into the float box at the right flow or give you an indication that maybe you are freezing up or worse yet out of sap.
When everything is boiling correctly it has the sound of a finely timed machine with a nice comforting rythem. I guess you could say you are developing a love affair with your evaporator. You are definately in touch with it.
When you have distractions in the sugar house you loose touch with this machine and this is when problems occur.
Much easier to burn the pan because of whatever distraction.

Good luck to those who enjoy listening to there evaporator!

[Pete S]

I get a "I'm getting ready to boil" sound from our pre-heat pan on the back of the evaporator.

This was the first year to have a damper in the pipe. It's a small home made rig, that sits outside. I would wait until the wood would "catch" good,.........then throttle back the damper just until the roar of fie stops in the flue.

I THINK it helped hold back heat, and yet allowed the fire to porperly exhaust,.....or just forced more out the cracks and holes,........HA!

Pete

[Mike]

Jim, The only thing my says to me is .MORE SAP!!!!!!! How's it going? Mine will make noises till it heats up and starts to boil....Hows your season been? Im at 17 gals....Slow start but the weather looks good for the next few days....Have a great day......Mike

[Father & Son]

When things quiet down and I can't hear the back pan I know I need a drop of defoamer. What I notice the most is the stack will start to ping just as the stack temp starts to drop and I know I need to add wood. Works better that setting a timer.

Jim

[KenWP]

Right now mine is saying use me please I am tired of being in the way. I know the wood stove in the house sounds different if it gets hot and I need to turn the draft down. Even the trees talk if you listen. They creak when they are ready ti run.

[Russell Lampron]

It is hard to hear the evaporator over the RO machine and vacuum pump but I can hear it talk to me. The hood will make a pop noise when I need to add defoamer and the sap inlet valve makes a loud woosh noise when the preheater is air locked. There are other sounds that it makes too that let me weither everything else is ok.

[PerryW]

When things quiet down and I can't hear the back pan I know I need a drop of defoamer.

That's what I was going to say.

There's also that chattery boiling sound from the back pan when it's getting ready to run dry.

Every once in a great while (once or twice per season), it make a loud humming sound upon startup. I have no idea why.

[Jerome]

reminds me of my first car, it had no dash board lights I had to drive by sound after dark, I could even tell when I was low on gas by the extra squeaking in the rear end.

[tyrod2]

I get a strong syrup candy smell in the sugar house just before it's time for a drawl off . I look at my thermometer and it is almost on 7 every time.

[3rdgen.maple]

Mine tells me when it starts to boil there is a freight train heading my way so look out cause here she comes.:lol: It is amazing what you hear and what you relate it too. When my dad is boiling I can walk through the door with my eyes closed and tell him it needs more wood. He'll tell me why do you think I just put the gloves on. Or I walk in and say You need a drop of defoamer in the flue pan He'll say why do you think I have the bottle in my hand. He finally asked me once how the heck can you tell your not even through the door yet and I say it's talking to me dad.