Reversing flow on syrup pans

[Mark]

Does anyone boil all day and not have to shut down to clean syrup pans when they are reversing the syrup flow? That would be with 16 brix sap.
I can't reverse mine and I have to shut down every 100 gallons of syrup and some days it is three times. I have 2 cross flow pans and can get by changing the last one on the first 100 gallons but have to change both on the next 100 gallons and with wood I loose a lot of time. My thought would be that if I could reverse it a couple times they would both be nitered up any way. I don't know if it is the high brix or maybe I just get more niter in my bush. I have to do something different this year.

[3rdgen.maple]

Last year for me was the worse as far as niter buildup. I do not us an RO and whatever I did seemed to not matter. I had to pull the syrup pans proir to everyboil and start fresh or I was in trouble after a day of boiling. If I planned on keeping my new rig longer I would have bought another pan for it and just kept swapping them out so I could keep going. I am hoping it is not as bad this year. It sure did take alot of time away cleaning up.

[Mark]

I wish I could boil for a day, I can only make it for a few hours and then it is warped pans. I have seven pans and ordering more today.

[3rdgen.maple]

What the heck are you running that you need 7 pans?

[Mark]

I use two syrup pans and the extras are cleaned when I have help so if I am doing an all nighter by my self I can just swap them out. Making a few hundred gallons in a night by your self is a lot of work, but if I have clean pans and drums I can do it.
I also have an extra flue pan to change mid season.
The evaporator is a woodchip fired 5x14 and next year I am going to stretch it to a 5x16 by adding a third syrup pan.

[Haynes Forest Products]

Dang with all that equipment I would set up another evaperator and switch from rig to rig. So shutting down mid day and changing out all the syrup pans regardless of build up wont let you go the rest of the way? How long does it take you to drain the pans and swap them out IF there clean?

[PerryW]

I run a 3x10 and have only cleaned my syrup pan once during the season in 20 years of operation (that was the year I made 200 gallons).

I just reverse the flow with each boil and never have a problem.

[Breezy Lane Sugarworks]

with my 2 1/2x8 and making 400+ gallons a year i only quicly clean my flue pan twice in a season and there is niter on the pans but not real bad. but my syrup pans sometimes i can get only 10-15 gallons and other nights can get in the 25+. and the most i've ever made in one day was 48 but i switched syrup pans between morning and afternoon boils.

[802maple]

I have switched pans many a time in my years of sugaring and other than the years that I had oil fired, I never shutdown my wood fired evaporators to do this. With either a forced draft or conventional evaporator all I would do is transfer some of sap that was in the front pans to the ones that I was changing to, change the pans, put the remaining sap in the new pans, and 5 to 10 minutes after I started the process I was to at full boil again. As long as you shutdown your air and don't open the front doors the draft will pull most of the heat right up the stack. Shutdown time is down time and I couldn't afford that.

[PETE FELCH]

mark
we currently have a 6x16 with 3 cross flow pans . We manufactured a revese flow option to draw off the front or back pan. Our nitre is really bad, at 60 gph we were changing pans every hour. I know for sure it depends on the soil and water in the area how the nitre is . Last year we helped another bush out when they had some problems, we didnt have any sap of our own. We made 400 gal of syrup and never reversed flow,that bush was 25miles from ours.One thing we found that helps in the flue pan is finish the night boiling permeate until you clean it out then let it sit

[Mark]

Pete
With your sap can you go all day by reversing the flow?
With my two syrup pans it is almost syrup in the second pans so I am wondering if it would work for me. I plan on stretching the arch next year for a third pan but don't have time to do it now.
I have a 2x6 oil fired continuous flow finisher that I have not used in a few years that I might have to set back up. It was real easy to change the pans on it in a few minutes. I was trying to get away from using oil. I burn woodchips and last year it only cost me $800 in chips to make 4300 gallons. It would cost me that much for oil for the finisher.

[802maple]

Also every night unless the the filter press is plugged I would always filter the whole evaporator. It helped tremendously. You are right about different woods create more nitre then others, but we would make about 120 gallons of syrup per hour and wouldn't have to change for 3 to 4 hours

[Mark]

I change one syrup pan after a hundred gallons of syrup but have to change both on the next hundred gallons. I would hate to do all the plumbing to reverse the flow and find out that I just push the problem back and forth and end up changing both right away.

[PETE FELCH]

mark
yes we can go all day by reversing . you have to be carefull not to let it build up too much . last season i made almost 800 gal in 12 hrs . 802 is right at the end we filter what is left in the pans for the next day.

[Brent]

I'm still waiting for a brave soul to put sap through a water softener before he boils.

Might not change the flavour and it might stop the nitre from caking up on the pans.