Setup Questions

[elmcreekmaple]

We are trying to plan our setup for 2010 and we have a few issues with "difference of opinion":

should we figure out a way to get feed tank above evaporator and gravity feed or have a small pump work 24/7 (like a fishtank pump or small sump pump)?

we plan on preheating sap by copper tubbing wrapped around stack. I also want to wrap that with a spring-loaded removable section of stack an inch or two larger in diameter. Do we need to have valves and T's and whatnot to keep from scorching, vapor lock, hot sap backing up into holding tank, etc.?

Also - we are planning on going with one large pan (30"x60"). We want dividers in it I think. Does it matter which direction the dividers run?

Thanks for any advice.

[Gary R]

I would go with the feed tank. What happens if your feed pump quits in the middle of a boil? With the tank you know how much sap you have to send to the evaporator. You probably can't prevent some scorching with that type of preheater. Check other threads for building one. They work well for some guys. Just my "opinion":)

[red maples]

I personally like the feed tank above with gravity with a pump to feed that. you can get a float switch for it so it doesn't run dry or just esimate if you have a 50 or 100 gal tank and your boiling 25 gallons per hour then you need to turn the pump on every 2 -3 hours.

[PerryW]

should we figure out a way to get feed tank above evaporator and gravity feed or have a small pump work 24/7 (like a fishtank pump or small sump pump)?

Definitely get the feed tank higher and use gravity.

Also - we are planning on going with one large pan (30"x60"). We want dividers in it I think. Does it matter which direction the dividers run?


Are you dividing the pan completely? or leaving a small gap in each divider to try to induce flow through the evaporator?

[Haynes Forest Products]

you want the dividers going side to side. You want a costant heat and dont want the sap running back and fourth from the high heat into the lower heat so side to side. Make a larger sap area in the back towards the stack and then maybe 3 smaller ones as it becomes syrup for better control and draw off.

[elmcreekmaple]

our pan is 30 by 60 so I was thinking maybe 3 divided areas 8-10 inches wide and then the remaining area all open to the back

[elmcreekmaple]

My issues are still:

We are not big-time by any means but I think we want to be as efficient as possible and big enough to end up with about 50-75 gallons of syrup. We have 200+ tree potential within probably 100 yard radius of our sugaring area. We have no access to fresh water so we have to tank it in for cleaning and such (we are out to our hunting shack deep in sawyer co woods). We can have limited electricity for when needed by generators but we want to rely on it as little as possible.
We have an evaporator that has pan capacity of 30" by 60" and it really cooks. No sugar shack (which kind of stinks if snows or windy)
There are about maybe 8-10 of us that want to do it this year and we are thinking about doing it in 2 man shifts through a 4 week season during peak.
I really need to see a setup from holding tank --> to pre-warming setup (leaning toward copper tubing wrapped around stack) --> pan separated into 2 areas (back 36" open to boil, front 24" divided into 3 - 8" side to side channels) --> valve coming off to take out syrup once at correct hydrometer reading --> directly to coffee urn for bottling??

I just really need to see if this is a good setup, or if I need to rethink some or all steps. Am I missing steps?

I need to see different setups of medium sized operations to get some good ideas.

Does my rambling make sense? Any feedback is appreciated.

[RileySugarbush]

You have two needs that really are complementary:

You need clean water and you want to preheat your sap.

If you make a steam hood over that back 36 inch part of your pan and use a tube type preheater inside it, you get both. Collect the condensate and every day you get gallons of hot distilled water!

There are lot's of examples on here. Or if you are in the Twin Cities some time, you can stop over and see how ours is set up.