reclaim steam for hot water...

[johnallin]

Been wondering if any of you have a method to "grab some steam for hot water clean ups etc.

I don't have a steam hood but was thinking of placing a piece of stainless - at an angle to direct the run off into a container of some sort - somewhere over the flue pan and having a means to catch the hot water. Sounds pretty simple but I have not been able to find anything here.

Don't have any water in the sugar house but will sending about 25 gallons an hour out the cupolla and it's bugging me... Any ideas?

[farmall h]

I was just thinking about that today. I don't have far to go to get water out of the tap. I plan on buying a camp cooker(propane) from Cabella's $50.00. This will keep a ss pail of water hot/warm for soaking my prefilters and such.

I would reclaim the steam as water but I think the bucket/burner is cleaner and it is sort of "on demand" hot water and you can regulate the temperature. Boils lobsters too!

Feet are cold on the floor...bedtime!

[jdj]

Steamaway!!! Not only do you get all the hot water you could possibly use, you also tremendously improve efficiency.

[johnallin]

Steamaway would certainly work, but I'm trying to do this using what I already have available. The water is there, the heat is there; now how to harness it?

Cleaning filters, acc-u-cup any all the other "stuff" at the end of the day will be alot easier. I used to dip the wool filter in the sap pre-heater on the half pint but that is kind of counter productive because I was just putting all the filtered nitre back into the mix. Having hot water available seems like a no-brainer.

[maplehound]

I don't think you will be very succesfull with just a flat pan over the flue pan. I do have a hood and a preheater inside my hood. the hot water just flows constantly off from this (I love it) However the results I get is more from the preheater pipes than from just the hood. The cold sap inside the pipes with the hot steam hitting them causes the water to recondense on the pipes and drip off onto a pan that catches the water and then the water is funneled off into my sink. If you just hung a flat pan like a cookie sheet in the steam I don't think you will get enough water to do any good unless the cookie sheet was kept cold somehow.

[johnallin]

I'm thinking about something on an angle so the condensate runs down the surface and is caught in some sort of ledge or "gutter" then on to a small bucket of some kind.

Just on one side of the flue pan catching what ever steam is on it's way up and out..not restricting the process just kind of stopping it long enough to skim a little and capture whatever I can.

[maplehound]

John, once the pan gets hot from hanging in the steam the condensation will stop. Unlike your roof that probably drips all the time, the pan will heat up but your roof just like my preheat pipes has something on the other side that keeps it cold thus causing the condesation.

[markct]

yea i dont think you will get much from just a sheet, as others said once it warms there is hardly any condensation. my hood with no preheater last year got about a gallon an hour off condensate out the drain last year, altho i think most was from the stack where it went up thru the roof and was cold on the outside, i know that dripped like crazy into the tray. this year i added a copper preheater so hopefully i will have allot more condensate, and rather than just going into a bucket i put a 20 gal stainless tank in the corner and a small bar sink it is plumbed into with a faucet, all pitched so it will drain out and not freeze, and the tank is in the corner near the stack so some heat from the stack should help keep the water warm too when running

[johnallin]

Maplehound, I think you're right about no condensation if the piece of stainless gets hot, hadn't considered that but it makes sense.
Thanks for the reply, I'll keep trying until I come up with something....maybe just grab some snow and keep it handy...

[farmall h]

johnallen, but think about the lobsters!

[johnallin]

johnallen, but think about the lobsters!

What? :confused: I must be getting old.......

[farmall h]

you don't have a lobster dinner at the sugarhse?

[johnallin]

No , never thought of it, but sounds like a good idea - would still need a hot water source though.

[farmall h]

johnallen, earlier I posted that I have on order a fish cooker from Cabella's on line. Basically it is a propane burner that comes with a ss pot (and strainer for the clams,fish or lobsters). Gonna use the pot for hot water. Can't go wrong for fifty bucks.

[johnallin]

Now it makes sense, need to go back and re-read the thread once in a while! Thanks for the tip I just may do exactly that.

[farmall h]

I was just funn'n about the lobsters!

[3rdgen.maple]

Okay so I am gonna throw a new though out for you. If you need the cold to condense the steam to get water then capture it as it leaves the coupla and pipe it down to the sugarhouse. Dang lobster sounds pretty good I am thinking if you fill the pot with water then add a quart of syrup and throw them babies in it would be a pretty dang good meal.

[farmall h]

You know, I was always thinking of ways to get hot water. Not much, just enough to wet down the prefilters. Can't afford one of them fancy syrupy presses. Just happened to be reading in the library next to the food grade toilet bowl brush...and there in the Cabellas magazine was my answer.