NE Ohio: Are you guys getting alot of niter?

[heus]

I can't believe the amount of niter buildup that I am getting in my syrup pan. I have to drain the sweet stuff and scrub the bottom of my syrup pan partitions near the drawoff every single day (I have a crossflow pan). Halfway through a long boil the front partition starts to foam up so much I have to shut down and clean. Even the syrup in my finish pan the past 2 nights wants to foam over the top. I have been putting 1 drop of Atmos 300 defoamer every other firing in the float box. Thankfully I have made about 21 gallons of nice light amber syrup after my intitial 4.5 gallons of black crud.

[3rdgen.maple]

Hues that is the norm. Atleast has been for me for years. Don't be shy with the defoamer one drop every other firing won't do much at all.

[fred]

yes much more build up than normal years.talked to several producers same thing

[stevepipkin]

yes, we have a lot more sand in the filters and buildup in the pan than in years past. Sometimes the stuff coming out of the evaporator looked like sludge. Surprisingly, we got no dark amber this year. we had about 33% light amber and the rest medium amber.