Hood material question

[eastcoasttapper]

My dad was speaking with someone a few weeks ago and that person told him that you need to have a stainless steel hood. He said for our small evaporator it wasn't really worth it as it would likely cost $600 + .

A friend of ours just surprised us with a hood tonight that he had made up by a friend who has a company making sheet metal work.

Is there any problem using this as a hood? My dad didn't know why the man said to only use stainless steel. Is there a concern about solder dripping into the sap as a result of the hot steam or something like that?

[Bucket Head]

The "surprise" hood is soldered stainless? Nothing wrong with that. The steam won't melt the solder. Its not hot enough for that. Nothing to worry about. Aluminum hoods are good also. Their just not as shiney as the stainless ones.

Steve

[Haynes Forest Products]

I wouldnt worry about what its made of if its not dripping back into the evap. I have seen wood. plastic, tarps and I have aluminum. If the hood gets hot as it will there isnt alot of condensate that will form and drip back in. Now you dont want a wood hood that is painted with lead based paint that is flaking into the sap so even Galvanized sheat metal is OK.

[vtsnowedin]

That's an interesting question that I don't have a complete answer to. Leader sells hoods of both stainless steel and aluminum so both of those are in. A hood doesn't need to be leak proof so there is no need to solder the joints but if it was lead free solder that would not be a problem regardless. By sheet metal I must assume you mean galvanized steel. That's the interesting part as most of the problem with galvanized parts is the lead solder that went with it as I think the zinc coating by itself is non toxic. But I hear that some jurisdictions don't want you to have any exposed galvanised sheet metal roof over the evaporator so perhaps they see a problem I don't.
I'm sure others will chime in and give us the skinny.

[kiegscustoms]

I purchased some light gauge stainless from my local steel supplier and my neighbor (a tin knocker) and I made one for my 2x6 for under $200 including the stack, cap and an offset. It pays to know people with metal working skills when you are a sugarmaker. We also made a round bottom tank liner for about 1/8 the cost of one from leader and a copper parallel flow preheater for around $120.

[eastcoasttapper]

My father called the Dept. of Health today and there happened to be three individuals there for a meeting today whose job it is to inspect and regulate I guess the maple syrup industry for the province. One of them kindly called my father back and said that the solder shouldn't be a problem as there has not been any lead used in solder here for at least 15 years. He also had no problem whatsoever with the galvonized sheet metal being used as a hood. There was a bit more to it, but as this message was relayed to me, I'm relaying the gist of it in case anyone else had concerns.

So I guess I feel comfortable with it and will be putting up the hood very soon!

And we got away with a lovely hood for a bottle of maple syrup and a bottle of something else :)