20 x 66 Maple Pro Evaporation Rate?

[briansickler]

Is anyone familiar with tha Maple Pro 20x66 wood fired evaporator? I'm looking at one that is for sale and it looks really nice. Just not sure if it will handle my 150 or so taps for next year. It has a drop flue pan with about 32 sq ft surface area plus about 2.5 sq ft syrup pan surface area for a total of approximately 34.5 sq ft. total surface area. I really would like to here from someone who has one of these evaporators for some first hand knowledge. But any advise is welcome...

From what I've read on other threads here the 34.5 square ft surface area calculates to somewhere around 20 gal/hr evap rate for these pans. Is this right?

This evaporator appears to be the same one that Dallaire is now listing...20x66 hobby special on the maple guys web site. Maybe Dallaire bought Maple Pro or made there evaporators?? They claim there that this model will handle 50-250taps....that's quite a wide range and find the upper amount hard to believe.

So what do you think....Will this rig handle 150 taps?

Thanks, Brian

[3rdgen.maple]

I think you will be okay with 150 taps if you are talking gravity. Vac might be a whole new ballpark. I will argue that 20 gph per square foot is way way off and thinking that rig would be around 20 gph total. Think about it for a second the gph calculations most talk about are the size of the rig not the total surface area. If you took a 2x6 wich is 12 sf you are saying that rig would boil 240gph. Max a plain jane 2x6 is at 40 on good days. So in my opinion 3gph per square foot is more realistic. So your max boil rate could potentially reach 30 gph. But it depends on the size of your flue pan and finishing pan. So if you get 150 gallons of those 150 taps you are looking at 5+ hours of boiling.

[briansickler]

My wording wasn't very good...I meant 20 gph for the total rig. Yes, all gravity. Thanks for the info. Sounds like I would be O.K. with what I want to do. Are these maple pro rigs built well? This one has welded stainless pans, stainless arch sides and galvinized stack. It's a 3 hour drive to go look at it. The pictures look really good though.

[vtsnowedin]

Bascom's catolog shows this evaporator for $4,275.00. The add says the capacity is from 50-125 taps. If you get a good three day run with two gallons per tap per day your going to be a very tired wood loader. Most years and most days though you would be all set. A good sized storage tank and or a hood and preheater on the flue pan could get you past the heavy runs.

[3rdgen.maple]

VTsnowedin he is in NY we don't get 2 gallon a tap bucket runs lol well atleast not in the past few years.

[Littlesap]

I have the slightly larger Maple Pro 2x6, picked it up last year. I knew I was going to have somewhere between 100-150 taps and that I could only boil on weekends and possibly one day during the week so I could have a fair amount of sap on hand. After talking to the folks at Bascom's and doing a little math on the potential sap and evaporation rate, I went with a 2x6 rather than a 2x4 or one of the hobby rigs in between.

By most accounts in my part of Connecticut, this was a really lean year but I had way more capacity than I needed 110 taps. A big part of the fun for me is boiling and I was done in 1 1/2 hours from start up to shut down - OK, one day I was out there for three hours but this was boiling once a week.

I guess I'd rather have the dilema of coaxing more sap (vac next year?) out of my trees than dialing back the tap count for fear of too much sap. At least that is what I'm telling myself anyway. The 2x6 is not much more than the 20x66 so consider that as well. Caveat all of my comments with the fact that this was my second year and I had no idea what I was doing :)

[briansickler]

Well it looks like the 20x66 is off my list for possible evaporators because....I JUST GOT BACK FROM MY LOCAL LEADER DEALER....I BIT THE BULLET AND BOUGHT A BRAND SPANKIN' NEW 2X6 LEADER WSE EVAPORATOR. I must have the bug pretty bad .....

[vtsnowedin]

VTsnowedin he is in NY we don't get 2 gallon a tap bucket runs lol well atleast not in the past few years.
Well I hadn't considered that but even in New York the first time your not prepared to be drowned in sap is exactly the time it will happen. Been there done that will tell the story to anyone that don't run off.:)

[vtsnowedin]

Well it looks like the 20x66 is off my list for possible evaporators because....I JUST GOT BACK FROM MY LOCAL LEADER DEALER....I BIT THE BULLET AND BOUGHT A BRAND SPANKIN' NEW 2X6 LEADER WSE EVAPORATOR. I must have the bug pretty bad .....
Sure looks like it. Congratulations on your new baby. You probably won't have to remodel more then one bathroom to make things right with "She ...."Now about that new sugar house???