Finishing Pan tied to Evaporator

[Killington Maple]

Greetings All,
Just wondering if any of you have a gas finisher tied into your syrup pan on your evaporator. In other words, using it as an extension of your syrup pan.
My evaporator is very touchy to make syrup on, being wood fired with a max pan. Want to make it so a rookie can run it(my girlfriend).
I'm planning on adding a float box to my finisher and attaching my auto drawoff to that, then draw off into a tank, then to the filter press.
Just trying to eliminate any handling of syrup before it reaches the barrel.
Any thoughts are appreciated.

[Fred Henderson]

Get rid of the finishing pan and attact the auto draw to the syrup pan.

[Haynes Forest Products]

I dont see any reason why it wouldnt work.......unless the finished syrup in the float box acts differant. The finisher will need to be lower.....thats easy with the right size pipe/hose your finisher can be off to the side. Sounds like your girlfriend needs to learn how to turn on the press, change filters, change out full barrels and cover:rolleyes: I do see an advantage to doing it this way to smooth out the TOUCHY syrup pan BUT will the TOUCHY syrup pan be effected buy the float and make things worse.

Now I just got off the phone with Grainger getting a float, relay and time delay relay all 3 for under $60.00 that will detect liquid at a predermined level and turn on a pump or valve for a selected time from 5 to 60 seconds.Im building a releaser out of a SS beer keg.

I wonder if the float will react fast enough to keep the finisher at the right level if the auto draw is snapping open because it will be only working from a tank of almost finished syrup. I wonder if you will need to set all the floats to supply higher sap levels to push out the finished syrup to the finisher.

[Brian Ryther]

Killington,
Take a drive down rt 100 to the sugar house just before Ludlow on lake Rescue. I think it is called Green Mtn Sugar House, you can't miss it. They have a very nice set up that the finishing rig is tied to the evap. There finisher is a steam pan. It seams like a very smart idea. With the steam pan they are less likely to burn the pans and syrup during those last critical moments before the syrup is to proper density.

[maple flats]

Close the draw off valve part way to draw slower wen the auto draw off opens. Experiment to find a good setting when both of you are there. Also teach her to watch the temp as the draw off is open to regulate the flow. Since I started trying continuous draw a few years ago I rarely have problems. I never achieve continuous but sometimes I get 30 or even 45 min draws, except I close to refuel every 15 min then reopen. (I have over fire high pressure air which really extends to firing time.) Learn how and when to adjust flow. Keeping flow slow helps eliminate a surge in the pan which mixes up the concentracion