Marcland Auto Draw Off

[jimsudz]

The Marcland ADO advertised in the Maple News as a Verona special seems to be a good deal, does any one know about this model ? I'm a small producer and this unit looks perfect for my operation. $450 is quite a bit cheaper than the equipment suppliers catalogs.

[Sugarmaker]

It is probably the base model and should be a good value at that money. It also may have the older smaller read out like mine has? I have the next one up with the temp alarm.
I really like the one we have and the wife approves because she doesn't have to stand there and draw syrup off anymore:) That's a win win!

Regards,
Chris

[Haynes Forest Products]

well I hooked mine up to the probe and hooked up the selonoid and boiled water on the stove. played with the settings and was very happy with how simple the thing is. The wife thinks im crazy sitting there watching water boil and the buzzer going on and off. :)

[Dennis H.]

Come on Haynes, think about it that is what we do for 6 weeks every year. And she only looks at you strange when your watching water boil on a stove??

[Haynes Forest Products]

Dennis its "one" of the times I can share with you all about when she looks at me strange:o
Now back to the Auto Drawoff. I have 2 Watlow duel temperature controllers they are about 10 years old one has a probe on it. I cooked the probe in the pan fire so its way off. I dont need them and will donate them to anyone that wants to play with them..........................just cover shipping $10.00 there is a 1/16 Din and a 1/4 Din....thats the size of the face of it.

[MapleMounder]

I don't know if this is the right thread to post this or not. I am a small producer as well and think an auto draw off would help me with the multi tasking. I can't afford a commercial one but I have buddy that is an electrical engineer and has worked for Honeywell and in the aerospace industry. We got talking about it and he says he can build me one for about $100 bucks or so. I have searched the threads and found some great info but I can't find the answer to a couple questions. I know you draw off 7.1 above the boiling point of water for the day but how much do you let the tempature drop before you have the valve close? A couple tenths of a degree? Also Haynes you speak of the alarm going off, what is the alarm for? temp too high or a mechanical failure or some thing? Thanks for any help, the Trader has been a wealth of info!

[Grade "A"]

Well I'm not Haynes, but yes the alarm is for high temp (like if a valve stuck shut and is not drawing off). You can also hook it up to shut off a burner if oil fired or shut off the blower for wood fired arches (Killing the blower may help by a some time). The alarm hook up is realy just a relay, so anything can be turned on or off.
I set my draw off to close 2 tenths below when it opens. It gives me a small draw off about every 30-45 sec. works well for me.

[MapleMounder]

Grade A, Thanks for the info, my arch is wood fired and could see where shutting down the blower in alarm would be very helpful, what are the parameters to set off the alarm or relay? 1/2 a degree above syrup for the day?
Thanks again

[Grade "A"]

I set mine 2 degrees above, not sure what Marcland has it set at.

[Haynes Forest Products]

Marclands is set at 3 degrees. It is the full featured unit that it comes on. It will keep the NC switch open as long as the temp is 3 degrees over the set point of syrup. THEN when the temp lowers to the set point it will close the Switch and turn on what ever you have hook up to it.

[Sugarmaker]

Our set up for using the Marcland auto draw off on the old KING evaporator.
Yep thats a old milking transfer station converted to a syrup collector for the auto draw off. Had a 3/4 half coupling welded to the outlet and we then draw into a stainless milk bucket setting on the floor. This stainless 5 plus gallon container could be used in the future to mix DE into the hot syrup and run to a filter press. Many a time I have been steps away and had the Marcland kick out some nice syrup. After having one I would not want to go back to manual draws. I do not have a restrictive/shut off valve between the pan and the draw off unit. There is some risk here in that if the draw off would stick open due to scale or some object you cant shut off the flow and it could drain the pan and burn. I keep a special bent spoon that I can use to push up on the valve from below without getting scalded to unclog the valve. I do have a manual draw off valve that I use when the density is getting close and I need to fill the hydrometer cup.
Hope this helps somebody!

Regards,
Chris