My plan 2022/23

Thanks for the tips.

I could go a little higher, but I cannot make a complete wall as my wife likes to be able to look through the structure and see some trees on the other side. As Andy VT mentioned if I stack it too high, a tip over would be unfortunate.

I actually have a lot of room on the deck to the left of the evaporator and can simply tarp that pile of wood. I figure I need at least three and maybe four more facecords of wrist sized wood to feel totally comfortable going into the boiling season. The RO I made last year has never been tested and I doubt it can keep up on the heavy flow days. I can see having a mix of concentrated sap and raw sap on the heavy flow days. I also have to consider the RO not working well at all, at least until it is proven.

My current RO setup has one 400 gpd membrane and two 150 gpd membranes. I am also debating replacing the two 150 gpd membranes with a second 400 gpd membrane, figuring that would increase my daily output of concentrated sap. I could have 150+ taps this year on lines and 9 buckets for the grandkids to see.

This year my feed barrel for the RO will be above the RO pump. I will have a pipe that goes through the garage and I will pump from the outside of the garage, through the pipe and into the feed barrel.

This morning I added the feed tank support (pic has the feed tank on it) and more supports for a third row of wood. I think by adding a foot more of wood on each of the existing rows and adding the third row on the right, I will come close to having 2.5 to 3 additional face cords of wood. That should do me. If I run out I have my wood that I use for my fireplace, that i can borrow, or I can simply stop boiling.

https://share.icloud.com/photos/04fC...1hLtInenrXO6Kg

I also purchased fittings today.

A fitting from the Feed tank to a RV hose, with a shutoff valve and a fitting from the RV hose to a future float box.
A fitting from the transfer tank to a RV hose with a shut off valve
A fitting from a RV hose to the 3/8 tubing going into the RO pump.

I'm not sure if you can simply stop boiling, I think you have sap running through your veins!

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Originally Posted by Swingpure

This morning I added the feed tank support (pic has the feed tank on it) and more supports for a third row of wood. I think by adding a foot more of wood on each of the existing rows and adding the third row on the right, I will come close to having 2.5 to 3 additional face cords of wood. That should do me. If I run out I have my wood that I use for my fireplace, that i can borrow, or I can simply stop boiling.

https://share.icloud.com/photos/04fC...1hLtInenrXO6Kg

I also purchased fittings today.

A fitting from the Feed tank to a RV hose, with a shutoff valve and a fitting from the RV hose to a future float box.
A fitting from the transfer tank to a RV hose with a shut off valve
A fitting from a RV hose to the 3/8 tubing going into the RO pump.

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swingpure, looking at your picture of your feed tank i am wondering how you will work around the piping going to your evap. looks might be in the way off to the side like that.

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Originally Posted by nhdog

swingpure, looking at your picture of your feed tank i am wondering how you will work around the piping going to your evap. looks might be in the way off to the side like that.

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Good question and the answer is, I don’t think I ever need to go to that side while I am boiling. It is a question I asked my pan builder. He likes building pans with four channels. I wondered about a three channel pan, with the float box at the rear left, which he said he could build. Ultimately I went with what he normally does.

The float box will be on the left side, but other than filling up the feed tank and opening the valve on it, I should not have to do anything else on the left side. The draw off valve is on the front right side where I have lots of room to work.

Having said all this, I have never used a divided pan before. As far as I know the sap enters the pan from the float box in the front left corner, goes up and down the four channels and is ready to be pulled off on the front right corner.

If I have to go to the left side, let’s say to turn the pan, when it is not boiling, it will be easy to disconnect the RV hose from the turnoff valve.

I guess in the worse case if I had to go there, I could crawl under it.

I still have to learn after how many gallons do you need to turn the pan, to remove nitre, how often a day will the temperature of the sap get to where you need to pull it off.

I have to learn about sweetening the pan, but do not quite understand if you have enough sap to start off with, why you would not automatically be pulling off some syrup the first day. One would think the sap in the final channel would have boiled down to syrup, just like a flat pan.

I will have to learn when I am turning the pan to help get rid of nitre, how to draw off the boiling sap into separate pails and to put them back in the pan in the same order, to try and maintain the gradient.

I did split some more wood today. I possibly might have Covid and ran out of energy part way through the splitting, so I did not get as much split as planned.

I also purchased on Kijiji (Cdn version of Craigslist), a section of double wall pipe that will go through my ceiling. My ceiling is only the thickness of the metal roof. This will allow me to determine the correct size of the hole in the roof and will also allow me to find a redneck way of supporting it. It allows me to buy a section of 8” pipe to come out of it, with a storm collar. Doing this now is a lot better than January or February, when I expect to get my base stack and pan.

Gary - sounds like your channels run the length of the evaporator. You might want to consider setting the feed tank behind your exhaust stack and setting your pan so that your float box and drawoff are at the back and interchangeable so you don't have to physically lift and flip the pan to reverse flow. You just reverse flow by changing your float box/draw off valves and where your hose goes in and draw off from opposite side. Sanitary fittings work wonderful for this purpose. You can make plugs or use valves to hold syrup in pan and actually reverse flow mid boil if niter build up is really being problematic. You might want to do this during LONG boils. Do you have round holes between channels? I made stainless handled silicone stopper plugs to hold syrup in middle channel of my pan and only drain off the side ones to swap them and maintain as much gradient as possible when reversing flow.

You will want to see how your rig boils as well because you want your drawoff to be as close to the hottest parts as possible where you get strong/consistent boils. A lot of times this isn't near the door or the back of the arch. This is why many pan setups have cross flow front pans with draw off near the middle where the temperature profile is hottest.

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Originally Posted by DRoseum

Gary - sounds like your channels run the length of the evaporator. You might want to consider setting the feed tank behind your exhaust stack and setting your pan so that your float box and drawoff are at the back and interchangeable so you don't have to physically lift and flip the pan to reverse flow. You just reverse flow by changing your float box/draw off valves and where your hose goes in and draw off from opposite side. Sanitary fittings work wonderful for this purpose. You can make plugs or use valves to hold syrup in pan and actually reverse flow mid boil if niter build up is really being problematic. You might want to do this during LONG boils. Do you have round holes between channels? I made stainless handled silicone stopper plugs to hold syrup in middle channel of my pan and only drain off the side ones to swap them and maintain as much gradient as possible when reversing flow.

You will want to see how your rig boils as well because you want your drawoff to be as close to the hottest parts as possible where you get strong/consistent boils. A lot of times this isn't near the door or the back of the arch. This is why many pan setups have cross flow front pans with draw off near the middle where the temperature profile is hottest.

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Lots to think about. Thanks for the suggestions.

The channels do run the entire length of the pan.
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0b4M...xipuxOalWb3SyQ

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0cag...MfVt3_gRji03lw

Last year when I had the five restaurant pans, with #1 being at the door and #5 at the stack, the pans were hottest in the following order: 2, 1, 3, 4, 5. Now this year my evaporator will be slightly different with the base stack, 8” stove pipe, vs 6”, and a 2x4 divided pan. I am hoping I will have better heat flow towards the stack, but I believe it will still be my coolest area.

I think I am missing something. I can still swap the float box and draw off valve at the front, by just having a longer hose from the feed tank. To my knowledge to remove the float box and draw off valve, I will have to draw off almost all of the sap, in which case moving the pan should not be overly difficult.

Saying all of this I have zero experience with the divided pan, so I could be totally wrong.

I am a little pot committed on where the feed tank will be this year, because all of the wood already stacked in the rear. The feed tank being up front where it is will also be easier to fill.

I was exposed to someone who unknowingly had Covid and I finally tested positive today. That will slow things up for the next few days. I have had all four shots, so hopefully it remains like cold like symptoms. I did relocate the two ends of two lines to their new collection location today and I put up one four tap line.

Last night during a peaceful moment I had an epiphany, I simply do not have the wood resources for 150 taps on a yearly basis, let alone this year. I am not going to put up some of the lines I had up last year. I will keep the 80 taps on the steep hill and keep the two lines that I left up from last year that total about 25 taps. I will add one more short line and have a few four tap lines. I will likely end up with about 125 taps give or take.

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Originally Posted by Swingpure

I was exposed to someone who unknowingly had Covid and I finally tested positive today. That will slow things up for the next few days. I have had all four shots, so hopefully it remains like cold like symptoms.

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Hope your symptoms are mild and best wishes for a speedy and full recovery.

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Originally Posted by DrTimPerkins

Hope your symptoms are mild and best wishes for a speedy and full recovery.

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Thanks, my better half is already better and I will be re splitting wood tomorrow, so all should be good.