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I see in my opinion I think the issue is the depth. I know guys who run 3/4" myself I like 1". You are getting a big draw because it is all syrup at the same time actually some of it is probably past. You want to get smaller draws more often. I will admit it can be a little scary the first time or two.
Ed,
I am running about 1.5" but I have a drop flue and level is same all the way through the evaporator. By the time it gets to the drawoff point, it is probably closer to 1" as it is the farthest point from fresh sap entering. I thought I would probably go to auto draw after RO but after 3 boils, I like manual better because I start drawing a little light and as temp starts going up I increase the drawoff speed. This seems to work really good and may be helping prevent problems you are having. By starting to draw at 6 with a pretty good stream, it gets the thick stuff running through the syrup pan towards drawoff too. I still end up with syrup being a little thick as I finish soon as I get done boiling and washing RO and have to thin it a little to can. You might try this next time when boiling instead of auto draw and see if it works better.
I run my front pan about 1.25" deep and start my first draw at 5* and it will climb to about 8* before coming back down. When it gets to 7* I slow the draw down to a trickle and then watch the thermometer and open or close the draw off valve to maintain 7*. The only time that I have the temp spike is if I don't start the first draw fast enough. I concentrate to 14% most of the time.
I also like a continuous draw. I have an auto draw I got as part of a package deal but I never felt the need to hook it up.
For the "run away train" it sounds like you are drawing too fast and at shut down the flow surge upsets the gradient in the pan. Then as it boils more, you get far beyond syrup by the time the sensor at the draw off registers. I suggest you slow the draw speed (close the valve partially) to find a good balance. You likely want it to draw slightly faster than the boil will make syrup. As you go you can tweak the draw speed.
On my "continuous" draw it is not truly continuous, but once I get to syrup, I open the valve a little, if the temp rises I open slightly more. After a little while I find a good balance. I think my longest draw without further adjustment was somewhere about 90 minutes. My wife actually got that, she tends to make finer adjustments than I do trying to find the perfect flow. Then at the same time, you must fire the arch fast and at the right time intervals and must add defoamer everytime you fire the arch.
I had the same issue with mine last year. It was never the first couple of draws. I found that I needed to run just a tad deeper and start drawing when it gets to about 7 and 3/4, it will climb to about 9 over and then come down and I stop about 6 and 1/2 or 7. It will sit at 7 for a while and then start to climb and if you do not get it at 7 and 3/4 and wait until about 8 it will climb to over 30 over (hit 45 over once the "Oh shist" pail came in handy).
Ok , my original intent was to give Brandon the heads up about( run away ) since this is his first go around with the RO.
Mission accomplished
Brandon , with you doing your manual pull , it sounds like the( run away ) will not occur do to your draw technique ,
ahh Yess there are draw backs to technology ( the auto draw off )
Since I work solo and can 90% of the syrup as the boil is in progress the drawoff is a must .
The Oh S.... sums my fears about the (run away ) + 40 degrees , glad to hear someone else was the guinea pig :lol:
This whole thing started me to doing some math
A 3x3 finish pan @ 2 inches deep is 2592 cubic inches or 11.22 gallons of sweet .
When the ( run away ) develops all of the sweet in the front pan goes thru to the canner .
I am not a chemical engineer , (my background is mechanical design and tooling) but I believe this is more than just sap being reduced to syrup , too much happens to fast and once it begins it continues to convert the whole pan at ever increasing rate . i always open the front doors and stop the boil @ about 10 degrees over syrup .
The +40 is would be hard sugar when the liquid cooled to room temp .
I have a real nice float system on the dallaire , I think i will experiment with some of these ideas ....
I thank all of you for the input , i wondered if i was alone with this , it is good to hear others have had the same excitement:o
One thing for sure Ed, you are a very intelligent individual and always enjoy talking with you. Your engineering background and expertise is way above my little mind. I am only boiling 1 to 2 hours usually, so I go at it hard and get it done and then can once it is done and RO is washed. I dump syrup in the reheat pan in the kitchen and keep it on low so the syrup is close to boiling when I am ready to can and it uses little propane. I don't want to take a chance even with Auto drawoff trying to can boiling 18%. If it is 12% going into steamaway, Leader says it comes out at 18%. I try to keep a constant draw off going about all the time except when I stop it for about 30 seconds to dump out of milk can into reheat pan.
Today is day 9 of no sap and extreme cold temps. -10 this am and next 10 days shows about the same and no warmup and lots more snow. Never seen it this cold this time of year as yesterday it struggled to get above 0 with -20+ wind chills. This is close to peak production time where I am and last year was first time I ever got sap in April. Hopefully this year we can go into April, but usually half of the days in March are in 50's and 60's, so tapholes can't take it and seldom ever see any good freezes after about 21st of March.
Brandon .
My last real run was feb7,8 , had one 45 gallon dribble after that , -15 degrees here this morning , ground is rock hard . It will take 2 to 4 days of 40 deg to unthaw these conditions .
Same problem here ,past mid march the temps zoom , my tapps do not die but the syrup goes to crude oil status .
Lord we need some divine help here .......
ED
Ed,
I don't have problems with crude oil syrup, usually can make good syrup to the end. Just quits freezing much past 15th to 20th of March. Been praying for couple of weeks and will continue that we can get a long cold March into April.