My plan 2022/23

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Originally Posted by The Heldeberg Sapper

If its bubbling up like crazy and defoamer wont touch it, then its a build up of niter and you need to drain and clean your pan. I avoided doing cleaning for too long and ended up caking on an 1/16" layer of niter that was starting to burn in spots and was a pain to clean. Never happened to me before but we had a lot of niter this year.

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I cannot thank you enough for your prompt advice. I did shut it down as soon as I read your first post. All four channels had nitre buildup, but the fourth channel had a lot of nitre buildup and that is why that one was foaming up as you suggested. I was going to take a picture of how bad it was, but decided some embarrassing things you do not show. Fortunately there was no scorching.

I was able to get it all 99% clean. I will work on 100% clean after the season ends on Monday.

Next year I will have to get ahead of it and have a routine schedule for cleaning the pan. Today I had to undo a number of things because I stopped mid boil. I lot of extra moving of firewood and sap, that would not have happened if I had cleaned it on an off day.

I still have three boils left as I still had a lot of sap unboiled today, that I will boil tomorrow. I have to leave time to collect for Saturday’s boil.

Two interesting things from today:

I cleaned the bottom of the pan as well. I had my buddy helping me and we first rubbed the bottom of the pan on the snow. It removed about 80% of the carbon. The power washer got 99% of the rest.

I had to steal from my wood supply that was meant for next season’s boil. The wood had one year of seasoning, but I try to have two, but I am using it a year early. I also realized that I did not split it quite as fine as I did this year’s supply.

The combination of not being seasoned as much and being slightly larger, meant it burnt slower. Now my boil was not as hot and the boil rate was a little slower, but not a hec of lot less. I had no rocket roar and I used a he of a lot less wood.My fire interval I changed from 10 minutes to 13 minutes as a result of the slower burning. It sure was more of a leisurely pace.

I did have a draw off before the nitre problem and made 8 L of syrup.

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Originally Posted by nhdog

swingpure are you referring to foam or bubbles near the draw off. there is a difference ?

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I guess it was foam, the bubbles were smaller than syrup bubbles and they were tight together. I know what to look for now. Thanks.

I forget, swingpure, did you get a reversible pan? If so, a good way to avoid having to drain and clean the pan when you have only a couple boils left is to switch sides before it gets that bad.

GO

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Originally Posted by Bgreisch

Yes, VVVV up. Here is a link to Smokey Lake for an example for a grate.

https://www.smokylakemaple.com/product/steel-grates/

Bryan

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Thanks, I can make that!

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Originally Posted by The Heldeberg Sapper

No the point goes down. I just welded some 1/2" long pieces of 2x2/1/8" angle together in a VVVVV pattern and then the 1.5" sits inside of it for the spacing. I tired uploading a photo but it wont let me right now.

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Did you use any kind of special steel or just regular cold steel?

Thanks

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Originally Posted by berkshires

I forget, swingpure, did you get a reversible pan? If so, a good way to avoid having to drain and clean the pan when you have only a couple boils left is to switch sides before it gets that bad.

GO

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Yes, I did. I can trade places with the float box and draw off valve.

My pan comes with couplers with gaskets to connect the float box and the drawoff valve to the pan and you don’t get the gasket perfect, you can have a leak and the only way to fix the leak is to partially drain the pan.

Also the way I set up my head tank it does not work for the way this pan works. I had expected it to be set up differently. Next year I will have to set things up so I can move my head tank to either side of the pan. I also have to trust that I can connect the couplers with the gaskets in the correct position. I would have rather had it so the accessories just threaded on.

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Originally Posted by Swingpure

Did you use any kind of special steel or just regular cold steel?

Thanks

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Just normal steel stock. The key to this is that the inside of the V fills up with ash and helps insulate it.

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Originally Posted by Swingpure

I cannot thank you enough for your prompt advice. I did shut it down as soon as I read your first post. All four channels had nitre buildup, but the fourth channel had a lot of nitre buildup and that is why that one was foaming up as you suggested. I was going to take a picture of how bad it was, but decided some embarrassing things you do not show. Fortunately there was no scorching.

I was able to get it all 99% clean. I will work on 100% clean after the season ends on Monday.

Next year I will have to get ahead of it and have a routine schedule for cleaning the pan. Today I had to undo a number of things because I stopped mid boil. I lot of extra moving of firewood and sap, that would not have happened if I had cleaned it on an off day.

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Glad to hear you got it cleaned up. I used to be able to go all season with only on cleaning but this year i had a lot of niter build up. I think you should plan on cleaning pans at least twice during the season or if you notice it starting to foam up a lot plan on cleaning it before the next boil. Once you get a lot of hours on the rig you'll know when a cleaning will be necessary.

A good uneventful boil on Friday excluding the frozen valve on the feed tank, solved by a heating pad. I boiled all of my available sap, had one draw off. I though I might have another, but likely needed another 10 gallons of sap to get there.

It is still amazing me that the wood that I am using now, that is larger and less seasoned, seems to be a better match for my evaporator. It still boils well, but does not get super hot. Hec, even my wooden door handles are hanging in there and I am using less wood.

Two boils left, Sunday and Monday, then pull the taps Tuesday. I was going to boil Saturday, but I only have 56 gallons to boil and having a day off sounds good.

I collected 122 gallons of sap yesterday and today and will try and boil it all tomorrow. If successful it will be my largest one time boil.

I think only two boils left, unless Monday has a surprise flow. For sure after Monday the season is over. It is a good thing the season is ending, my fire grate is rapidly disintegrating, I will put some patches on top to make to the end.

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0dc7...Jrey0_r0vlBJ7g

I brought over two more trailer fulls of wood from my next year’s supply. When I start splitting to replenish my supply I will make them wrist size, but large wrist size, I like the slightly less hot fire.

I now have collected 123% of the sap I personally collected last year and 109% of the sap I had total last year, with one and possibility two more collection days. Hopefully that will equate to more syrup than last year.