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Gary - sounds like you are making a lot of syrup.

I brought in 165 gallons from 120 taps (gravity) yesterday. Took 6 hours of boiling, only got 1 gallon of syrup. Not sure what the deal is. ...

sniperdodo,

If it were me (and it very well may be before the season is over), I would give the JB Weld you mentioned a try. Worst case, you try it and it doesn't work. Then you can go to plan...

After checking the weather forecast yesterday and then jumping on the trader (after a long hiatus), I quickly realized I was behind the 8 ball.

Worked until 10:00 last night and got in all (or...

Well all - I'm also throwing in the towel.

Cleaned the pan all up yesterday. Will pull the taps and clean the lines after work thoughout the week.

Very short and disappointing season, but...

valleyman,

I use 3 prefilters and the wool filter. I keep spare prefilters handy so that I can add them as required, thus always using prefilters and never relying solely on the wool filter.
...

Sweetwood,

Nice! Super glue on the lip so you can keep boiling - I like it. :)

- Jake

Well - only 50 gallons yesterday. Hmmm.

Will bottle what I have thus far, clean the pan and cross my fingers for some cold weather. If that doesn't happen, I'll get out the motorcycle...

-...

Wanabe,

I often have this problem as well, especially in the beginning of the season if I haven't drawn syrup off yet.

What I do is... take your defoamer and put a drop of it near the hole in...

Brought in 160 gallons of sap off of 140 taps last night (note that I didn't gather Monday, so this was 2 days worth of runs).

Made about 3 gallons - haven't confirmed grade, but looks to be a...

Ditto the poor sap runs in NW pa. I think we are a long ways from the hard maples budding in our area, even if we do get a few warm days w/o freezing nights... But - thats just my opinion.
...

Sweetwoodmaple,

I agree w/ you. Just checked accuweather and warm nights don't look good. It seems to either be feast or famine this year and thus far its been mostly famine.

Collected 65...

Interesting - first I have heard of this.

- Jake

Waded through waist deep snow in many areas to get 40 taps in last night. Some of my lines were buried, now I know what it must be like to live in Vermont!

Will have the rest (approx 100) done in...

Hi all,

Was out of town last week, so didn't risk putting my taps in before I left. Doesn't look like I missed much (other than about 2 ft of snow).

Forecast does not look great for NW PA.
...

My vote - run 5/16 lines and break the runs up so you have <15 taps per line.

All of my sets are 5/16" gravity w/ less than 15 (okay one has 16) taps per stretch. Longest run is probably 100...

Jim... sorry to hear you've been having so many problems, i think this has been a trying season for most.

I've been buried in sap. The big runs during the week just don't work that well for me. ...

I brought in about 175 gallons yesterday. Everything I made was dark too. I haven't made dark like that since the "olden" days when I was boiling with an old kettle in the driveway...

My guess...

Dan W... glad to hear the half pint is treating you well. Your doing good w/ that blower, I used to only get 5-6gph out of it from what I remember.

My 2x6 w/ no preheater and a combustion fan is...

I've always put a 200w bulb in the arch and a 200w bulb on the other end behind the flues. Works well. The preheater pan freezes, but other than that things keep thawed out.

Leave it in your...

I was drawing off at 218 last weekend.

I too use the thermometer to tell me when it's close but use the hydrometer to tell me when to open the valve.

ditto on all the issues.

I had trouble w/ freeze ups, steam, etc.

Jim... it took me about 170 gallons to sweeten the pan as well. Probably only drew off 3/4 of a gallon on Friday night. ...

Knowing what I know now, I'd have a blower on anything I boiled with. Makes a world of difference. Seriously, put one on your half pint.

- Jake

Hi all, glad everyone is making syrup.

sugarmaker, sorry to hear about your pan. Glad you got it cleaned up and it wasn't too bad though.

Boiled friday night for 6 hours, 1st boil of season....

You'll get many opinions on the subject of cleaning...

When I clean my sap buckets at the end of the season, take a 3 gallon bucket, fill it w/ hot water and then put a cap full of clorox bleach...

Gary.... sorry to hear about the burnt pan. Sounds like you caught it in time though before things got too out of hand.

Gathered last night. Agreed, was a slight dissappointment. Thought we...