You can figure about gallon per hour per square foot with a flat pan. That's if the guy feeding the fire is the same guy who cuts the wood. If you have a pyromaniac brother-in-law, he might get 1 1/2 gallons per hour per square foot.
You can figure about gallon per hour per square foot with a flat pan. That's if the guy feeding the fire is the same guy who cuts the wood. If you have a pyromaniac brother-in-law, he might get 1 1/2 gallons per hour per square foot.
I must be a pyro. Lol. Burning off more than 1 per sq ft.
2020
8th year making sugar
120 taps second year on vac
2x4 Divided pan.
Homemade RO 4x42XLE
Shurflo 4048 pump
TreeTapper2,
If you are going to 60 taps and thinking you might add more, I'll recommend getting a 2x6 drop flue pan. I went from 18 taps my first year with 5 steam pans and I love the fact that I can now boil 60 gallons in about 2 hours (actually less so there's some left for the cool down). I purchased them from Smoky Lake and they are some cash but it depends what you are planning to do with this (addicting) hobby and how much time you have to boil.
Good luck with the rest of this season.
--andrew
Thanks for the insight Kiteflyingeek. What do you do with the syrup in the flues when your done boiling? What is the boil rate of your pan?
2020
8th year making sugar
120 taps second year on vac
2x4 Divided pan.
Homemade RO 4x42XLE
Shurflo 4048 pump
Listen my children and I'll tell you
Of the midnight boil of TreeTapper2
In two-oh-fourteen on the twentieth of march
Starting a boil in homemade arch
He asked MapleTraders, "How about you?"
(sorry - couldn't resist with that thread title....)
Hey Slop, that's good, I like that.
Now, back to the subject. We custom built our new 2x6 arch and put our old Smokey Lake pans on it. This is our 3rd year using them. They consist of a 2x2 syrup pan and a 2x4 V-flue sap pan. With our new arch we have AOF and AUF and we are getting 30 GPH. Our next upgrade will be a SL regular flue pan. They are nice pans plus it's nice to be only an hour away from Jim.
Last edited by WI Sugarpop; 03-23-2014 at 08:38 PM.
150 on 3/16 gravity 2018 and 120 sap sacks
14 x 20 sugar shack
2014 New custom 2x6 arch "The Firestorm" w/ preheater, AUF & AOF
Smokey Lake pans and water jacket bottler
2024 new 2x8 set of drop flue pans and hood from Smoky Lake. Lengthen our arch.
Just a hobby but seems like more work every
year
3 generations working together
Wife that guards our syrup
43.74° N
The drop flue that Jim at Smoky Lake Maple Products makes has a drain on it. But during the season, I just leave the partially boiled sap in the drops until I boil again. Unless we have temps below about 20*F -- then I drain the pans. Raised flue pans also have some kind of drain on them for the same reason. But in reality, you don't have to drain it very often.
With as short of a season as I had and as crazy as it was for me to get a shack built before I started to boil, I don't have real accurate numbers for boil rate. But it was somewhere around 30gph if I fired every 7 minutes with 5-7 pieces of wrist size wood. That is hard to do if you are also pumping sap to the head tank, checking syrup density, getting more firewood, drawing off syrup, helping kids with homework, etc. But if you can have a fire stoker, it's a little easier to manage all the other tasks AND keep the pans ROCKING.
Let me know if you have more questions. I'll share what I know having run these GREAT pans for one season.
--andrew
That might be a wise choice if you have good steady access to waste oil so that you will have plenty to get you through the season. I am glad to be rid of my fuel oil burner though
IF they are not budding, and the syrup is good, the sap should clear up after the freeze.
the midnight boil does not bother me. IT is that 3 pm to 6 AM boil that gets me down.