Input on best wood fired evaporator for the $$ / leader vs cdl vs lapierre

[Potters3]

I have a 30" x12', no steamaway yet. hoods on both pans, 8' max raised flue pan and a 4' Revolution syrup pan. This year I am burning almost all white birch pole wood average thru put has been 190 to 200 gallons per hour of 8 to 10 % r/o'ed sap. I have had this set up for 4 years and have had no problems and would buy another one if needed.

[sapmaple]

This was my second year with 4x12 vortex had a traditional 4x12 w/blower and steam-away boiled 300 gallons an hr. With the Vortex 7 foot Max flue and enhanced steam-away I boil 400 gals an hr. 12% concentrate allows me to make 250 gals per cord of wood.
My only complaint is the bricks can't stand the heat and crack and start to lean in on the fire box so have to mess with them each time I switch the front pan
Leader said they were looking into some new age metal to replace the bricks but haven't heard anything yet I'll inquire at the open house!
If not I'll re-brick in a different way, been thinking about how to do it

[peckfarm]

I have had a chance to see many more other rigs boiling this year than in the past. I have yet to see another evaporator boil as hard and fast in the rear pan. The thing with the vortex is it is humming, this is no sit back and chill evaporator. If you are in it to boil hot and fast then it is good. The high pressure fan is loud and the cool down time is longer than other arches. Run them deep, fire them often with small split wood and really watch the scale build up if you are boiling concentrate. These are the "less than good" aspects in all honesty. That being said, the vortex is like a big block with two 4 barrel carbs, moving fire fast to boil hot. Every full brick in the fire chamber is bright orange glowing from the heat. It is impressive I like it very much.

[brookledge]

One thing to remember with anything when it comes to efficiency, what sacrifices do you want to make. You can drive your hybrid car so slow that you get great mileage but it takes you a long time to get there. Wel the same goes for an evaporator. Some of them boast only adding wood every 30 min (or what ever) and get great efficiency but your boiling time is longer than if you were pushing it hard.
So in my mind it all comes down to your own philosphy
Keith

[Ryan Mahar]

Sorry to get into the conversation late here..........first I guess how many taps do you have?/ and are you RO'ing??? We have been boiling on a 2x6 revolution from leader, we RO 8-10% and made 400+ gallons this year off 1200 taps.....I am farily confident we can put 2000 taps through it and keep boiling times to less than 10 hours................We are expanding our taps to be well over 2000 next year and so the 2x6 is for sale, but just so you have a comparison, that is what this rig can handle and produce.....

[RUNOFBANK]

This weekend my two older boy's (4&6) and I attended the open houses for CDL, Lapierre, D&G and Leader. Now I have a bigger issue in making a decision than before. Initially I was leaning towards an inferno but after seeing all the air tights up close and personal, I'm not so sure. They all seem to have their benefits. If I could only take them home on demo like a new piece of excavation equipment.

-Lapierre in my opinion had the highest quality pans with diamond top flues and either 7 or 9 inch available. However the force five is priced through the roof and wood consumption is of no concern to me and the xtreme does not have any air injected into the box through the door but does boast some nice evaporation rates. The xtreme has a single large blower that is mounted within the arch. It was not running but by the looks of thing will make some noise especially in a tight building.

- CDL intensofire overall was very impressive with a user friendly fire door not quite as fine tuned as Lapierre but darn close. I inquired about the stainless steel being used and got mixed answers from the staff. So still not sure if they are 304 and what gauge. The flues are not diamond shaped which I have become accustomed to but... The blower was set up to be mounted outside the sap house or in another room to reduce noise pollution. There is air is introduced in three zones of the fire box and all three are adjustable. They claim that it can be run as gasifier or forced draft where Lapierre claims they are the only manufacturers with a true gasifier.

- Leader is still making a very nice set of pans I particularly liked the max combo. The revolution pan is very nice and makes lots of sense. There doors being used on the air tight fronts seem very cumbersome and not something I would want to open every 5-10 minutes to fire. I think a half day in the shop and I could customize the handle to be a bit more user friendly. The vortex looks nice but when you start crawling around it they pale in comparison to CDL and Lapierre particularly for the same cost possibly a little more. Dayton blowers (I think) and generic rheostats with no therm. for stack temp incorporated was not exactly state of the art. But sometimes simple stupid does win the race. In regards to evaporation rates. With the max flue it will take the lead early and win the race for sure. I did speak with a producer who claims their syrup on average is darker boiling on the max. But thats just one in many. If anyone else running a max has input here, I'd love to hear it.

- The staff member at D&G who was running the wood evaporator was not very kid tolerant so we didn't spend much time there. Guess I won't be buying one of them.

In summary a great weekend in VT with lots of great equipment, producers and sales people alike. It would be much easier to compare all the rigs if pricing was readily available for everything. Rather than building one, pricing and comparing. Lapierre did offer to send me a price sheet for all sizes and options though I have not seen it yet.I give the xtreme my vote, however my son Austin fell in love with the intensofire, my son Tristan the vortex and my wife just wishes I would stop researching and just buy something.. anything. I haven't told her yet that we took a detour and looked at some maple real estate this weekend too. Why tap out at 2000 where I am when the sky is the limit in northern VT.

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

I would go cdl or lap. leader is over rated, Ill repeat myself about 2010 boil off leader had there max pans boiled not much more than Lap maybe 30 gallons. so for the money i dont feel it. Lap force five would be at the top of my list then CDL I would have a hard time choosing.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I think the Intens-o-fire is the best arch on the market. They will boil extremely fast or slow them down and use them as a gasification.

[n8hutch]

I Vote CDL also. I went to the big 3 in Swanton & St. Albans Saturday. Talked to a few guys at leader & they were helpful. Went to lapierre and nobody even spoke to me. They were giving out Muggs however. Went to CDL last and I thought the guys there were the most Informed & the most helpful, also all quotes were typed and printed very clearly and totaled up on company paper. The quotes at leader were hand written and confusing at best. Not to mention they were significantly cheaper at CDL and it would be pretty hard to argue that the quality is inferior. While I am partial to Made in America its pretty hard to pay 10 to 20% more for something that will do the same thing. Maybe A little better, maybe not.

[briansickler]

Hey Justin,

I agree with your son, Austin. I ordered our new CDL Intensofire Saturday at my local dealer's open house. It's a 2.5 x 10. He stated max evap rate on forced draft mode is 125 gph. Early order 10% off. $19,854 net price. I should receive it sometime in September.

I like the flexibility with the two modes of operation.

Time to get the tap count up......

Brian Sickler