Refrigerated tank - Get working or just use ice?
I bought a 600 gallon insulated and refrigerated tank from a member here and have been planning on getting it up and running again. Plans were to get it up and running again with a new condensing unit but I wondering if it would be good enough to just float 5-gallon blocks of frozen sap. I have two large freezers in my basement for meat and I could easily fit 4 5-gallon buckets of sap in them, freeze them and just float the ice blocks in there the few times a year the temperature gets scary.
I lost a significant amount of sap this year due to high temps so if you think I'm better of getting this tank to cool again, I'm not opposed to it.
What say ye?
1980 - 6 taps, stone fire pit, drain pan evaporator, 1 pint of syrup
2016 - 55 taps on 3/16 and gravity, new sugar shack, 2x3 Mason XL, 16 gallons of syrup
2017 - 170 taps on 3/16, 2x4 Mason XL, NextGen RO. 50 gallons of syrup
2018 - 250+ taps on gravity and buckets, 2x5 Smokey Lake arch and Beaverland pan.
2019 - 250+ taps on gravity. A few buckets. 35 gallons of syrup.
2020 - 300+ taps on gravity. 50 gallons of syrup.
2021 - 280 taps on gravity and 40 buckets. 35 gallons of syrup.