Water jacket bottlers

[markct]

So I bought a water jacketed pan, it has a hole for a heat element and my plan is to put a smaller 120 volt element in to maintain temperature after heating it with a propane burner. I'm hoping to get away from sugar sand in glass that keeps haunting me. Do I need a thermometer in the water jacket and one into the syrup or is just in the syrup ok? I usually put a barrel into my finishing pan and filter thru my filter press after reheating and then try to use the burner very lightly to keep it warm, sometimes I win sometimes I lose and it's getting expensive in time washing rebottling and new caps. Also for those of you who use water jacket bottlers can you bottle from a filtered barrel without refiltering? I hate losing syrup in the filter every time I run already clean syrup thru the filter press.

[maple flats]

Just into the syrup. To keep away from the sugar sand just keep the temperature at 185-190 max. The electric can do that quite well. I'm not sure about using a propane flame under a WJ unit, check with the manufacturer. I wonder if the flame so close to the element, even though the element is in water, might somehow damage the element. I'm not saying it will, I just wonder. Whoever made the canner will need to answer that. Even a small element will get the whole contents to the right temp, as long as the t-stat is set right, it will just take more time than a bigger element.
Once you use a WJ canner you will never want to go back to propane fired.

[markct]

It's obviously made by a smaller shop not a production unit so on my own to sort it out, don't plan to have both on at the same time, just heat with propane then turn off the gas and use the electric to maintain temperature

[maple flats]

My concern is if the heat of the propane fire could harm the electric element, not with both running at that same time, but still in the intense heat of the propane fire under it. I do not know, I simply want to get some feedback from others.

[wiam]

Water jacket shouldn’t get over 212 no matter the heat source. Should not hurt the element. Pretty sure Thad used to heat his last water jacket with propane and electric to heat faster. If you don’t have a thermostat on the water how do you keep the syrup from overheating?

[markct]

As long as it's submerged in water it can't get over 212 so I'm not worried about that aspect.

[VT_K9]

We have a smaller water jacket unit which sits on a propane burner. It works great to maintain the temp, but not getting it there from cold. I would think if you wanted to combine an electrical element you would still need to make sure it stays submerged (same rules as for an electric hot water heater). The only concern or thought maybe influence or effect when the propane is in use. I think once you get the water up to temp you are good to go. I would likely boil the water on the side in another container then put it into the jacket and then activate the element once the element is submerged in the water. The only think I don't care for with the propane unit is the soot on the bottom of the jacket tank when the flame is turned down to maintain the temperature...just an extra mess when cleaning.

Mike

[Thad Blaisdell]

Water jacket shouldn’t get over 212 no matter the heat source. Should not hurt the element. Pretty sure Thad used to heat his last water jacket with propane and electric to heat faster. If you don’t have a thermostat on the water how do you keep the syrup from overheating?

I did use propane and electric on previous canner to speed up the process it worked ok. But nothing like using an oil boiler and circulator to heat up syrup. 60 gallons of syrup ready to can in under 60 min.

[markct]

That's an interesting idea, I wonder about using my tankless water heater to circulate the water. So far I have used my water jacket bottler with just the 2000 watt electric element and heated and filtered the syrup then poured it in, maintained temperature very well and much easier than my old one

[maple marc]

Several years ago I got a 6-gallon Smokey Lake water jacket canner. It's really fantastic. It's the electric model. The heating element has a dial thermostat. It's not digital, and there is a on-off range that is wider than I care for. A thermometer on the front of the canner reads the temperature of the syrup. When I first started using it I seemed to get a slight haze in my syrup occasionally. I decided to upgrade it with a digital thermostatically controlled switch on the heating element.

https://www.amazon.com/Dorkfood-Sous.../dp/B0088OTON4

It's great. It has a very narrow on-off range--I put the thermometer in the hole in the rear of the canner where you fill with water. You can hear the element cycling on and off, and it keeps my syrup at a precise temperature.