New press is passing DE 😡

[Thyfishingman]

Sounds like your ratio of DE is good. Did you do a good mix/stir of the DE with the syrup before pumping anything? Maybe ran the air pump too fast? Don't give up, we make about the same syrup as you each year and our 7" press is the best investment made to date! You will swear by it once its figured out.

We had it figured out so we thought , the first batch was the easiest filtering we have done beautiful syrup we all had big dopey grins on our faces we where looking forward to the same on Saturday so we had an audience after talking about it and others wanted to see it in action. That added to the frustration when the problems occurred. We wont give up we just don't have very much press time in yet so troubleshooting for us is just guessing at whats wrong.

[Haynes Forest Products]

Recirculating for 10 minutes doesn't help anything unless your using it to mix your DE and I dont think it helps. Just run it to warm up pump and hoses and then get to mixing DE and filtering.

[Thyfishingman]

we had same problem with our smoky lake press although you cant put plates in wrong you can put end plate on 180 degrees off make sure hole is on bottom on end plate. With end plate on right or rotated 180 degrees you cant tell if its on right or wrong thats why we have stamped our end plate "THIS SIDE UP" on top of end plate.

I think you nailed it had the last plate upside down was not aware you could turn the end-plate upside down forcing dirty syrup into the clean side of the press. Finding the problem is 90% of solving it.
Thanks Wolf
Jeff

[maple flats]

Maybe next time you want to use it 3 or 4 times before calling in an audience. I copied this from another thread, it may help. Draw off about 2-3 gal for a new set of papers, add about 2 cups DE,then I mix it well using a long whip (traditionally used to whip potatoes but this one is over 24" long). Then I start the pump and recirculate back into my mixing tank for a minute or so. Then I start sending it thru the filter and still return it to my mixing tank until the filtered syrup hose is sparkely clear, then I turn it back to recirculate with no filtration, move the hose to either the bottler or a SS barrel. Then I open the filtering valve and close the recirculation valve. When that has been pumped I draw about 6-6.5 gal more, add 1.5 cups DE, mix and then sent the filtered syrup to where the first batch went. After the first coating of the papers, you can mix the next batches and then send directly to where you want. I do all of these without shutting the pump off. I have at times noticed the sudden surge of starting the pump can result in some DE being momentarily pushed thru to your finished syrup, so I leave the pump running until I either run out of syrup to filter or the destination is full. Each time I restart after shutting down I do a recirculation step. I no longer have a short bank, mine has grown to a 5 bank, but the only change I did when I expanded it was the amount of DE I used. I think when it was a 3 bank 7" I used 1.25-1.5 cups DE and then the next batch was just 1 cup DE.
If you use more DE than necessary it will not hurt, if you use too little it will plug the papers much sooner.

[Wolfcreek Maple]

Thyfishingman your welcome glad i could help.

[Haynes Forest Products]

What am I missing here. The only way any dirty syrup can get from the chamber plate into the waffle plate is a compromised filter paper. I have installed them improperly and made a mess but it was correctable so check you papers

[Wolfcreek Maple]

the paper is not compromised when the end plate on the smoky lake press is rotated 180 degrees the outlet hole has no backing ,the only backing is the waffle pattern, so the syrup with takes path of least resistance. If i knew how to upload photos it would make it very obvious.

[maple flats]

What am I missing here. The only way any dirty syrup can get from the chamber plate into the waffle plate is a compromised filter paper. I have installed them improperly and made a mess but it was correctable so check you papers

Haynes, most presses are made so the end plate is not aligned well at all if it were flipped 180, it sounds like it must be the SL is different in that respect.

[Haynes Forest Products]

That makes sense. I see all sorts of places people put their presses and placement is crucial. I'm a big proponent of making the cleaning process as easy as possible. I have my press on a SS counter that has a built in sink. I clean mine in place so I never remove my end plate. In reality you don't need to remove the waffle plate for cleaning because they are clean.

Now I will admit the older I get the more little notes are put around my shack with a Sharpie. Get a angle grinder and put a big X on the end plate.

[Wolfcreek Maple]

Image of press end plate for Smoky Lake Press

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