Coffee urn, bucket vacuum filter

[fisheatingbagel]

Here's my vacuum filter made from a coffee urn and a 13 quart stainless bucket I bought off Amazon. The bucket is tapered and provides a tight seal with the urn. I use a prefilter to further seal between them, but I don't think it's necessary.

My process is:
1) finish syrup on evaporator, maybe a bit over syrup
2) draw off and pre-filter, store until later
3) bring to proper density and temperature on turkey fryer, add water or reduce as necessary
4) add about 1/4 cup filter aid per gallon of syrup, and mix well
5) pour in filter, turn on vacuum

Depending on niter content, it takes between 5 and 10 minutes to run ~2 gallons through the filter. The best part is almost no syrup is wasted compared to cone filters. It's also easy to swap used filter disc with a clean one.

A couple of observations. When using filter aid, the felt pad isn't really necessary, but I have nothing else available to contain the filter aid. It would be better to use something that just restrained the filter aid, like a paper bag (with same paper as filter press use?). I don't know if a pre-filter would contain filter aid. Has anyone tried. I suspect they aren't dense enough.

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[n8hutch]

Very nice. That looks way ahead of a gravity setup.

[HondoLane]

Can we see some pictures of the urn side of it? The vacuum hookup, clamps?

Also. Can you put the link for what bucket from Amazon you used.

Great build!

[fisheatingbagel]

Thanks...

Here's the bucket from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The clamps are unnecessary for the bucket. I put them on the urn last year when I tried using a different pot on top that didn't work out. The tapered bucket sits in the urn tightly.

And here's the vacuum connection I made to the urn. It's a piece of 1 1/4" conduit epoxied in place. Not ideal, but the connection is above where the syrup is so it never comes in contact. A better solution would be to use a piece of aluminum tubing and weld it in place, but I couldn't find any 1 1/4" aluminum. On the urn side of the tubing, I cut it and folded it over the end so effectively the end of the tube points down. I don't know if this is necessary, but thought it would help keep any syrup from getting sucked into the vacuum. I haven't had a problem with that, although the vacuum hose does get some condensation inside. I can post a picture of the end of the tube if anyone is interested.
vacuum.jpg

Update: Here's a link to the coffee urn I'm using, although I didn't buy it on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Proctor-Silex.../dp/B075XTDJR1

[HondoLane]

That’s some great info! Thanks

[mol1jb]

Did you drill out the bottom of the stainless pan or does it come like that?

[fisheatingbagel]

I just drilled a bunch of holes :-)

Another thing regarding this particular bucket I used. The bottom has an angle that transitions to the side of the bucket, and I deliberately didn't drill this area, keeping it as an area where the filter pad can seal tight against the bucket when a vacuum is applied.

[fisheatingbagel]

I just ordered some filter press papers to try. Once I try it, I'll post back!

[fisheatingbagel]

Okay, so I received my filter press papers and tried them this weekend. After cutting them into circles to fit in the bottom of the bucket, I wet them so they would conform to the taper on the bottom of the bucket. They seem to work as well as the orlon pads, but the best part is not having to wash them afterwards.

I was able to filter about a gallon at a time using between 1/4 and 1/2 DE. Any more than this and the filter would clog completely. I also managed to burn up my shop vac by not letting it run for a bit to cool off after filtering. I think a real vacuum pump with less CFM but more static pressure would work better.