Reasonable/Acceptable GPH boil rate on a 2 x 5.5 with a steam hood?

[Pdiamond]

Sap Seeker
You should see this thing eat wood. I fire every 6 to 8 minutes with wrist size wood. If I happen to get a piece that is a little larger I can extend that to 10 minutes. Even with the high sides on the raised flues you really have to watch when you are checking for foaming so you don't get splashed with the sap as it jumps. It really is quite awesome to watch.

[woodguyrob]

Old County Road; We made about 5.25 gallons so not too bad hoping for more next year. Pretty happy with the Dauntless.

Interesting post here, others have mentioned fire more often w/less wood and that's exactly what I did the last two boils. Set timer on phone for 4 minutes then upped it to 4.5 minutes and each time about 7-10 sticks criss crossed... Literally sticks & branches maybe 1' to 1 3/4 inches and up to 18 inches long. Mostly pine and dry.

I've read soot will inhibit heat transfer, not sure how much, someone with a drop flue can probably chime. I know I'll be cleaning the bottom bottom (fireside) of my pan regularly next season. I had a thick layer on the bottom on the last boil.

[Old County Road]

Update on my boiling rate - on Saturday with smaller split and drier but not super dry wood I was averaging 25 gph. I had a good pile of very dry hardwood that I started using Sunday morning - but disaster struck in the form of a massive burn up in the flue pan.

I ended up with a blob of burnt syrup about the size of football above the flues and burnt syrup almost from end to end in the flues. I was doing my first draw off of the day - much later than I should have as the thermometer was reading 3 above boiling and then quickly climbed from there to 10 above boiling and the flow pretty much stopped. Mad dash to pour sap and hold down the float ensued. End result was a burnt and warped syrup pan and burnt flue pan with some warped flues. Lost probably 3 gallons of syrup and I am estimating 30 hours of time between lost boiling, disassembly, cleaning, and reassembly.

My main mistake was being distracted and not drawing off sooner. My new rule is going to be that if a visitor stops by I am throttleing way back. Having a hood on the flue pan was also a factor as I couldn't see what was going on in there - which was one of my fears of using a hood.

I am also going to use info I have read on this site post disaster and start my first draw off at 2 below boiling in order to try to get the gradient set up. I was clearly making syrup in the middle of the pan so I will have to avoid that again.

[pete3046]

I have one thought that might help. Do you a float box setup for your flue pan? If you are boiling at 25gph you really should consider a float to get your pan at 2" plus. A separate float from the flue to the syrup pan would also be helpful so that you could then maintain the depth in both pans separately.

Pete

Update on my boiling rate - on Saturday with smaller split and drier but not super dry wood I was averaging 25 gph. I had a good pile of very dry hardwood that I started using Sunday morning - but disaster struck in the form of a massive burn up in the flue pan.

I ended up with a blob of burnt syrup about the size of football above the flues and burnt syrup almost from end to end in the flues. I was doing my first draw off of the day - much later than I should have as the thermometer was reading 3 above boiling and then quickly climbed from there to 10 above boiling and the flow pretty much stopped. Mad dash to pour sap and hold down the float ensued. End result was a burnt and warped syrup pan and burnt flue pan with some warped flues. Lost probably 3 gallons of syrup and I am estimating 30 hours of time between lost boiling, disassembly, cleaning, and reassembly.

My main mistake was being distracted and not drawing off sooner. My new rule is going to be that if a visitor stops by I am throttleing way back. Having a hood on the flue pan was also a factor as I couldn't see what was going on in there - which was one of my fears of using a hood.

I am also going to use info I have read on this site post disaster and start my first draw off at 2 below boiling in order to try to get the gradient set up. I was clearly making syrup in the middle of the pan so I will have to avoid that again.

[fisheatingbagel]

Update on my boiling rate - on Saturday with smaller split and drier but not super dry wood I was averaging 25 gph. I had a good pile of very dry hardwood that I started using Sunday morning - but disaster struck in the form of a massive burn up in the flue pan.

I ended up with a blob of burnt syrup about the size of football above the flues and burnt syrup almost from end to end in the flues. I was doing my first draw off of the day - much later than I should have as the thermometer was reading 3 above boiling and then quickly climbed from there to 10 above boiling and the flow pretty much stopped. Mad dash to pour sap and hold down the float ensued. End result was a burnt and warped syrup pan and burnt flue pan with some warped flues. Lost probably 3 gallons of syrup and I am estimating 30 hours of time between lost boiling, disassembly, cleaning, and reassembly.

My main mistake was being distracted and not drawing off sooner. My new rule is going to be that if a visitor stops by I am throttleing way back. Having a hood on the flue pan was also a factor as I couldn't see what was going on in there - which was one of my fears of using a hood.

I am also going to use info I have read on this site post disaster and start my first draw off at 2 below boiling in order to try to get the gradient set up. I was clearly making syrup in the middle of the pan so I will have to avoid that again.

Sorry to hear about that. It's hard to keep focused when people stop by asking questions when you're trying to boil. I think it's a good idea to slow things down when you have visitors; less wood, more sap in the pan.

I'm not sure how your pan setup is, but with my Smoky Lake hybrid it's not possible to maintain separate levels in the sap and syrup pan - a big drawback. That's the compromise with a hybrid pan. If I was starting over I would go with separate syrup and sap pans.

[Old County Road]

Thanks gents - nothing I can do now but learn from it. It bums me out out that the previous owner probably boiled on this rig for 10 years with out burning the pans and I managed to do it after about 40 hours of boiling.

My flue pan does have a float box and the flue pan and syrup pan are separate. I possibly could set up a float box between the two pans and if I did I would but a sight level and possibly a thermometer in that box. I am not sure if a float box between the two pans would have helped in this situation though as I think it was more operator error than evaporator error.

I had the float set to keep 2" or so of depth but will most likely raise it to 2.5" for more of a safety margin. I also plan on doing a depth test with cold sap before I put the hood back on where I will open the drawoff into a 5 gallon bucket and then measure through out the flue and syrup pan to see if the float box supply is keeping up. I didn't have any issues (that I knew of) on Saturday when I boiled for 12 hours at roughly 25 gph and I looked in both sides of the flue box every 20 minutes or so to see if I had foaming (which I occasionally did and knocked back with defoamer). I think the main issue was that I boiled hard for about 3 hours Sunday morning before drawing off anything, that I waited to long after I saw the temp was coming up, and that I did not react quickly enough when the s#t hit the fan.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Just my $0.02 but I think another float box on a small pan setup is just another thing to monitor that really won't do much for you other than adding one more thing to keep an eye on. Defeating the purpose in my opinion. We run 1.5"-2" deep on our 2x6 and never had an issue. I'll even run it tighter when a long boil is in progress. I know they are a lot of money but one item that takes the operator error out and provides a safety net is an auto drawoff. It would have saved you in this case. We filter, bottle, drink beers and have a good time while boiling. Sure we keep an eye on it but once you know your evaporator and have the setup dialed in for the day they do the work for you. Sorry to hear about your pans, sounds like it was a bad one.

[Old County Road]

I tend to agree on the limited benefit and potential downside of adding a float in between the two pans - it would be one more thing to monitor and something that could also go wrong. An auto draw would be nice gizmo to have. If I had an oil fired rig I would definitely have it - but with the ritual of firing the evaporator I was in the habit of checking the temp routinely to see how much it dropped after firing. I really should have been more focused on the task at hand and not allowed myself to get distracted.

[motowbrowne]

I don't see how adding a float to the syrup pan is optional. If you have a drop flue setup, I don't think you can use a float between the pans. If you have a raised flue setup I don't think you'd want to operate without one.

[MapleMike]

I'm with Mainebackswoods, auto draw off is the single best investment I’ve made in this process. I have a wood fired 2x6 drop flue and the auto draw off takes all the stress away. Wish I bought it years sooner. I think the cold sap test your going to do is smart. Hopefully the pans clean up for you.