Has anyone tried hooking up multiple propane stoves instead of burning firewood? I have a small operation boiling about 120 gallons of sap in a 2x3 stainless steel pan for family use only. Is propane practical in this situation? Thanks.
Has anyone tried hooking up multiple propane stoves instead of burning firewood? I have a small operation boiling about 120 gallons of sap in a 2x3 stainless steel pan for family use only. Is propane practical in this situation? Thanks.
You can cook on gas, oil, or coal, I worked with a fellow years ago who burned every tire he could lay his hands on! But what about your "carbon footprint". Global atmospheric carbon is going to cause all sorts of huge problems. We shouldn't add to it for something like Maple syrup.
Sure Propane will work. I have a neighbor about the same scale as you and he uses a 5 burner propane system, He is also using a bucket R.O.
Keep boiling!
Regards,
Chris
Casbohm Maple and Honey
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I also use a 2 by 3 pan and before I built my arch I used 2 monster size LP burners it worked but after building my wood fired arch and boiling the first time I would never go back. The arch has way more horsepower, the boil completely fills the pan, it doesn't slow down because tanks are frosting up, and in my case is way cheaper because wood is free. I do use LP to finish for its convenience and control. jay
Zucker Lager
Back about 2004 -2005 VVS school (where the NYS maple conference in Jan used to be held) had an evaporator that burned propane, I think it was maybe a 3' or 40" or even a 4' wide x 8 or 10' long. That was using tube burners, like how 2x4, 2x5 and 2x6 finishers use. I've thought of converting my wood fired 3x8 to use propane tube burners. As I get older all of the fueling every 9 minutes gets old early in the season. I thought of going with oil fired but every one I've seen makes lots of noise, I like quiet..
Dave Klish, I recently ordered a 2x6 wood fired evaporator from A&A Sheet Metal which I will be converting to oil fired
Now have solar, 2x6 finish pan, 5 bank 7x7 filter press, large water jacketed bottler, and tankless water heater.
Recently bought another Gingerich RO, this one was a 125, but a second membrane was added thus is a 250, like I had.
After running a 2x3, a 2x6, 3x8 tapping from 79 taps up to 1320 all woodfired, now I'm going to a 2x6 oil fired and a 200-425 taps.
I cook over propane, I put two burners, 200,000btus each, under a 25x48 inch pan, on concrete blocks. All hooked to a 250G propane tank. This is my first year running it on the 250G tank. 2016 I ran each burner off two, 20G, tanks plumbed together. That got old fast. Lol I also added in a preheater pan to capture some of my waste heat exiting the system.
Pictures are the 2016 set up, it looks a bit different this year.
I have no desire to use wood for syrup as I heat my house with wood. I also think if you do an honest accounting of all the costs associated with wood, propane is cheaper.
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2013 15 Homemade Taps, Milk Jugs, Turkey Fryer, 3 Gallons Syrup
2014 Finishing my college degree, looked longingly at the Maples all spring
2015 26 1/2 Real taps, Milk Jugs, Homemade 20x25 pan on propane, 5+ Gallons Syrup
2016 50 Taps, Milk Jugs, Homemade 25x48 pan on propane block arch, 8 1/2 Gallons Syrup
2020 80 Taps, Milk Jugs, 25x48 pan on propane block arch w/preheater, 10 gallons syrup
I am currently boiling on propane as well. My first setup looked quite similar to Duncans above. Now I have a 2x4 SL continuous flow on top of 8 turkey frier burners. Defintely use an RO to make your life and pocket book easier. I'll finish the season with about 24 gallons of syrup with a propane (bulk cost) of about 400.
I have a homemade RO (aquatech pump one) which cuts the fuel bill in half.
SDdave
It's not the size of the tree...it's what inside that counts!
Looking to tinker with, build a RO for next year. Had a good run on the new set up, yesterday, hitting 14gph boil off rate. Looks like the preheater is helping.
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2013 15 Homemade Taps, Milk Jugs, Turkey Fryer, 3 Gallons Syrup
2014 Finishing my college degree, looked longingly at the Maples all spring
2015 26 1/2 Real taps, Milk Jugs, Homemade 20x25 pan on propane, 5+ Gallons Syrup
2016 50 Taps, Milk Jugs, Homemade 25x48 pan on propane block arch, 8 1/2 Gallons Syrup
2020 80 Taps, Milk Jugs, 25x48 pan on propane block arch w/preheater, 10 gallons syrup
Is burnt rubber one of the sample bottles in the off-flavour sample kit? I'd expect his pans were full of pinholes within a few seasons. We've been cautioned not to burn any plywood, pressure treated lumber of painted wood in our evaporator or the acidic smoke will eat away at the pans.
I know many small producers heat with propane. I understand the cost is quite high per gallon compared to if you can get "free" wood from your property, wooden skids, lumber cutoffs etc...
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I use both propane and wood. A 2x3 pan (filled with 8 gal sap) atop a converted wood fired oil tank and 4 buffet pans (filled with 2 gal each) on 4 propane turkey fryers. I fire them all up at the same time boiling about 16 gallons at the same time. As the level of sap in the 2x3 lowers, I empty the hot boiling buffet pans into the big pan, never losing the boil and keep refilling the buffet pans until I'm out of sap and then turn off the propane, and use the wood the rest of the process.
The way I see it is that the propane fryers act as both preheaters and also cook/boil at the same time increasing my gph time. I used to have a preheat pan on the wood stove but that only brought the sap temp to "hot", not boiling hot.
I only have 20 taps so do not get that much sap per day. A couple days ago I collected 20 gal sap one day and 25 gal the next. Boiled the 45 gal in one (long) day so am always looking for quicker ways of making syrup, short of getting an RO.
Thinking maybe next year.....fabricate 1 more wood fired oil tank evaporator (free firewood) with 2x3 pan and just 2 propane turkey fryers for preheater, and an RO. Cut my time in half and more. I can get tanks cheap and have two sons who weld.