Struggle with new filter press

[tgormley358]

After last season a 150 taps I started to think I might need to upgrade from flat filtering to a filter press. I read a lot here about it and found a number of others like me with under 300 taps considering it. Everyone seems say it’s one of the best investments you’ve made, So I’ve been looking forward to it. I shopped around and went for a Smokey lake 7” stainless with the hand pump. My experience with it has been less than expected, and I don’t know how much to chalk up to inexperience vs I really and too small for it. This is a report of the headaches I’ve run into and things I apparently haven’t figured out.

With 200 taps this year, a 50gph water removal RO and 2x5 evaporator, I’m drawing an average of 5 gallons a night when sap is running. I have flat filtered that in past years in the same night of boiling, with the only headache the cleaning and drying of the filter materials. And although I have gotten very clear syrup, I have usually seen sediment in the bottom of my glass bottles. So that was my incentive. Since this setup is designed to filter 15-25 gallons on one set of papers, I have saved up my syrup from a few nights to filter all at once. I have gotten very clear syrup the first couple of times, better than my past with flat filters. But the cleanup is still a headache.

The biggest issue I’m having is getting clear syrup quickly during recirculating. The last two times it has taken me 50-100 hand pumps to get clear, and today I only got 5 gallons clear before the pumping got very hard and I had to take the press apart and start over. On the second try I thought maybe the difficulty pumping was because I used too much DE, so I started with 7 cups instead of 8. Much easier, but I gave it maybe 50 pumps and never got clear. So I added more DE, and kept trying for another 1-2 hours before giving up and had to resort to my old flat filter system to finish up, and even that came out poorly which I’m guessing is due to the DE in the syrup. Smokey lake says to use 8 cups of DE, which I mix in my 4.5 gallon warning pan. Smokey Lake says it should only take a few minutes to get
Clear syrup.

I’ll call them tomorrow and see if they have any ideas. Am I making some
Newbie mistakes, from what I’ve shared so far?

[wiam]

There are different grades of DE. Did you get yours from a maple dealer? That seems like a lot for your initial batch. I use about that much to coat the papers on my 10” with 16 papers in about 8 gallons.

[Russell Lampron]

Ahh the plate filter press! The filter press is probably the most frustrating piece of equipment in the sugar house. There isn't much information out there on how to use one and that information is vague at best.

From my experience the most important thing is to only use filter aid from a maple supplier.

The next very important thing is to heat your syrup to 200* or higher. Smoky Lake has a video on YouTube that says not to heat your syrup to more than 190* because nitre will precipitate out if the temperature is over 193*. That info is partly true because nitre will precipitate out if you're heating the syrup but not true when it's cooling. The goal is to have the syrup coming out of the press above 180* so that it sterilizes the container that you're filling.

The third thing is properly charging the press with the right amount of filter aid. For a 7" short bank press that should be 2 or 3 cups mixed into 2 gallons of syrup. Pump the syrup and filter aid mixture through the press and back into the container that the mixture was in until all of the syrup in the container is clean. Return the remaining syrup to the batch to be filtered to get it back up to temperature.

Now reheat the syrup to be filtered to 200* or higher and add the filter aid to it that will be required for the amount of syrup to be filtered. The amount needed will be about 1/3 of a cup per gallon. That amount will vary depending on how dirty the syrup is. Use more for dirtier syrup. If you're unsure how much filter aid to use it's better to use more than less.

[DrTimPerkins]

In addition to Dave's excellent (as usual) advice, when the pumping became difficult and you broke down the press was the press full or was there still lots of space left for more DE? That'll help to diagnose your DE addition rate. MOST often people do not use enough DE and need to add more.

[UB29]

I purchased the same 7" SL press 2 years ago. I did however, get it with the air diaphragm pump (arm saver).
Had very similar clarity issues to yours initially; but stumbled across one very simple problem and an easy solution. When you load the papers, plate by plate....peek into the two plate windows as you load and make sure the hole in the papers are perfectly aligned with the window holes. Also sticking a finger into the hole helps with alignment. It is possible, as I found out, to have a paper pushed off to one side just a touch, enabling a leak to bypass that plate. And there's your cloudy syrup.
On DE quantity. We usually hold syrup until we have 10-15 gal. batches for bottling. Initially charge the press with 4 cups for the first 5 gallons or so. Next 5 gal. we add 2 more cups DE...and so on. That press is rated for 9 cups max. of DE.
After sorting out my alignment issue, and fine tuning the DE, we see crystal clear syrup every time and love the Smoky Lake press.
Hope the above helps.

Thanks, Bill

[NhShaun]

It sounds like you are using a little too much DE but if that's what the manufacturer suggests then there may be another problem. I have a wesfab filter press with the guzzler hand pump. I had already purchased a different hand pump from another project that had the upgraded pump handle and cage to keep the stroke straight, especially under pressure. i swapped it out and noticed it made it a lot easier to pump syrup through the press, saving my arm and the diaphragm from wearing out when pump under a lot of pressure.
That extra expense may not be justified or necessary since you just bought this unit. Perhaps you may end up with an electric or gear pump and can jump right out of the hand pump options.

Here is the pump
https://thebosworthco.com/products/p...eid=GH-0400N-5

[Russell Lampron]

Another thing that I didn't mention is that you need to know how many cups of filter aid your press will hold. To calculate that, measure the length, the width and the depth of the inside of a frame to find how many cubic inches it will hold (L x W x D = CI). One cup equals 14.438 cubic inches. Divide the cubic inches of one frame by 14.438 then multiply that by the number of frames to find the number of cups to fill it. The 10" press that I used this season had frames that measured 9" long, 9" wide and 2" deep, 9x9x2 which equals 162 cubic inches. Divide that by 14.438, 162÷14.438 which equals 11.22 cups. The press had 7 frames so the capacity was 78.5 cups.

I used 9 cups to charge the 10" press which left 69.5 cups capacity of usable space in the press. I used 3 cups of filter aid per approximately 10 gallons of syrup and was able to get about 200 gallons through the press on a set of papers. On one boil I filled 4 "He Man" 55 gallon barrels and when I broke the press down I found that I may have been able to get another 20 gallons through it.

The way to see how you're doing with filter aid usage is to examine the filter aid cakes when you break the press down. If the cakes are slimy and thin you're not using enough. If you're filling the frames before you get the capacity of the press through it you're using too much. Using the above formulas you can figure the capacity of your press out how many gallons of syrup you should be able to get through it on a set of papers.

[RC Maple]

I was reading old posts looking for info on this press. I also have the same 7" SL press with a hand pump. I have gotten to run 6 batches of syrup through it, so I'm pretty new at it. The first 5 batches were between 2 and 5 gallons. Since the book that comes with the press says you should be able to get between 5 and 8 gallons filtered per frame, I had been using one frame with the shortener plate. I made very clear syrup each time but the pumping was hard for each batch - too hard. Since those frames are said to hold 3.25 cups of DE, I had used between 2.5 and 3.25 cups per batch. I had gotten some good advice to go ahead and use 2 frames on all but the smallest of batches. The last batch I did was 3 gallons. I used 2 frames with the shortener plate and 6.5 cups of DE in the batch. I made great looking syrup and that was the easiest 3 gallons of syrup I have filtered. I did think that the second frame only had a 1/4" layer on each side and could hold more DE.

It seems everyone posting about DE usage has their own formula that works for them. The recommendation for the press is to use 3.25 cups of DE per frame. Does anyone just take that number and go with it? I think that's what I will do when I do my first batch next year.

[shedhunter]

Suspended niter was terrible this year and after struggling with cone filter again, I gave up and bought SL hand pump press as well. I agree it was kind of hard to pump but I think it was just the syrup. My biggest struggle was having only 3 gallon pot, so by the time I finished next 3 gallons to density, the press had cooled off. Second pass was way harder until about 2/3 way through. Thinking I need canner/bottler now so I can do several batches and then check density before bottling. I went with 1/2 cup of DE per gallon and that seemed to be working ok. Getting expensive to give syrup away.

[Pdiamond]

I have the SL hand pump filter press and the steam bottler/filter canner. I don't remember the book saying that, but when I add my DE to the syrup to be filtered I usually add about 3/4 to a cup per gallon. I have found that if I have multiple batches to do right away place a towel over the filter press to help it stay warm. If there is going to be any kind of a time lapse I run hot water thru the filter press and get out any remaining syrup. Then I have another bucket to catch the water syrup mixture, which I will boil off later. Once you start getting clear water you are good to go for the next batch, just reverse the cleaning steps when you start filtering syrup/