If you have a float box, can your pre heat the sap?
Later this year, my new pan and float box will arrive. I will set something up to have my head tank, at least 2 feet above the float box.
Is there a way to preheat the sap for a float box if you do not have a raised pre heat pan that feeds it?
I debated adding two bulkheads, with fittings, to a pot, one on top side of a pot and one near the bottom side of the pot, and have the feed pipe coiled in the pot. I would boil water in the pot on an induction stove.
Thanks
2022 - 5 pan block arch - 109 taps, 73 on 3/16 lines, 36 on drops into 5 gallon pails.
930 gallons boiled, 109 L (28.8 gals) of delicious syrup made.
DYI Vacuum Filter
2023 - 170 taps, mostly on lines, 1153 gallons boiled, 130 L (34.34 gals) of delicious syrup made, on a 2x4 divided pan and base stack, 8” pipe, on a block arch that boiled at a rate of 13 gallons per hour.
2024 - made 48 L, December to March, primarily over two fire bowls.
Bump
I am still interested in what others do to preheat their sap prior to entering the float box, if you do not have a raised preheat pan?
2022 - 5 pan block arch - 109 taps, 73 on 3/16 lines, 36 on drops into 5 gallon pails.
930 gallons boiled, 109 L (28.8 gals) of delicious syrup made.
DYI Vacuum Filter
2023 - 170 taps, mostly on lines, 1153 gallons boiled, 130 L (34.34 gals) of delicious syrup made, on a 2x4 divided pan and base stack, 8” pipe, on a block arch that boiled at a rate of 13 gallons per hour.
2024 - made 48 L, December to March, primarily over two fire bowls.
Gary - many people use a coil around the stack to preheat sap going from the head tank to the float box. Words of caution...
make sure it is sized appropriately to keep up with feed flow needed and that you don't overheat it and turn it to steam and choke the flow to your evap. Also, I know many people use copper tubing, but would recommend stainless for multiple reasons (cleanliness, corrosion resistance, non leaching etc).
I used to use this approach and it worked well.
Last year I changed to a head tank that sits elevated on my arch behind my flue pan and on the way to the exhaust stack which is immediately behind this tank. I feed from my RO into that tank and it preheats there before moving to float box. I run my RO into the tank at approximately the same rate I am boiling off at and try to keep it at about 6 inches of depth for consistency to heat, but it holds 13.8 gallons so I have plenty of margin.
I am on nat gas so I can shut down quickly when that tank is nearly empty (and have a level sensor that automates this shutoff). For wood, you would need to monitor that type of setup closely and have a bucket of water handy of necessary. You can't run this setup with that tank empty....ever.
D. Roseum
www.roseummaple.com
~100 taps on 3/16 custom temp controlled vacuum; shurflo vacuum #2; custom nat gas evap with auto-drawoff and tank level gas shut-off controller; homemade RO #1; homemade RO #2; SL SS filter press
2021: 27.1 gallons
2022: 35 gallons
I was originally thinking about wrapping a pipe around the stack, but was worried that the sap might stall there, if the float box did not allow it to pass, thereby scorching the sap in the tubes.Originally Posted by DRoseum
I will have to see how I could do an elevated pan behind my divided pan, on a cinder block arch.
I still think my boiling water idea has merit, as I could get the sap pretty hot without boiling it. I would have to keep adding water to the pot.
2022 - 5 pan block arch - 109 taps, 73 on 3/16 lines, 36 on drops into 5 gallon pails.
930 gallons boiled, 109 L (28.8 gals) of delicious syrup made.
DYI Vacuum Filter
2023 - 170 taps, mostly on lines, 1153 gallons boiled, 130 L (34.34 gals) of delicious syrup made, on a 2x4 divided pan and base stack, 8” pipe, on a block arch that boiled at a rate of 13 gallons per hour.
2024 - made 48 L, December to March, primarily over two fire bowls.
Is something like this, with the preheat pan above the divided pan and dripping into the divided pan, better than having the feed tank feeding a float box?
https://share.icloud.com/photos/048v..._GlByXatRZLNKg
https://share.icloud.com/photos/013z...ZM2vIJ7--Gm8aw
Thanks
2022 - 5 pan block arch - 109 taps, 73 on 3/16 lines, 36 on drops into 5 gallon pails.
930 gallons boiled, 109 L (28.8 gals) of delicious syrup made.
DYI Vacuum Filter
2023 - 170 taps, mostly on lines, 1153 gallons boiled, 130 L (34.34 gals) of delicious syrup made, on a 2x4 divided pan and base stack, 8” pipe, on a block arch that boiled at a rate of 13 gallons per hour.
2024 - made 48 L, December to March, primarily over two fire bowls.
Many people use this approach and it works pretty well.. however I'd still use a float because it actually keeps the right feed flow going for you automatically. The trickle approach is gauged by sight and that can be tough to get just right due to impaired visuals in all the steam and the limitations of matching the flow thru a valve to what your evaporation rate is (and as it fluctuates).
The pan above with trickle will preheat your sap a little and you could always feed from that into a float box. Lots of options.
D. Roseum
www.roseummaple.com
~100 taps on 3/16 custom temp controlled vacuum; shurflo vacuum #2; custom nat gas evap with auto-drawoff and tank level gas shut-off controller; homemade RO #1; homemade RO #2; SL SS filter press
2021: 27.1 gallons
2022: 35 gallons
Thanks, I am discussing some options with my pan maker.
Last edited by Swingpure; 06-18-2022 at 05:03 PM.
2022 - 5 pan block arch - 109 taps, 73 on 3/16 lines, 36 on drops into 5 gallon pails.
930 gallons boiled, 109 L (28.8 gals) of delicious syrup made.
DYI Vacuum Filter
2023 - 170 taps, mostly on lines, 1153 gallons boiled, 130 L (34.34 gals) of delicious syrup made, on a 2x4 divided pan and base stack, 8” pipe, on a block arch that boiled at a rate of 13 gallons per hour.
2024 - made 48 L, December to March, primarily over two fire bowls.
Are you planning on having a steam hood? I put a 25ft copper coil in my steam hood then feed that into my float box. This has worked great for me. I did have the pipe on the stack before the hood but was always worried about the scorching. now I don't have to worry and my sap usually runs about 110 deg.
2013 25 taps 2.5 gallons
2014 60 taps 9.5 gallons
2015 12 x 16 sugar shack 200 taps 1500' 5/16 lines gravity. Home made arch, 2 x 3 pan and 18" x 24" steam pan.
2016 2 x 5 Smokey Lake hybrid pan. Custom steam hood and float box. Number of taps yet to be determined.
2017 Made 27 gallons. Added 60 taps on 3/16 lines.
2018 Adding more 3/16 lines. Made 55 gallons
2019 Added 4 totes for sap storage. Big shack upgrades.
With a steam hood on my back pan I made 3 different pre-heaters over the years, all before the float box. My last one had slightly over 40' of copper tubing under the hood. As it flowed into the float box I had a thermometer. This was on a 3x8 evaporator, the incoming sap ran about 170F unless my auto draw was open, drawing syrup. In that case the temperature dropped to between 110-120F because the flow thru the copper was too fast to get the full heat.
On earlier ones I had no thermometer to see how effective it was.
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.
What size copper pipe did you use? What size was the inlet of your float box?
If the copper pipe was smaller than your float box inlet, was there any concern of not being able to supply sap to the float box quick enough especially when your auto draw was open?
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