Evaporator Room Build

[DaveB]

I have the exciting opportunity to build a brand new evaporator room, hopefully starting with the 2026 season. I've been boiling for the past 15 years in 12'x16' sugarhouse that is currently a 30 minute drive away so not very convenient. My operations are expanding in our new home/area and my son wants to help us expand. I already have a 12'x16' commercial kitchen space here that we will handle all the packing and has space for an RO. I'm looking to add a room onto that structure that will house just the evaporator.

I currently have a 2'x6' evaporator but I'd like to size the room for a 3'x10' evaporator that I would eventually have. I know they say build bigger, but I'm thinking of a 16'x20' room. That would give me 5' of room on one side and 8' on the draw-off side, 3' on the stack side and 7' in front. I don't plan on a lot of visitors but if we did I think I would increase the length of the room to 24' so I'd have over 10' in front.

I'm planning on having a concrete floor with trenches and metal grate drains. I've read that it's not a good idea to use schedule 40 PVC pipe as it will warp with hot water but I'm thinking the water would be cool enough in a concrete trench before hitting the pipe.

Does all that sound reasonable? I'll have some other design questions but for now, I'm trying to pin down the floor space because I'll need to put that down before I know it.

[maple flats]

My 3x8 had a rear cleanout door to help get the flues clean, 3' will mean you would need a sectional handle, I had to do that and it was a chore and I had 4 feet between the rear of the evaporator, thus 2 sections. It would have been much better with more room at the rear of the arch. cleaning flues from the front is much harder because of the distance before you get to the flue pan. I suggest you visit some sugargouses with 10' long arches, and see what they suggest. The sides, just plan out what equipment will be there and how much extra space does it need.
My sugarhouse is only 16x24 and I planned the evaporator footing for a 3x8. What I didn't realize was how much room would be needed for some things. AS I enter the sugarhouse man door, on the left I have 6' of built in shelves, then a chest freezer, a chest type fridge, 6' of cpunter with a 225 A electric panel on the wall over the counter then 6' of RO room. Then across the back it's 2 double hinged doors. Then up the other side is my filter press, then my water jacketed bottler, then a 2x6 finisher (which because of the tube burners fills almost 8' length, then a counter to the corner. Over this counter is a large inverter for solar, and an electric panel for the solar portion, battery backup. The battery bank is mounted on the outside wall. Then on the last wall leading to the man door just before the corner is all counter and sink with a tankless water heater over the sink. finally there is about 28" open, my RO is on 4 wheels and when using it, I roll it and park it in that space. To put it mildly I failed to realize how much space I needed, While I was running a wood fired 3x8, I was able to keep the space around the evaporator passable, it's quite crowded. Also over the counter to the right of my sink is where my solar comes into the sugarhouse. There I have an 80A charge controller, A solar breaker box, a electric meter recording the KWH generated by the grid tied portion of my solar. I have a dual system, 4840 watts of grid tied only (But I can use as much as I need, unless the grid goes down, which in 13 yrs so far I only had one time of about 30-45 minutes when it went out. My battery back-up solar is 1480 watts, it charges the battery bank and then sends all excess power to the grid, if the grid goes down it instantly runs off the battery bank.
Also, next to the double doors outside the sugarhouse I have a small bulk propane tank. Off that I have about 14' of 3/4" black pupe for propane with take offs for an old propane fired bottler, (now gone) and a weed burner torch, used for lighting the evaporator, at the far end of the finisher I have 3 propane take-offs, one goes up into the trusses , across to the font corner, down and it fires a small no electric needed propane wall furnace. From about the same spot where that propane furnace line branches off the 3/4" main, I have a valve fueling the 2x6 finisher and a valve fueling the tankless wather heater and 1 spare valve, just in case.
As you can see I should have built my sugarhouse 20x30 or even 24x36, but back when I was burning a 2x6 wood fired evaporator and didn't have all of the extras it seemed plenty large.
All I'm suggesting is that you plan better than I did. Over the 23 yrs since I built the sugarhouse I've drawn out a few sets of plans for a kitched addition, but it never happened. Now at 78 I've cut back to a 2x6, converting it to oil fired and I just can't see an addition ever happening at this point, it's easier to build it right the first time rather than trying to build addition after addition as more room is needed.

[DaveB]

Thanks Dave for the thoughts. Adding additional space behind the evaporator sounds like a good idea. I also like the walk through...I can see it in my mind!

Overall my complete sugarhouse would be 28'x36' if I added on a 16'x20' evaporator room onto my existing 12'x16' commercial kitchen room so it sounds like I'm track but I might shift things a little bit to provide more room at the back of the evaporator.

[TapTapTap]

I have a 16x24 evaporator room for my wood-fired 30"x10' and it is a little tight but workable. If you're wood-fired then you'll need more space for a cart of some kind. And it's likely to be the same area as the filter press, canner, and a couple of drums. We now have a steam-away which uses up the roughly 8 ft off one side to remove it and clean. The draw-off side is also cluttered with the syrup tank, DE, and the draw-off person - there's very little room left for others to pass behind.

If I was to build it again I would add another 2 ft in both directions.

Ken

[DaveB]

I have a 16x24 evaporator room for my wood-fired 30"x10' and it is a little tight but workable. If you're wood-fired then you'll need more space for a cart of some kind. And it's likely to be the same area as the filter press, canner, and a couple of drums. We now have a steam-away which uses up the roughly 8 ft off one side to remove it and clean. The draw-off side is also cluttered with the syrup tank, DE, and the draw-off person - there's very little room left for others to pass behind.

If I was to build it again I would add another 2 ft in both directions.

Ken

Thanks Ken. I appreciate the insight.

I was planning on stacking wood along the 16' wall in front of the evaporator. That should be more than I would need for every boiling session so I wouldn't have to worry about a cart while I'm boiling. I also don't have to worry about the canning unit and filter because I'm planning on doing that i the other room. But, I am thinking of going with a slightly room based on the feedback. Even if I don't have equipment, I'd want room for visitors.

[TapTapTap]

Thanks Ken. I appreciate the insight.

I was planning on stacking wood along the 16' wall in front of the evaporator. That should be more than I would need for every boiling session so I wouldn't have to worry about a cart while I'm boiling. I also don't have to worry about the canning unit and filter because I'm planning on doing that i the other room. But, I am thinking of going with a slightly room based on the feedback. Even if I don't have equipment, I'd want room for visitors.

I have a sliding barn door at the 16' end of my room (front of evaporator). Then I have a 20x21 woodshed where I store/dry my wood, handle/store empty and filled barrels, acid wash filled barrels, and sometimes an ATV. I use a six-wheeled cart to run wood into the sugarhouse (spins around 360 deg). I don't think you'll want to store wood inside: 1) messy and dusty, 2) floor gets all wet during washing, and 3) reduces your work space and wall space for shelving and stuff, 4) sixteen foot wall is not likely be not enough wood storage once you upgrade to the 3x10.

For the canning and filtering, you will probably want to at least fill the canner and work the press at the end near the draw-off. That way you'll be able to manage the drawoff and the filtering from one location. Normally an operation with a 3x10 would be set up this way as opposed to batching light syrup and then finishing/filtering later which might be your current process.

I also built my sugarhouse with concrete footings/frostwall/slab. Then when I built the frost walls I made them an additional 12" higher than the concrete floor. That allows me to wash down the floor without water and sweet seeping into the stud wall. The stud walls are 8 above the wall which also gives me more headroom and i'm using every inch of my total 9'0" floor to collar tie space to remove the steam-away. As for the roof, I have a 12/12 pitch with a large doored cupola over the full evaporator length. We recently sealed off the doors above the flue pan when we went to the steam-away. We have an open top syrup pan.

Ken

[DaveB]

I have a sliding barn door at the 16' end of my room (front of evaporator). Then I have a 20x21 woodshed where I store/dry my wood, handle/store empty and filled barrels, acid wash filled barrels, and sometimes an ATV. I use a six-wheeled cart to run wood into the sugarhouse (spins around 360 deg). I don't think you'll want to store wood inside: 1) messy and dusty, 2) floor gets all wet during washing, and 3) reduces your work space and wall space for shelving and stuff, 4) sixteen foot wall is not likely be not enough wood storage once you upgrade to the 3x10.

That's really good info. How much wood do you burn on a given day?

I currently stack my wood along an 8' corner of my sugarhouse about 5' high. I bring in additional wood to "reset" the stack before I fire up the evaporator. I find it's not that bad to manage. I'll use about half the stack after about 5-10 hours of boiling. I was thinking a 16' wall could hold a cord of wood. I see your point though and could have a cart that I could bring wood in on and have the rest as open space.

For the canning and filtering, you will probably want to at least fill the canner and work the press at the end near the draw-off. That way you'll be able to manage the drawoff and the filtering from one location. Normally an operation with a 3x10 would be set up this way as opposed to batching light syrup and then finishing/filtering later which might be your current process.

My current sugarhouse is located 30-40 minutes away from what I call my packing house. That's the commercial kitchen that I plan on adding on to. I draw my syrup off into a round vacuum filter and filter each drawoff after checking the density with a digital hydrometer. I then use a diaphragm pump to pump it to a 15 gallon keg. I then bring the kegs back to the packing house and pump it into the canning unit to be packed. I'm thinking I could pump my syrup directly into the canning unit in the other room and packing from there. I can either put it in smaller containers or fill a keg for later processing.

How large are your drawoff's? I'm hoping my drawoff tank is large enough.

I also built my sugarhouse with concrete footings/frostwall/slab. Then when I built the frost walls I made them an additional 12" higher than the concrete floor. That allows me to wash down the floor without water and sweet seeping into the stud wall. The stud walls are 8 above the wall which also gives me more headroom and i'm using every inch of my total 9'0" floor to collar tie space to remove the steam-away. As for the roof, I have a 12/12 pitch with a large doored cupola over the full evaporator length. We recently sealed off the doors above the flue pan when we went to the steam-away. We have an open top syrup pan.

Ken

You bring up a really good idea about the frost wall. That's something that I hadn't thought of. I'm currently working out rafters and the overall height and was thinking about having enough room to lift pans and hoods. I'm planning on running steam exhaust pipes into a cupola.

[TapTapTap]

That's really good info. How much wood do you burn on a given day?

I burned about 2-1/2 full cords this year with 10 boils. Our total production was down this year to 509 gallons. My boils range from about 2 to 4 hours each. I concentrate to about 13 to 14% with a single pass on my CDL1200 with two 8-in-dia posts. The steam-away has cut my wood consumption by at about 1/3.

I currently stack my wood along an 8' corner of my sugarhouse about 5' high. I bring in additional wood to "reset" the stack before I fire up the evaporator. I find it's not that bad to manage. I'll use about half the stack after about 5-10 hours of boiling. I was thinking a 16' wall could hold a cord of wood. I see your point though and could have a cart that I could bring wood in on and have the rest as open space.

It is nice to wheel the cart out when boiling is done. It provides a lot more space and makes it much easier to spray down the whole room for cleaning.

My current sugarhouse is located 30-40 minutes away from what I call my packing house. That's the commercial kitchen that I plan on adding on to. I draw my syrup off into a round vacuum filter and filter each drawoff after checking the density with a digital hydrometer. I then use a diaphragm pump to pump it to a 15 gallon keg. I then bring the kegs back to the packing house and pump it into the canning unit to be packed. I'm thinking I could pump my syrup directly into the canning unit in the other room and packing from there. I can either put it in smaller containers or fill a keg for later processing.

I'm not familiar with the digital hydrometer.

Most importantly- I would never leave a pump pushing syrup to a container in another room. I've lost plenty of syrup when I'm right there in the same room!

How large are your drawoff's? I'm hoping my drawoff tank is large enough.

That's a hard question to answer. In general, we don't quite draw-off continuously and we interrupt with the re-firing. If you measure the drawoff by firing intervals then we probably get about 5 to 7 gallons at a time of about 15 minutes. My syrup tank is a 40 gallon SS round bottom. I normally hold my first batch for filtering to about 10 gallons and once I've got the rig and the hot syrup density dialed in. Once I do the first batch, I'm generally building up to 5 gallons before filtering.

You bring up a really good idea about the frost wall. That's something that I hadn't thought of. I'm currently working out rafters and the overall height and was thinking about having enough room to lift pans and hoods. I'm planning on running steam exhaust pipes into a cupola.

If you're using rafters then plan your collar (sill) ties at least beyond your hoods to allow the most vertical clearance. This may require that you reinforce your top sill plate to span that length since you're probably running longer than standard practice. You should also be cautious on the rafter framing to allow the cupola opening. I just ran my rafters right through the opening. A header could also work but it gets tricky on a long span and needs to be considered with your collar tie spacing to assure a direct structural load path.

Ken