Maple Syrup Evaporator Home Made

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This is my new home built wood fired evaporator for making maple syrup. A low cost alternative to buying a pre-built one from a dealer. I fired it up to see how it will perform, boiled off about 12 gallons in 2 1/2 hours, enough to make over 1 quart of pure maple syrup. There are some detailed pics at the end of the video along with cost of materials in case anyone wants to build one.

UPDATE: This arch now boils 12 gallons per hour "gph" with a good mix of of soft and hardwood that is split down proper into wrist sized pieces.

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• home
• made
• sugar
• maple
• syrup
• wood
• fired
• evaporator
• fuel
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• tank
• drum
• arch
• how-to
• instruction
• miwilderness
• making maple syrup

[conantdog]

Sweet machine

I've been using two of those pans on a Double propane stove. Cost alot for for a couple gallons but it alot of fun.

[MiWilderness]

@conantdog Ya, propane is costly and it is a lot of fun making syrup. this one is pretty efficient given what it is.

Thanks for watching and for the feedback,

Roosevelt

[NHlocal]

First of all, thanks for posting the video, well done. That looks like a good low

cost evaporator. I didn't look at any of your other posts, did you follow up with

how the evaporator worked/held up over the sapping season? Brings back

memories of boiling sap with my Dad and brothers when we were all a WHOLE

lot younger (hahaha). What do you have for land/ trees to work with? I'm subscribing

to see your follow up this coming sapping season. Thanks again for the video.

Work safe.

NHlocal.

[MiWilderness]

@NHlocal I'm pretty sure I did follow up, but I got real busy once things got under way as I was going to school fulltime and sugaring 12-16 hours every 2 or 3 days as well. But, to sum it up, the evap held up fine, it boils about 12 gph, and I can finish right on it using the front pan. I can only do about 2-3 gallons though as the pans aren't quite deep enough for more.

[MiWilderness]

@NHlocal Drawback is sugar burned on the sides of the pans. It cuts down on the amount of end product. My sap was 2-3% but I was only getting results of 1.5-2% sap due to wasted/ burned sugar. I'd like to get a large flat pan, with a smaller front finishing pan, and a preheater. I bet it would evap at an even higher rate and I'd get more end product. The quality of the syrup was great though, failry light with only a few dark batches I beleive due to sap quality, folks liked dark best.

[MiWilderness]

@NHlocal Forgot to mention I just have about 15 trees that folks in the area let me tap. 30 taps in all

[NHlocal]

@MiWilderness That's a pretty good yield for 30 taps.

Thanks for the quick response. Looking forward to your

future posts :) :) :)

[MiWilderness]

@sebby42603 These are 4" deep steam table pans, full size. Which IIRC is 18x22". But, I'd recommend getting the 6" deep pans instead. You can get them from restaurant liqidators. Try Craigslist, that's where I found mine. These guys buy out failing restaurants and sell the stuff at discount.

If you could afford it and were planning on doing it every year I'd recommend buying a good pan with a draw off valve, and maybe even a preheat or finishing pan depending on how you want to go.

[sebby42603]

what size are your pans on your evaporator - what are they called- where did you get them?

[MiWilderness]

@phemmeke Thanks! Try, try again. Experimenting is what it's all about to me. i'll be making small changes next year to this one as well.