This April, as usual, we cleaned our evaporator after the season ended. Processing nearly a half million gallons of sap will leave a little calcium in the rig! We alternate between food grade phosphoric acid and sodium hydroxide, along with many water rinses. One morning, after leaving the pans to soak overnight, we were surprised to wake up to an empty flue pan! Somehow during the season a hole developed in the bottom of the pan. It must have bridged with minerals during the season, but once we cleaned everything off it became exposed and leaked into the fire box. We’re still not sure how a hole like the one in the picture develops, but fortunately we were able to get some help from Firth Maple Products welding it back up. We installed four come alongs to lift the steam pan, then TIG welded the hole shut. Now that the Christmas candy rush is over we’ll finish cleaning both the inside and outside, and weather permitting we’ll have syrup boiling again within the next month.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the crew at Nova Maple Syrup!

 

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