Into the woods by 5:30 AM. Temperature started dropping after 1:00 AM. Then snow flurries and it continued getting colder. 25 at 5:30 AM. 15 By 10:00 AM but it did get sunny.
First task of the day was investigating the pipes into the evaporator and why they ran slowly. Took them apart and discovered the ¾” pipe that runs down the side of the evaporator was obstructed with leaves, bark and twigs likely going back years. We clean it by flushing water after each season, but it doesn’t have enough pressure to flush out the sediment.
Made a makeshift snake to clean the pipe. It had a lot of stuff. This picture is after discovering the blockage. A lot more came out. The pipes are now clean and we expect it will flow freely.
While cleaning the syrup pan, we started investing the R/O temperature display and monitoring. Yesterday during the wash cycle it unexpectedly shut off twice. We saw a light on the display we didn’t recall. Unplugged the R/O and check the circuit breakers. All looked good. After restoring power the light was out. The manual doesn’t provide documentation on the display so we called our equipment dealer. While waiting for a reply, we ran a rinse cycle. Worked as expected. It’s possible all is well and we just reacted to unexpected behavior.
It’s now 9:00 AM and we tried to run a concentrate cycle. The pipe from the tank is frozen. It was warmer at 5:30 AM and the pipes may not have been frozen then yet. We had a heating tape on the pipes, but it wasn’t wrapped well enough to keep it warm. Spent an hour trying to thaw before realizing we could skip cooking today. We aren’t getting sap for two or three days and it’s cold enough for the sap to keep. We actually deployed the sinking tank heater into the tank to keep it from freezing tonight when it gets into the teens. And we re-wrapped the heating tape on the pipes to better warm them. We’ll still likely need to thaw pipes in the morning but we’ll start earlier.
We expected an easier day but did expect to cook. But we did fix the pipes running slowly so that’s a win. Back to the farmhouse by 10:30 AM.