Calculators: what they are and where to find them

Over twenty maple calculators, in your pocket. Sap to syrup, hydrometer correction, today's draw-off temperature, your RO, mainline sizing, vacuum pumps, 3/16 line, payback, and more. Every answer shows its work and names the page of the North American Maple Syrup Producers Manual its math comes from.

They need no account, and they work with no signal.

Finding them#

Open the Sap Spy app and tap Calculators on the home screen. They are also at sapspyapp.com/calculators in a browser.

The Sap Spy home screen with the Calculators tile

The Calculators page sorts them by what you are working on.

The Calculators page

Chapter Calculators
In the sugarhouse Sap to syrup, hydrometer correction, thinning heavy syrup, draw-off temperature
Reverse osmosis Concentrate Brix, what a batch leaves you, is my membrane healthy, membrane flux
In the woods What a bush should make, what a tank holds, what a line is holding
Tubing & vacuum Mainline sizing, what size vacuum pump, what the install takes, 3/16 line, are my lines tight, lifts and ladders
Worth the money Payback, what sap is worth, cost of finishing heavy

Using a calculator#

Each one opens with example numbers. Type your own in any box, and the answer updates as you type. Under the answer, a few lines say how it was worked out, and a link opens the manual to the page the math comes from.

The manual, opened to the page a calculator cites

Favorites#

Tap the star on any calculator and it waits for you at the top of the Calculators page.

A starred calculator at the top of the page

Settings#

At the bottom of the Calculators page:

The Settings at the bottom of the Calculators page

  • Units: US (gallons and °F) or metric (liters and °C). Tubing sizes stay in inches either way.
  • Finish at: the density you finish syrup at, 66.0 or 66.9 Brix. It sets the yield, the hydrometer and the draw-off calculators.

The articles in this section#

  1. In the sugarhouse
  2. Reverse osmosis
  3. In the woods
  4. Tubing and vacuum
  5. Worth the money
  6. FAQs

FAQs

No. The calculators work without one, on the phone and on the website.

Yes, all of them. Draw-off temperature needs a signal once to fetch your elevation and the weather, then keeps the numbers.

Each calculator cites its source under the answer, most often a page of the North American Maple Syrup Producers Manual, 3rd edition, and opens it to that page.

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