Evaporator freezing

[Farmboy]

It's supposed to get down to 0 tonight. Should I put a heat lamp in my evaporator over night so it doesn't freeze or will it be ok. It's raised flue

[briansickler]

I would heat it or drain it. We drained ours and kept the contents of each pan separate.

Brian

[christopherh]

It got down to 8 degrees here last night. I have flood lights on a stand that you can get at the Home Depot. I shine them right on each pan. I finished boiling last night around 7:00pm. I check them in the morning and all was well, they warmed the pans just fine. I do drain my feed line to.

[red maples]

I did a quick refresh boil yesterday afternoon so the arch was warm but I usually put a 100 watt bulb inside and close the doors, and I have a little propane space heater. (big buddy) and have it hooked up to a 20# tank set it low and put it under the arch sticking out just a little under the float box. and it heats it up enough to keep it from freezing.

[briduhunt]

During the really cold weather I place a single halogen light inside the fire box. It is hot enough to keep both pans from freezing. I also use another light to shine on my piping from my tanks to the evaporator. The lights are cheep and work great for me.

Just my 2 cents.

[MilesTeg]

I let my pans freeze to help preserve the sweet in the pans. I don't know why you would want to keep the from freezing. The only thing you have to be careful about is removing the floats after the boil or they'll freeze in there and will interfere with start up.

[red maples]

because you can split a pan or at the very least warp it!! So I have been told. I'd rather not take the chance to find out.

[3rdgen.maple]

I drain mine and find that it is a good time to do a cleanup as well. I will never on purpose let anything freeze in my pans. Money and time is to hard to come by to bust a seem.

[tom jr.]

never drained mine and let it freeze hard as a rock a thousand times just DONT let it thaw a little bit then refreeze thats when you are screwed:o

[michiganfarmer2]

I let my pans freeze to help preserve the sweet in the pans. I don't know why you would want to keep the from freezing. The only thing you have to be careful about is removing the floats after the boil or they'll freeze in there and will interfere with start up.

leader says my flue pan costs $9000 to replace. I dont think I want it to freeze

[Russell Lampron]

I have let mine freeze several times and never had a problem. One time it was -14. I have heard of problems with drop flue pans cracking when frozen.

[morningstarfarm]

In my humble opinion..its not worth taking a risk with it..I just put a small ceramic heater inside the arch...I usually take all the slush and ice chunks I have accumulated from the tanks and dump them into the flu pan when I do it..it keeps the sap at around 40*...

[markct]

i dont think they freeze hard enough to worry about cause of the sugar content, my soldered pans have frozen lotsa times, only time i make sure to drain completely is after the water boil

[Riverdale]

it was minus 4 here last night. Flue pan had a few inches of slush but nothing frozen solid to cause problems. I would say it's better to be safe than sorry if you think you may have problems. Let's just hope we don't have these colds temps again until December.

[Southtowns27]

I drain my flue pan down about halfway and put a heat lamp right under it. It gets slushy but doesn't freeze hard. There's too much sugar in the syrup pan for that to freeze so I don't worry about it.

[Haynes Forest Products]

Cover both flue stack and steam stack to keep the cold from getting in. Shop lite in the arch will keep it safe.

[WoodButcher]

i let mine freeze . dont have a problem with it at all . no seams popping .
lets wait to hear from a person on the forum who actually had their pan ruined from freezing . ..

[3rdgen.maple]

i let mine freeze . dont have a problem with it at all . no seams popping .
lets wait to hear from a person on the forum who actually had their pan ruined from freezing . ..

Well Im sure not going to volunteer for that one.

[Haynes Forest Products]

OK lets step back and look at all the data. We all talk about how the ice is all water NO concentrate and the heavy sugar content wont freeze. So we have a evap full of heavy concentrate from what I read it cant freeze solid. Lets combine some of the info from a few other threads and try and agree if sap will freeze or not.

[buck3m]

From this thread:
http://www.mapletrader.com/community/showthread.php?t=2864&highlight=flue+freezing

"I've seen and repaired more than one flue drain that wasn't left open , either the rain came in during the fall or snow blew in and melted filling the drain , then it froze. This makes a square drain tube round in a hurry. Its the worst leak(s) possible, spend 30 minutes and drain'um."
For this reason only , I hate drop flues WF MASON

"Its a matter of taste I guess. I know from experiance that flue pans will pop when frozen, especially if they are older english tin. Last year my cousins pans popped and took a while and alot of money to get them replaced all the while sap was pouring into gathering tanks. Yes they could be drained out, but I am not setup to do that this year. Plus I don't mind going to the sugarhouse and lighting a small fire. Gives me time to cleanup and think about modificaions I want to do for next season." Pete33Vt

[WoodButcher]

Lets combine some of the info from a few other threads and try and agree if sap will freeze or not.

funny you say that .. cus i just did some research on it .
all of my buckets have about 2-3" thick of ice in the bottom , with barely any thawed sap (6 ounces maybe) .
i was wondering if i needed to boil them or throw them out. last year i just kept them in the buckets and used them to keep my sap cool .

but i just read on several post of people testing frozen sap and still finding 1-2.5% sugar , and if you were a big producer go ahead and dump them as you dont need to bother with them .... but if your like me , every bit of sap counts. but to each his own . ;)
think of it this way .... sap is 95-99% water. wine thats 14% ABV will still freeze if you leave the bottle in your car overnight and its 10 degrees or less out . dont ask how i know:rolleyes: ...

[WoodButcher]

maybe its the nooks and crannies of a drop flue that are more susceptible to this popping and cracking. i have a 2x4 flat pan made of 16 gauge stainless with 2 dividers. . i think i might be exempt

[peckfarm]

considering the warm weekend and cold temps around here, I think this thread needs a bump...