Cleaning the Flue Pan?

[user587]

First year on the new wood-fired evaporator, I've been cleaning the inside of the syrup pan every boil (easily done - empty, wipe, rinse, empty). Every other time (approx) I take the syrup pan off and wipe the black soot from the bottom also. The syrup pan is easy to handle.

My question is about the flue pan - I've not emptied nor cleaned it yet (3 boils in 1.5 weeks) -I leave the sweet until the next boil. The bottom is obviously black with soot - a solid dust covering, maybe 0.020" thk. if I could measure it. Should I be emptying/cleaning the flue pan? What about the bottom of the pan? It's painful to clean, I would have to remove hoods and preheater just to get at the pan, then empty it, it's heavy to lift/handle, etc... let alone difficult to get at the flue sides (top or bottom)

What is the best protocol for this?

Thanks!

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

I don't bother with the inside of flue pan but under neath I have a flue brush that I will use every couple boils. The syrup pan I clean same as bottom of flue pan.

After I do my test fire before every season I hook up my shop vac to the thin attachment and tape 3 or 4 pieces of 5/16 tubing to it and suck all the water out of the flues. You could clean pan like that if you wanted.

[3rdgen.maple]

Fire side of the flue pan you need a fireside flue brush and a long handle for it. Before you light a fire every time open the arch doors and reach in and brush them off. It will ransfer heat better resulting in higher gph. As far as the inside I drain mine and fill with 50/50 white vinegar and water, let her soak for a bit and brush the flues, drain and rinse a few times then filter what sweet I drained out back in the pan. I only do the flue pan once a week. Dirty pans can down grade your syrup. Syrup pan I drain and fill with 50/50 mixture and let it sit overnight. Next morning niter is pretty much disolved and a light scrub and rinse then filter the sweet I drained back into the pan. Niter can and will burn up a pan if you dont stay on top of it.

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

Fire side of the flue pan you need a fireside flue brush and a long handle for it. Before you light a fire every time open the arch doors and reach in and brush them off. It will ransfer heat better resulting in higher gph. As far as the inside I drain mine and fill with 50/50 white vinegar and water, let her soak for a bit and brush the flues, drain and rinse a few times then filter what sweet I drained out back in the pan. I only do the flue pan once a week. Dirty pans can down grade your syrup. Syrup pan I drain and fill with 50/50 mixture and let it sit overnight. Next morning niter is pretty much disolved and a light scrub and rinse then filter the sweet I drained back into the pan. Niter can and will burn up a pan if you dont stay on top of it.

awesome info, I know vinegar was used as a sterilization product way back in the day, what else does it do in the pan?

[3rdgen.maple]

awesome info, I know vinegar was used as a sterilization product way back in the day, what else does it do in the pan?

Make it shine again and dissolves the crap and cleans it. I love looking down in a pan full of sweet and seeing the bottom shine back at you.