Evap pan insert to gas grill

[Tomahawk]

Hi everyone. "The season" is creeping up on us once again!

Has anyone ever made/have plans for an exaporator pan that fits into a gas grill?

Should it fit tight or should I leave vent spaces etc?

My buddy has a bunch of stainless stock and a mig welder and says he can/wants to fabricate it.

Think it will work well for my small time operation? The turkey fryer just ain't cutting it anymore... Thanks in advance.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Tomahawk,

Sounds like a very good idea. I would make it as tight fitting as possible so you are getting as much heat as possible to the underside of the pans. There are holes under the burner on the sides of a burner in the grill, so it gets plenty of oxygen. Try to make it out of the lightest gauge possible, the light the gauge, the better the boil. :D

[Teuchtar]

I used the barbecue one year for a finishing rig. I pulled out the grill and lava rocks to allow the flames to directly contact the pan. Should also work for boiling down the sap.

My pan was a 6" deep steam table pan. You can get these on line (Google to "Steam Table Pans"). I paid $20 for the pan, new. There's tons on ebay too.

I found that the gas flame likes to lick up around the bottom edge and turn the pan sides hot enough to caramelize or char the syrup. Not good, since it spoils the taste.

By messing around with 2" steel strips I was able to keep the flames off the pan sides. That seemed to do the trick.

I was tempted to solder on a draw off fitting, but the barbecue side walls got in the way. But since the pan only holds a couple of gallons, its easy enough to lift the whole thing up to pour out the contents like a big jug.

Worked fine for me at the time.

[Sugarmaker]

Tomahawk,
I had a rather tight fit on my grill and had trouble with the flame burning properly (not sure why), even with the holes in the bottom of the frame of the grill, but I raised the pan about 1/2 inch and seems to work a lot better. I got some fumes that would almost burn your eyes when the pan was down tight??? Pictures on the site.
Regards

[mapleman3]

you need to have some kind of venting .. not in but out, thats why it wasn't buning correctly, so I dont think a tight fitting pan is the way to go, sure you have the holes on the bottom to bring air in, but then the burnt gasses fight for the same space to get out 8O

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Mapleman might be right there. Leave about 1/2" to 1" on each end and keep the sides tight and that should work good.

[Tomahawk]

Hey Brandon! Great to see your back and - as always - willing to help out a novice like me. Thanks so much!

Thanks Teuchtar!
Thanks Chris and Cheryl!
Thanks Jim the Mapleman!


The concensus seems to be to leave some room to vent. I'm gonna go for it, hopefully, my evap process will be much more efficient than it has been in the past.

Any other suggestions or ideas are always welcomed. Thanks again to all!

[syrupmaker]

Tomahawk....Extra bottles of propane for sure. Careful though, I think your limited to how much you can store in the city. Hate to see you get in trouble with the fire marshal down there!

At least 1 x-tra, you'll be sure to run out just as your ready to finish off and it will be when everything is closed up tight for the night.

Rick

[Tomahawk]

Tomahawk....Extra bottles of propane for sure. Careful though, I think your limited to how much you can store in the city. Hate to see you get in trouble with the fire marshal down there!

At least 1 x-tra, you'll be sure to run out just as your ready to finish off and it will be when everything is closed up tight for the night.

Rick

Hey, hey syrupmaker. Good to see you back.

No propane for me. My gas grill is hooked up to natural gas supply!

A little more expensive (especially this year) but it never runs out.

[syrupmaker]

Tomahawk.......NOW YOUR TALKIN. A guy up this way(HE HE Dropflue) boils on his 2 x 6 using his gas well. Love to watch his set up do it's thing, watch to make sure the sap is flowing and have a couple brews. He even added the auto draw off last year so it makes it even nicer. Alot more user freindly on the back,thats for sure.

Rick

[markcasper]

What do you mean "gas well?" I thought they were only in Texas, or the Gulf of Mexico. Or are you simply meaning a natural gas pipeline??

The maple syrup producers manual talks of "inexpensive supply of gas such as a well". I never knew what this meant. I did not think there were those resources where you live in the northeast.

[Father & Son]

Here in NW PA they are on a big push and they are drilling gas wells everywhere. I own 17 =/- acres. To have a well drilled with to outfit that is doing the drilling, your property line needs to be 1700 ft from the nearest well. My property line isn't, so I don't qualify. If you have a well on your property you get royalties and so many cubic feet of gas per year free. Would be nice to have the evaporator hooked to that :!:

[syrupmaker]

Mark.....Over this way 20 years ago folks were haveing wells drilled everywere. I can rememember as a kid watching them drill at least 5 around my house. Almost every farmer in the area has at least one for the barn and house. The farm I work at partime has 5 on there 1400 acres. All the barns and bosses 3 houses are hooked up to them. Hunted around those wells after they were drilled, The deer figured out that there was salt water in the area from drilling and would lick around the well area for the salt. At a guess i would say they drilled 30 - 35 wells in our town alone.

Rick

[vermontkyle]

Wow! Just out of curiousity do you tap in the city itself? I tap 100+ trees in my neighborhood in Vt and most think I'm kind of nuts but so be it.

Seriously though-be weary of the fumes with the grill if you are enclosed at all. I used our first year and burned it out-was a piece of junk to begin with though.

New York City! Wow. They let you tap in Central Park?

[Daren]

Teuchtar is right about the hot pans sides causing the pans to "blacken up" a bit, but It has not affected the taste as far as I can tell. For us backyarders, I do not think it hurts us too much. The color might be a touch darker given the same process with heat only on the bottom of the pan, but i think the extra heat that transfers from the sides helps get the boil reallly rippin! I have three stainless steam table pans completely recessed into my homemade oil barrel arch and It works great. The pans are a bear to clean up after though...