Pan with dividers question.

[John c]

I'm considering going with dividers in my new pan, but I am pretty clueless and quite honestly a bit scared because of it.
My questions are:
1.) does the pan sit completely level or does there have to be a slight angle?
2.) does a pan with dividers require more attention while boiling?
3.) do dividers increase product output or will a flat pan produce the same in the end? Time wise I mean!
4.) would I still need to do the finishing on a separate burner?

Thanks for all your help in advance,

John c.

[PerryW]

I'm considering going with dividers in my new pan, but I am pretty clueless and quite honestly a bit scared because of it.
My questions are:
1.) does the pan sit completely level or does there have to be a slight angle?


it should be level




2.) does a pan with dividers require more attention while boiling?


Probably a little more attention as installing dividers will increase the frequency of take-offs. You will also increase the possibility of having syrup develop in one of the middle compartments




3.) do dividers increase product output or will a flat pan produce the same in the end? Time wise I mean!


No. The dividers will not affect the overall efficiency or boiling rate. They will result in more, smaller take-offs.




4.) would I still need to do the finishing on a separate burner?



I would think that installing the dividers will increase the possibility of being able to take off directly from the evaporator.


Thanks for all your help in advance,

John c.

[John c]

Thanks for answering all my questions in a very clear way. This may sound very strange to some of you guys n gals, but I think "for me" a regular old flat pan sounds more appealing! Perhaps one of you folks can shine some light on an area that I'm just not seeing? I really want to make the right move when I put together my setup for next season. I do realize that there will always be those "shoulda, woulda, coulda" moments, but in general I wanna do the right thing that works for me.
Thanks,

John c.

[Ausable]

I'm considering going with dividers in my new pan, but I am pretty clueless and quite honestly a bit scared because of it.
My questions are:
1.) does the pan sit completely level or does there have to be a slight angle?
2.) does a pan with dividers require more attention while boiling?
3.) do dividers increase product output or will a flat pan produce the same in the end? Time wise I mean!
4.) would I still need to do the finishing on a separate burner?

Thanks for all your help in advance,

John c.

Hi John C - Have a question for you - What is the size of Your new Pan? I batch boiled for years on a 30" x 30" pan and used 2 pots for preheaters and finished the syrup inside till the desire to live longer moved me back outside on a turkey fryer burner to finish. For the last two years I have made my syrup on a home made 2' x 5' flow thru flat bottom - the two sap pans are 12" x 24" and the 3 syrup pans are 8" x 36" - sap in the first sap pan and draw off as near syrup on the last syrup pan. I still finish on a turkey fryer burner - but - now I use a steam tray pan with a valve on the end - center - near the bottom - where I can draw off samples to check with a syrup hydrometer. I really like my new setup better - have to pay closer attention to things - but - it moves along a lot faster then batch boiling..... Mike

[PerryW]

Thanks for answering all my questions in a very clear way. This may sound very strange to some of you guys n gals, but I think "for me" a regular old flat pan sounds more appealing! Perhaps one of you folks can shine some light on an area that I'm just not seeing? I really want to make the right move when I put together my setup for next season. I do realize that there will always be those "shoulda, woulda, coulda" moments, but in general I wanna do the right thing that works for me.
Thanks,

John c.

As ausable said, we need to know what size evaporator you are talking about. Is it just a single flat pan? Two flat pans? or a flat front pan and a flue pan?

[mike z]

This was my first year with a channeled pan. The size is 2'x8.5'. One 30" pan connected to a 72". This size has allowed me to draw off at 66 brix fairly easily all season. I think if it was smaller I may have had more trouble. I am glad I made the change. I have to pay a little more attention during boiling but not too much. It actually makes it more fun to be more involved. Watching water boil for hours and hours can get a little dull. You can always fill 'r up and use it like a regular undivided pan if you want. Happy Sappin:)

[John c]

My pan will be a 24" X 48" flat bottom pan. It will be made of 20ga. Stainless. I will also have a preheater pan that will sit on top of that, I'm thinking the preheater will be 8" X 24" unless some of you pros can direct me in a more practical direction!
I must admit that I am still torn between a wood fired evaporator or a LGB, stainless steel, 13 burner, natural gas, boiler burner. It's brand new and still in the crate. Does anybody know what the BTU on such a burner might be?
http://i816.photobucket.com/albums/zz81/Bigjohn010672/f881ef14.jpg

[PerryW]

Is that really a flat pan?? It kind of looks like flues running the short way.

Personally, I wouldn't fool around with gas unless you are concentrating the sap first or have a steam-away. I believe it would take about 5 gallons of LPG to make a gallon of syrup by straight evaporation. Maybe more with a flat pan.

Also, as Mike says, you will just be sitting there watching sap boil for hours. You might as well be burning wood.

[John c]

Is that really a flat pan?? It kind of looks like flues running the short way.

Personally, I wouldn't fool around with gas unless you are concentrating the sap first or have a steam-away. I believe it would take about 5 gallons of LPG to make a gallon of syrup by straight evaporation. Maybe more with a flat pan.

Also, as Mike says, you will just be sitting there watching sap boil for hours. You might as well be burning wood.

I'm sorry, I guess I shoulda specified that the pic is of the boiler burner! I can definatly see how it could be confused for a pan though now that I look at it!

[3rdgen.maple]

John put a pan on that burner for a finisher. Get it close on the evaporator and finish up there. Although I pretty much get to density on the evaporator I still run it into a finisher and tweek the syrup to be spot on. Sometimes Im a little under sometimes a little over. Thats the nice part about a finisher.

[John c]

John put a pan on that burner for a finisher. Get it close on the evaporator and finish up there. Although I pretty much get to density on the evaporator I still run it into a finisher and tweek the syrup to be spot on. Sometimes Im a little under sometimes a little over. Thats the nice part about a finisher.

I understand your view, however I think that this burner might produce more BTU's than we understand. I did some research on this burner and found this:

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WEIL-MCLAIN LGB-13 Boiler

The WEIL-MCLAIN LGB-13 is a Natural Gas boiler. The first year that this boiler appears in our records is 1996.

Model Number: LGB-13

Brand: WEIL-MCLAIN

Boiler Capacity

1,560,000
This unit 3,388,403
Avg 30,000
Min 94,500,000
Max

Measured in BTUs per hour.
Size: 1560000 BTUs per hour

This boiler has a Input BTUH of 1,560,000 BTUs per hour, which is below average for the boilers that we track. Our boilers range from a minimum of 30,000 to a maximum of 94,500,000 BTUs per hour. The average boiler has a capacity of 3,388,403 BTUs per hour.

So if this is the burner that I have, "and I think it is", isn't that one heck of a burner that could boil off a lot of sap real fast? How many BTU's is a large wood fired evaporator?