Need help...

[MassMapleAdict]

well, today I did it. I ran in the house for a minute, which turned into 15 minutes, went back outside and.... BLACK SMOKE!!! I burnt the pan but good!! Anyone have any good tips for cleaning the pan. I mean...its BLACK!! I think its ok, doesn't appear to be leaking. Should I scrape it? wire brush? plastic brush? metal scraper? steel wool? what?

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Anything that will work, but a lot of elbow grease it the best. 8O

[VA maple guy]

I burned my syrup pan this past fall. I used a right algle air grinder with a two inch scotch bright conditioning pad, the same thing mechanics use to
clean gasket surfaces with.

Gerry

[brookledge]

If your pans can tolerate it use acid to help in your cleaning. Contact the manufactuere of your pans to see if they recommend it and if so what kind. Other than that scotch brite. I like Gerry's sugestion with the pads on a angle grinder. Another thought might be a dremil in the tight areas with a soft abrasive.
Welcome to the club :(
Alot of us already belong to the club
Keith

[Sugarmaker]

Sounds like the angle grinder or a cordless drill with a scotch brite type pad should work. Also try taking a sharp scraping tool and loosening the black stuff. This will help a lot. Gary Bilek and I worked on his pan for about two hours the other night. Gary was showing me his awesome set up and had forgot to open a valve to let fresh sap into the front pan. He probably hadn't boiled 15 minutes. and we were both standing there watching (and gabbing of course). Any way the lots of elbow grease is required. (we used a hive tool as the scraper). I scorched my pan the first time I fired up 5 years ago. Lots of scrubbing! Good luck!

CEC

[mapleman3]

OUCH :? now you know rule #1 never get distracted!!! hope it cleans up ok.

[themapleking]

i find that a couple of bottles of CLR works better than anything. Including the pan cleaner cheimcals

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Joe,

Do you clean your pans at the end of the season with CLR also??

[themapleking]

Yep. I had some burnt syrup spots last year. I tried both the powerd and liquid pan cleaners per instructions. Neither one worked. So I tried CLR let them shock from 30 minutes. The pan came out clean as it was new.
So now thats what I'm going to use. Alot cheeper too.

[Parker]

What is CLR?

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Joe,

Thanks for the great tip. Let me know how it goes when you do a full pan cleaning after season or did you clean the entire evaporator with it after season last year. :?

Parker, it stands for Calcium, Lime and Rust and can get it at any grocery store or Walmart or etc. :D

[SUGARSMITH]

I said if before and I will say it again. There are two types of syrup makers, those that have burnt pans, and those that will. I went to visit a tree for 2 minutes came back and had the awful familiar smell. Got lucky though, it was just on the edge of burning.

[MassMapleAdict]

Well after 2 hours of scrap'in and scrubbin I finally got the pan clean again. The bottom of the pan is all wavy now! I hope that never happens again, but I'm sure it will!! :oops:

[maplwrks]

Now you're a sugarmaker!! Those who haven't burnt a pan aren't really boiling, They just simmer!

[ibby458]

I burnt mine 2 years ago. I found that you can buy Scotch Brite pads to fit a Mouse sander. Works slick.

[lharris1]

I had a real close one on Friday. My float feed to the syrup pan was not set correctly. Temperature suddenly went from 2 to 7 degrees and I started pulling. It went to 10 degrees for a short time then continued to climb. I opened the furnace doors and increased flow at the float. When the temperature reached 30 degrees I pulled the fire and tossed it outside. I only had two small black areas but still spent at least an hour cleaning and scraping. The putty knife seemed to work well.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Larry,

Keep a gallon or two of sap handy and toss it into the syrup pan. Will take care of the problem every time. :D

[brookledge]

This is one reason you need to be carefull in building home made pre heaters remember that you need alot of sap quickly once and a while. Make sure that the flow is not restricited. Also as said a pail of sap nearby is good to.
Keith