Saw a 14"x 34" cook top with 2 6" cast iron 30,000 btu. How would this work??

[to100]

I saw this at Costcos, Camp Chef Expedition 2X, could be used for a tail gate party. How would this work if I could get a 11 x 13 pan made? I had 8 taps last year with a turkey cooker and used 12" 4 gal pot that came with it. This would be bigger surface area. Total 60,000 btu/hr.
Pros/Cons welcome.
Thanks

[maple flats]

I bought 3 of these 2 yrs ago for use with 24-28 qt SS pots to reheat syrup for filtering. http://www.agrisupply.com/cooker-stand-ci-burner-btu-s/p/49469/
They work well except 1 20# tank won't keep up in colder temps. Either get 2 tanks run together or a larger tank. In use you only use about 1/2 or a little more of the 170,000 burner capacity and regulate it with the burner control but anytime you need more heat, like at initial start up it is there. The top pot support ring is 14" and I think you would do best with a 16 x 16 or even an 18 x 18 so you don't lost so much heat around the sides of the pot. They work very well. In years past I ran 3 at the same time and sometimes a 4th that is smaller, from a bulk tank, with a manifold supply going along 1 wall of the sugarhouse with multiple take offs. I now have a finisher that will do the job but will keep these for emergency use if the finisher fails somehow.

[to100]

Sounds to me like I should not go this route. I was thinking of run this off my bulk tank. I could make pan same size as cook top from a guy in town with a metal shop. It has trim shirt around the fire box with venting slots.
Does anyone know where larger round pots are available. I have seen brasing pots but they are usually thicker guage.
I usually ran my cooker last year almost as low as I could turn it down so flames did not come out the side, but enough not to blow out. I preheated small batchs in the house. Then finish in the house. I tried a hotel pan but was not wide enough and too long.
I was thinking this could work as a finisher if I went to a half pinter, but that would be over sized. I could return this and use the money for a larger pot.
I googled BTU and sap and now I am thinking this cook top would not be very efficient for fuel. I am going back and forth in what to do and what would make the best set up. I could get 2nd turkey cooker and pan if I wanted to expand. I also keep thinking about homemade reverse osmosis. My head is spinning, how many years do I want to do this, I am now 65.

[vtwoody]

Look in the classifieds - there is a guy selling beer brewing kettles (Stainless steel pots) with ports at bottom for valve and thermometer starting around $100....for a bit more, you get the valve and thermometer....

...or, google "beer brewing supplies".... :)

[delivron]

Food for thought it takes approximately 403,351 BTU's at 100% efficiency to produce 1 gallon of Syrup without a RO. Sap is estimated at 2 Brix. Note no evaporator is 100% efficent.
So your best time would be 13 hours of boiling to produce 1 gallon of syrup. My guess is you will only be about 60% efficient. So you will need more time and fuel to produce.

[to100]

Thanks for this info. I called about beer brew pots and got voice mail back.
I called my metal worker on Sunday to put on hold my pan which would not be started until early this week once he got the material. He said he found a sheet and had it cut out. I then found online a cook top from the same company with 2 "high pressure" 60,000 btu burners with out fancy trim, so I can now return the one I got. Atleast it will be faster.

[Sundown]

I have this same two burner unit and use it for finishing. I've got a 4" deep stainless pan that I made that covers the whole cooktop. It holds about 5 gallons and works very well for finishing. I have found it to have plenty of hear to maintain the boil so don't believe you would have a problem evaporating on it. As far as using it for your main evaporator, the gas could get a little expensive, but for a small operation I'm sure it would work well. I'd go with the shallow pan and stay away from the turkey pots. They just don't have enough surface area to allow for good evaporation.

[to100]

So Sundown do you have the EX280LW 120,000 btu or YK60LW 60,000 btu cook top. With your pan do the flame tips go out and around the angle iron frame or do you keep it turned down some? My pan being smaller than the surface area, when I used it yesterday the extra flame went up the side and a brown spot developed. I guess this is a scorch mark that came off with cleaning. The guy who made the pan thought there should be space for heat to escape. The "60" has a burner box that is smaller then the top and the "280" has 2 cylinders with burner in them.
I did not take much time to think things through before I made decissions. If I went to full size I would have 30% more surface area.