Disheartened newbie has many questions on use of divided pan evaporator

[johnnytown]

This past weekend I fired up my new 5'x2' divided stainless steel evaporator pan to boil off roughly 100 gallons of sap. This was by first attempt at syrup making. The pan is fired by wood and sits on a concrete block arch that I built a few weeks ago. It is divided into 5 sections with the back two running perpendicular and the front three sections running parallel front to back. There are openings between each section to allow the syrup to snake through from entry point of the sap to the front exist. The exit is a 1" piece of pipe welded to the pan with a valve on the exterior of the pipe. The arch seemed to work well and I tweaked as I went along. I quickly had a boil by 6:00 A.M. and I was off and running with a 2" depth throughout the day. My problem developed at the end of the day. When by last few sections were getting close to taking off for a separate finishing operation, I opened the value at which time I experienced a very slow flow after the first roughly gallon came out. I would mention that my outlet is approximately 1/8 inch off the pan floor. After this gallon, the flow stopped and I tried to push the syrup by hand from the last few sections into the outlet. I also tried to add some water at the entry point thinking that this might push the syrup forward. In the end, I just filled up the pan with water and lost what syrup I had remaining. My total finished product ended up being 1 gallon and 3 pints. Here are my questions: (1) Should my outlet be in the bottom of the pan instead of the front? (2) Should I have shut down the fire before trying to remove the syrup? (3) Should I have removed the remaining syrup with a ladle? (4) If I would have left the valve open, would the remaining syrup eventually snake it's way out of the valve into my bucket?
In other words, how should I have gone about finishing this process? I was so fired up Saturday morning and so disheartened by Saturday night. If anyone can help, I would really appreciate it. Thanks.

[oneoldsap]

Once you start boiling you should never empty your pans ( except for cleaning ) , and you never want to run out of sap either . Just before you shut down you want to draw off some of the almost syrup into a pail that you can cover . The next time you fire up , pour those sweets that you drew off when you shut down last boil , into the side of the pan that you will be drawing off on . This establishes the gradient , that makes the syrup flow towards the draw off . Don't be disheartened , it's hard to do a perfect job at something that you've never done before ! You should be thankfull that you didn't burn your pans . Do you have a Hydrometer ? Or at least a Thermometer in the front pan ?

[johnnytown]

I was using a hand held digital thermometer to check temp in the last section.

[jmayerl]

And never draw that much off. With your set up I would say maybe 1 or 2 quarts at a time. ANy more that and you are defeating the purpose of having a divided pan. Don't worry, syrupin takes awhile to get it right, and some of the best syrup is made with a few tears. :)

[DougM]

I may need to make a sign for our sugarhouse with the last line of that post...that pretty much says it all for the hobby sugarmaker.

[jmayerl]

I may need to make a sign for our sugarhouse with the last line of that post...that pretty much says it all for the hobby sugarmaker.

Humm........I think to recoop the cost of the new pan this year I will be selling one liners for the rest of the syrup season. Send $10 to my paypal and i will send you a comical or smart remark.:cool: