homemade

[PF]

I'm fairly new to sugarin'. I have a rectangular three burner propane outdoor stove. The burners are 50,000 BTU each. Stove dimensions are 14"WX42"L. I was thinking of buying a flat pan slightly larger than the stove and then surrounding it with concrete blocks to try and keep the heat from escaping. Does this sound like a plan? What evaporation rate do you think I will get? Would a flue pan work with this kind of a set up? Any advice would help.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Raised flue pan would work ok if you could find one. The only issue with the blocks is that you need a little oxygen, so don't make it completely airtight. If you could pick up an 18" x 4' pan, you would be in good shape and could probably boil off 5 to 8 gph but beware that they eat propane. I have a 2 burner just like that and they love propane. :D

[PF]

Boy does it love propane. Right now I'm using three stock pots so I'm looking to boil more efficiently with a large pan. Also, I haven't found the need to run the burners wide open and have been getting about five hours from a 20lb tank. Next year I will try to cut a deal with a local hardware store and prepay several tanks at a time. Thanks for the raised flue idea. Does stainless steel get a better evaporation rate than english tin?

[brookledge]

PF
I think you will find that stainless and tin would boil at the same rate. The benifit for stainless is on the ability to keep it clean with out ever getting the rust.
Also you might want to look into getting a larger propane tank. 30 lb or 100lb. If you can call local propane dealer and see if they would give you a better price by putting in a 100 gallon tank
Keith

[maple flats]

You also want to check around at contractor supply houses etc. I use propane for my canner. If I fill it (20# tanks) at the local building block yard I pay $10, if I go to the hardware store I pay 14.25 and If I go to walmart I pay about $17 exchange if I remember right on walmart. Years ago I had a truck that required heat from a propane furnace to protect product from freezing. Back then you could go to the propane supplier and leave 4 or more tanks to be filled and return the next day and pick them up. Doing that cut the price a few bucks/tank. Don't know if they still do that or make you go to a reseller for filling.

[WF MASON]

PF, I've seen this size stove used many times, generally a 18''x48'' pan is put on it with a small preheater box.It works fine , alot of the time you need a big 100lb. bottle to run it. The cost of making syrup in fuel can run $10-14 bucks a gallon.

[PF]

Would a SS 20"X60" flat pan be too large for my three burner 14"X42" stove? Each end would have about a 9" overhang.

[VA maple guy]

PF, A 20x60 pan will work, but what you might do is surround the sides of the burner and pan with some sheet metal, that will help the keep pan hotter and increase your boiling rate. If you don't do somthing like that the extra nine inches will work against you. I finish my syrup on a turkey fryer with a 22x19 pan. I noticed an increase in the boiling rate when i surrounded it with an old peice of tin roofing
Gerry

[PF]

VA MapleGuy,

Would a 12"X48" flat pan work better for me? I was thinking with the strong burners, the stove could handle a pan that is wider and longer than the stove dimensions since the flames do fan out along the bottom of the pan.. What do you think?

PF :?:

[VA maple guy]

PF, I think wou would be better off with the 20x60 pan. With 150,00 BTUs it should be able to make it boil pretty good. I would still wrap somthing around it to help hold in the heat. If you use the 12x48 pan you will loose more than half the surface area. You would go from 8.3 to 4 square feet of surface. I think the smaller pan would boil harder but not enough to make up for the loss in surface area.

Just one more little thing, you might get some scorching in the small pan above the sap level if the flames go up the sides.
Gerry

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I have one of those burners and if you crank it up very high, the fire wants to come out under the pan and up the sides. A 20x60 would work better as it would keep the sides from scorching and there should be about enough heat to make the entire pan boil. I think you could get close to 10 gph with this setup if you got it working correctly. :D

[PF]

Thanks everybody for your valuable feedback. I appreciate it.

PF

[mapleman3]

unfortunatly out of the four fuels.. Wood , Oil, Nat Gas, Propane.. Propane is the most expensive... Any way you can make your pan sit on a concrete arch and burn FREE pallets?

[PF]

mapleman3,

I'm gonna have to use propane for just a few more years. My kids are in three travel sports during sugarin' season and I'm limited with the blocks of time I can boil. For now I need the convenience of turning off the stove and away I go. I've learned more from this website in two weeks than I have in the past year buggin' people for whatever info I could get. Thanks.

PF

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

The good thing is you can probably make about 1 gallon of syrup for what a quart would cost if you bought it and the satisfaction of doing it yourself, well priceless! :D :D