Smoke Stack Temp.

[Ryan August]

Hi all.
Have been boiling on a homemade barrel evaporator but have up grade to a used Leader half pint. Working well but working out the kinks. SO the fella I bought it from had a themometer on the smoke stack. I left it there. What does this temp reading tell me and what should I be aiming for if it is important. My visual inspection of how things go at this point include a simple check list. Fire in box, yup, sap boiling, yup, temp on smoke stack, why?

Thanks

[Tweegs]

One reason might be that a fire that is too cool can cause creosote build up, in the stack and on the bottom of your pans.

You don’t want it in the stack for somewhat obvious reasons, build up on the bottom of your pans will tend to insulate them, reducing your efficiency.

Start the fire small and hot, work your way up to a fast, hot fire. If the flame is red or orange, the fire is too cool. Look for yellow-blue-white flames, monitor your stack temp in this range and keep it there.