Leader Half Pint Question...

[DonMcJr]

With the Season over I was working on my Food Plots and was taking a break looking at my evaporator. Then the draw offs caught my attention. I remember the instructions said preheater pan on the front and draw off on the rear. Well I wanted to draw off on the right side so I had draw off front and preheater rear...

I'm thinking it might be hotter at the rear so maybe I should follow the instructions?

[ClarkFarmMapleSyrup]

This was the last season using mine, because we just bought a 2x6, but Ive always drawn off in the front side, by the firing door, not in the rear. One becaise of the way it is in the building, and would be a tight fit, and two, the back of my pan has actually warped up alittle, and I think because of how hot it gets in the back. Especially if it runs a little low, not empty, just low, and it will foam alot when drawing off and you could burn something if not careful. When I drew off, Id see how, over it was with the hydrometer, open the valve alittle, and adjust preheater flow, then put wood on the right side where I was drawing, and that cools it down and calms the foam.
Just my expieriance,
JC

[68bird]

I could never get mine hot enough in the front corner to finish on(preheater in the back).I must have boiled 25 or 30 hours, and not even close to syrup. I started using a turkey fryer to finish on, and made 12 gallons before the short season was over.I was very happy with that, but if I can afford it, I will go bigger next season. As I had a lot of borrowed stuff I need to get that purchased first.

[Like Minded Farmer]

When we used a half pint with the pre heater pan on the sap pan condensation was dripping back into the pan. We ended up making a box that hung off the back of the arch with a round hole in the top for the chimney. Then between where the chimney came up through and the back of the arch we cut a hole so the preheater pan sat down into the box just a few inches above the red hot chimney pipe. At the same time we put a preheater tubing coiled around the chimney then it came up through the top of the box and emptied into the preheater pan through a small valve. we could tinker with the adjustment and get it to flow non stop from tubing to preheater pan and into the evaporator. This set up didn't cost much and took an hour off the time spent to make a gallon of syrup. The preheater pan would steam prettty good and little bubbles formed in the bottom. At the left and right of the chimney we cut round holes and put 2 metal sap buckets in and these would actually boil after about 3 hours. We always drew off the left front and we also noticed it was next to impossible to get that corner to boil hard. When we were almost ready to draw we would jam the bottom draft closed tight and let that load of wood go to nothing but a big pile of coals and the pan would boil hard to every corner. We got better results and used less wood by leaving the draft closed tight all the time to keep the whole pan boiling, but if I was still using this method I would insulate the door though because the door would get red hot and it would probably eventually crack.