Preheater pan

[Bernie/MA]

Has anyone ever tried making/using a preheater pan using heat off the stack? I'm thinking about a shelf attached to the stack with the pan sitting on it.

[Sako]

I did something similar to what you are thinking. Welded a 8in pipe in tub fits around 7in stack. After about two hours sap is at 180. I am trying to get new pans for my stove so I may be eliminating and going to a tube preheater or making this pot smaller should be hotter or at least take less time.
In a post "2saps good bad and the ugly" you can see some photos of this.
Chris

[smokeyamber]

Pan against stack didn't do much for me, I am going to try the coil of copper around the pipe with heat sheild over it this season. One trick that did kinda work was to have the preheater pan drip into a another pan actually sitting in the flue pan. It seemed to reduce the boil kill from cold sap quite a bit. Preheating ideas are always fun to work on while I boil, but in the end a good stoked fire is the key most days...