Newbie Greetings - Question about evaporator Pan

[CG-Indy]

Greetings,

Last year we tapped 5 trees and had 30 gallons of sugar water in five days. I used a propane turkey fryer. Not too effective, but just enought to get hooked.

I am looking to manufacture an evaporator pan (or purchase) and I do not understand what the benefits are of having dividers in the pan.

My initial thought is to make a pan, 4 ft. x 6 ft. x 12" deep. I will make a cinder block fire pit and go from there.

Any thoughts or advice greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

CG

[lpakiz]

Make it narrower and longer. It gives the fire more chance to exchange it's heat with the bottom of the pan. 3 X 8 gives you the same square feet. 2 1/2 X 10 is also a standard size.

[backyard sugaring]

You will need to make your pan much smaller if you plan on tapping only 5 trees. In a gallon of sap there is 321 cubic inches. If you run your pan at 3" deep you would have 6 square feet. You would need roughly three gallons to start. I would think about 2x2 or 2x3 pan. Keep your pan as shallow as feel comfortable with. The less sap in the pan the faster it will boil. Look for Rick Mannn Backyard Sugarin Book it will have some good ideas. Good luck. Lee

[CG-Indy]

Greetings.

Decided on a 3' x 4' x 12" pan. We could be up to 20 taps.

With the warming this week, I would think the first boil would be this weekend...7164

[CampHamp]

Impressed that you made that yourself! I used 4 steam pans and built siphons to move the sap forward last year (my first year).


I do not understand what the benefits are of having dividers in the pan.

If you put dividers in the pan then a "gradient" will form where the sap channel is watery and the far channel is sweeter. After a few hours, you might have syrup to take off and can continue drawing off syrup occasionally until your sap tank runs out. The benefits are (1) your syrup has spent less time boiling than the batch method and it should yield a higher grade, (2) it's easier to take off small quantities of syrup than managing one "huge finish" and (3) only the last channel of the pan will need periodic cleaning because of sand that forms from syrup boiling.

[rayi]

I'm kind of new at this too but I tell all the new people consistancy is the key. Constant size wood no bigger than your wrist. Consistant firing. I even started timing with an alarm and dont forget to cross your wood it keeps the fire under the pans. I made syrup for more than 30 years on a flat pan and until I got on this site it was a big pain. Now it's a little pain. It also helps to build the arch so you dont have to bend over too far to put the wood in

[Ausable]

Howdy CG and Welcome - For only Your Second Post - That is a good question. So far You have received some good answers. But - here is the thing - how many taps or spiles You planning on having and that will make your question easier to answer. Most Folks - especially us Backyarders - start off Batch Boiling and thats what you have been doing. As you tap more and more trees and You start swimming in Sap it hits you (It hit You sooner than most) I gotta find a better and faster was to turn all this sap into Syrup or my Wife is gonna leave me. Now some might keep on batch boiling - cause the wife leaving is what they want - But - most of us look for a better way and Shazam! - That way is the Continuous Flow Evaporator. Now they come in all kinds of styles and designs especially at the Sap Pan (Flat, Raised Flue and Dropped Flue) and The Syrup Pan and its sections remain flat. Now one of the guys already mentioned that on a continuous flow setup the pan or pans are long and narrow - there is a very good reason for this and that is the Arch. The Arch is the heat source for your pans and it actually is an arch running from your fire box and slowly slanting upward till it meets the stack. The Old Boy that thought this one out and designed the original must have asked himself - How the heck can I get more use out of those hot gases my fire is giving off before they go up the stack and the arch was the answer - You have a rip roaring fire at one end under your syrup pan sections and the hot gases travel under the long pan setup heating things all the way and under the sap pan and its sections and finally exit up the stack. Now this is pretty basic and there are a lot of variations to make the rigs even more efficient. The Continuous Flow Sap pan idea has already been kind of explained to you - Simply - Goes in sap at the start of the sap pan sections and winds its way through into the syrup pan sections and finally is drawn off from the final syrup pan section as syrup or near syrup. Now my friend ---- I'm just giving you the basic idea here on how it works and I'm leaving a lot out - but - I hope you get the idea. Yep - The Continuous Flow Pans are much more efficient and faster then a Batch Pan - But - the all make Maple Syrup. Have Fun. ----Mike----

[TerryEspo]

I really gotta get dividers in my pan. I have read enough here.

One more duty to finnish, good grief !!

Thanks though for all this great infornation.

Terry

[DonMcJr]

As you tap more and more trees and You start swimming in Sap it hits you (It hit You sooner than most) I gotta find a better and faster was to turn all this sap into Syrup or my Wife is gonna leave me. Now some might keep on batch boiling - cause the wife leaving is what they want - But - most of us look for a better way and Shazam! - That way is the Continuous Flow Evaporator Have Fun. ----Mike----

Welcome CG! I just gotta say that was really funny Mike!!!!!!:lol: