Shutting down

[Ptim]

I had a question about what to do on a pan i built. It's 30 by 60 inches I installed a float on the flue pan for auto feed then it goes through a divider past the flues which are 4 inch pipes then I pipped to the syrup pan which has 4 dividers then a draw off valve. When I'm getting ready to stop boiling (wood fired) I am not sure if I need to valve off the flue and syrup pan and just flood the syrup pan or just let it go. Will the syrup travel back into my drop flue when everything cools down? I would post pics of pan but I'm not sure how.

[PerryW]

If I understand you correctly; I would just let if go. WHen you decide to stop firing, just let everything coast for a while (leaving the float valve open). Use this time to clean up around the sugarhouse, wash filters, etc. When the fire is mostly down to coals, just push down on the float and let enough sap into pans to avoild residual heat scorching the pans. Experience will teach you exactly how much sap to flood the pans with without overdoing it..

[shane hickey]

I agree with ya perryw

[psparr]

Syrup will migrate back to the flue pan. In my experience anyway. When your ready to shut down draw about a quart off, then another quart. When you fire back up, once it starts to boil add the second quart you drew near the draw off then add the first. This helps re-establish gradient.

[Big_Eddy]

We're all different. When I have 10 gals sap left, I stop adding wood and close the valve between my flue and syrup pan. I let the syrup pan finish itself off with the residual heat in the arch, then draw off as much of the syrup as I can. Once I have the syrup out, I open up the syrup pan valve and flood it with 1" of semi-concentrated sap. This way I have all the finished syrup I can make today out of the evaporator and ready for filtering and I have sap, not syrup in the syrup pan so less chance of it burning with the residual heat. I then disconnect the lines from the float box and drain them so they don't freeze up.

It takes me longer before my first draw on the next boil, as I need to re-establish the gradient in the syrup pan, but that's okay by me, as the first hour I'm usually messing around cleaning up / thawing valves / getting settled and I don't want a draw right away anyway.

[PerryW]

Big Eddy. I've used your method also, especially if my 5 gal. drum is almost full and I want to cap it.

I also agree that losing some gradient is really no big deal. Losing gradient really doesn't affect evaporator efficiency; if just gives you bigger take-offs further apart (in time).

One other thing I should mention is.......

If I do NOT expect to be boiling the next day(or am expecting a hard freeze), I will make sure all my raw sap is out of the feed tank and has reached the boiling point (to sterilize the sap). This sterilized sap will keep fresh longer than an inch of raw sap in the feed tank.