When do you have to clean out flue pan/finish pan

[Yellzee]

First year with my homemade flue pan. Syrup is getting dark and i notice the filter is really black/dark with niter as im drawing off. Is this a sign i should draw off the sweet and clean out the pan? I cannot shut off the flow to the finishing pan the way i made it unfortunately so will have to take everything off.

[Ren]

Hey Yellzee, that is what I would do. I know it is time to clean my syrup pan when I get excessive foaming and my when my pre filters start getting getting plugged and black really fast when I am drawing off. It sure couldn't hurt.

[Yellzee]

I cleaned it out and filtered everything. Dumped most of the sweet back in and its much lighter/cleaner now