Which one to go with

[C&C maple sugar bush]

We just sold our evaporater it was a 3 by 4 flat pan, and this year we are gonna up grade, I was thinking about ether getting a smoky lake pan woth 4 foot drop flue in the back and a 2 by 2 pan in the front, or I was thinking about getting a 2 by 6 flue pan from stainless steel creations with a 2 by 2 syrup pan with dividers in the front, each set up will coast the same. But I don't know what one I should go with, any help will be nice,
Thanks cole

[TimJ]

What's your budget, how many taps, how many taps do you plan to add and how much time do you want to boil?

[C&C maple sugar bush]

Around 2000$ I just need the pans I can build the arch no problem, we are gonna tap 800 to 1000 trees next year, I can boil 5 hours every day during the week eady

[wiam]

I boil about 3 hrs on the average day. 1000 taps, 2x6 Mason, 12%. Are you planning on an RO?

[TunbridgeDave]

1000 taps with a 2x6? You'll be boiling a lot more than 5 hrs a day. On good days you can get 2 gal of sap per tap, even more with vac. You must have an ro?

[C&C maple sugar bush]

No r.o, and we can boil 5 hours during the week and weekends we can boil 24/7 if we need to, when ever we can't keep up we always can sell sap we been doing that for years,

[jrgagne99]

Figure 30 gallons per hour on the 2x6. Five hours f boiling gives 150 gallons, so nominally that would support 150 taps. More than 300 taps and you'll be selling sap for sure. If you're talking 1000 taps, you'll be selling over half of your sap.

[whalems]

I have 800 taps on vacuum with a 4 x 11 wood fired and have a lot of boils over 10 hours. I don't see how you could come close to keeping up with 1000 taps on a 2x6 with out an RO. you would have to boil 24/7.

[C&C maple sugar bush]

I dont have a problem with selling sap, I'm thinking about getting a 2 by 8 tho

[whalems]

If you have that many taps available why wouldn't you size your evaporator to fit your needs? There is not much money in selling sap. the increased syrup production would pay for the evaporator quickly. Just my two cents. Good luck with your decision

[C&C maple sugar bush]

We dont want to get that big that quick and it won't fit in our sugar shack. We want to get use to a continuos flow and a 2 by 8 will be all that will fit in the shack until we up rade our sugar shack, I'm gonna have forced air on the arch and a pre heater in the hood.