Preheater off stack

[Bernie/MA]

I'm thinking of making a shelf that will clamp to the stack and absorb heat to preheat sap in a small pan. The heated sap will dribble into the main pan. Anybody think it will work? Thanks for your opinions.

[RileySugarbush]

It will kind of work, but not great unless you find some way to keep the cold air off the pan. Keep in mind that even in the best of circumstances, meaning near freezing sap and a preheater that gets the sap up to near boiling, you won't even get a 15% increase in efficiency or rate. You may want to put your ingenuity into a blower or drop tubes where you can easily double the boiling rate.