anyone ever burnt there pan the first boil of the year ?? and whats the worst u have?

[The dairy farmer]

anyone every burnt there pan the first boil of the year ? and whats the worst u burnt ?

[SWEETER CREATIONS]

one of the easiest times to burn it , I've never done it yet in 40 plus years but maybe this year. they tell me your not a sugar maker till you burn one up . Good luck . Mike

[The dairy farmer]

I guess I got mine outa the way earlie haha

[Ittiz]

Yep, I did last year. I make a lot of experimental equipment. Last year I used a siphon to deliver sap from my bucket to a shallow pan automatically. I left it going on low and I went to bed. When I woke up I could smell burning sugar, I knew right away something went wrong. I ran down to take a look and the pan had just boiled down and started to burn. Apparently it was starting to get really thick and syrupy and it clogged the air intake so no more air could flow into the bucket preventing the sap from flowing out. Because I left it really shallow to maximize the evaporation rate it burned down quickly afterwards.

[Bruce L]

Yes I did about 15 years ago, had visitors standing around also didn't help. I couldn't get the fire to draw and rather than wait until it started to draw I added more wood which made the flames and smoke leak up the sides of the pans, dropping one of the handles off and running the solder on one corner. I hope to never do it again as this new rig is pretty expensive!

[tuckermtn]

yes- we did it last year. Float box wasn't working well and there you have it...

[sweetwater sugar shack]

Yup did it this year was in filtering walked out the door and could smell it as soon as I walked out hope to never do it again never walk away from the evaporator!

[maplehick]

brand new rig this year and wasn't ready for the intense boil it gives. But after three hours of cleaning I think I'll pay more attention to the pans. With a new rig the next time I think I'll go a little slower with lower sugar%. And don't tell every one to watch the first boil with you if they don't know what's going on. Your not the first (just enjoy the experience) !!!!

[Z/MAN]

My first boil EVER! Boiled all day and the wife called me in to have a sandwich. Came out just in time to find the pan starting to burn. Lots of scraping and scrubbing and a warped pan after. Became a sugarmaker that day and learned to never leave the rig unattended.
Paul

[COMSTOCK MAPLES]

Yup two small spots on new 2x6 custom. It's a big learning curve going from batch boil to continuous boil. Lucky mine wasn't that bad. I hear they can be very bad

[backyard sugaring]

My wife said to me are you guys cooking marshmellows when I realized my pan was burning up. I joined the sugarmaker club very early in this hobby. Good Luck, Lee

[vtgaryw]

My first boil EVER! Boiled all day and the wife called me in to have a sandwich. Came out just in time to find the pan starting to burn. Lots of scraping and scrubbing and a warped pan after. Became a sugarmaker that day and learned to never leave the rig unattended.
Paul

Hey! I could have written this post exactly as you did!

Gary

Cinder block arch with 3 steam table pans (newly line with firebrick this year.)
21 taps on tubing with a new sap puller this year
10 taps on buckets

[SWEETER CREATIONS]

See misery loves company !!!You wont be the last one either. Good luck . Mike

[stewardsdairy]

Knock on wood. Doing first boil of season tonight and don't want to jinx myself!

[dracmaple]

Wasn't my first boil but I really burnt my pan good last year. Was able to clean it enough to use it this year until I can get a new evaporator. Its true what they say, "your not a true sugar maker until you burn a pan" That's a smell I never want to experience again.

[Kyle M]

There is always the tell tale smell, sometimes Ill be in the backyard catch a whiff and I know its all over, Of course thats when I was using a turkey fryer and boredom overtook me, with the oil tank this year Ive been a lot better

[Sugarmaker]

Had boiled for years and never burned a pans owned by others 14 years ago when i fired up this rig I run now I had the center partitions covered and it made syrup in the center and I was not watching the sap depth, yaking to friends. I have done it several times since for different reasons. Always comes down to not having enough sap in the pans when you have fire underneath!
Regards,
Chris

[40to1]

(sigh)... burned my pan the first year and it buckled!
What was crazy is that I was shutting it down for the night. The fire was dying and the sap depth seemed OK, but the firebricks must have been giving off a lot of stored heat. Also didn't notice that the sap/syrup near the draw-off was at sugar stage. As the sugar content increased, so did it's ability to boil hotter and hotter. When I got to it, it was about 40˚ above boiling.

[Clinkis]

This thread brings up some painful memories.......I used to make syrup on 2 SS milk house sinks on propane burners in my old milk house. I had another sink with a tap on it that I would open on low to slowly add sap as it boiled down. I fired it up one afternoon and went to collect sap and apparently I forgot to open tap to let sap flow in. When I returned 45 min later I could smell that tell tale smell and saw one sink had boiled down so much it was actually on fire! I had made a steam hood out of half a plastic drum. It was melted and warped! I was lucky I didn't burn the barn down. VERY careless on my part. This was not the first time I'd scortched a pan but by far the worst. My entire setup was ruined. The following season I invested in a propane evaporator from laipierre with float boxes and an auto draw off. When it's up and running its totally automated and I don't need to do much. That said....I NEVER leave it running unattended for more then a couple minutes. I don't think the wife will let me replace this unit again especially if I ruin it because of my own stupidity! Have a good season everyone!

[MillbrookMaple]

Scorched the pan on the second draw of the night on the first day of the season this year. Running 15% concentrate and didn't notice that my float to the flue pan was not working right so there wasn't enough enough flow coming into the syrup pan to keep up with my draw. Lucky for us we have oil and I can flip the switch off. Ended up with a 3" circle of black to scrub off. If I was burning wood I would been in big trouble probably.

[mjjoutdoor]

I needed this thread today! Burnt mine this morning, poured in my concentrate lit my fire and went to collect some buckets while forgeting to open my feed tap. Needles to say it did not take long to ruin my pan. Of corse it looks like today is going to be one of my best sap runs.