Preheating Ideas,

[luke12]

Hi, I am looking for Ideas on preheating my sap, as I have an undivided flat pan and would like to keep feeding it continously and keep the boil rate, Just looking for some ideas, also I dont have a hood.

I was wondering if I placed copper pipe inside the pan where the sap is boiling if this would help, or would the copper effect the taste of the syrup,

Any ideas will help as my boiling rate is very low right now,

Thanks

[optionguru]

What kind of arch do you have? I would think the cold sap in the copper pipes cooling your pan would offset any gain. I have 1/2" copper tube wrapped around my stack about ten times and then insulated to keep the heat in. The tube is attached to a SS 7 gallon stock pot then I soldered a gate valve to the end to adjust flow. With a constant trickle coming out the sap enters the pipe cold and by the time it enters the pan it's about 110 degrees.