Pre heating sap

[brikel]

Hello all, I finally got to fire up my newly built arch this weekend. It is going to be a learning curve for me. I have a question though. I wrapped 3/8 ID copper tubing around the stack to pre heat the sap going into my 30" x 48" drop flu pan. I never got it to pre heat any sap. The evaporator boiled the sap so fast I had to keep the tubing flowing full bore to keep up with evaporation. The cold sap never seemed to slow down boiling. My question is, is it worth pre heating the sap if it does not seem to effect boil rates? might seem silly asking that but I am curious. I was boiling around 25 gals per hour.

[slammer3364]

If your boiling 25 gph whats the use.I heard wrapping the tubing around stack you have to be careful not to turn it into sugar.

[mellondome]

If your running a flu pan, why not build a real preheater and hood?
Sounds like you have a 30"x8'. If so, you have a lot more room for improvement before concerns of a preheater. You should be in the 75-80gph range.

[brikel]

If your running a flu pan, why not build a real preheater and hood?
Sounds like you have a 30"x8'. If so, you have a lot more room for improvement before concerns of a preheater. You should be in the 75-80gph range.

I can see the need for a hood now but will pass this year. My pan is only 4' long. Just thought I would throw the pre heater on until I see what this arch would do. I believe I could get a little more out of it but I had to be careful firing because I was running out of sap fast. 1112811126