new lead free soldered pan vs. teg welded

[lyford]

Looking for some advice. I currently cook on a 2x3 flat pan on a barrel evaporater. I'm looking into an upgrade for next season. Currently have 75 taps, with plans to expand a little each year. I have read many reviews on here about the smoky lake hybrid pans and was looking into the 2x4 or 2x5. The pans look awesome and i have yet to read a bad thing about them, but the price is an issue. i made a trip over to a local amish community in Connewango NY I and found a gentleman who will make a raised flue 2x3 pan and attached 2x2 front pan with floats and drawoff valve for $740, so less than half of what smoky lakes wants. The thing is he doesnt weld, the pans are all stainless, not mirror finished didnt think that mattered but correct me if Im wrong, and lead free soldered. So my question is, is the soldered pan a good deal, or will I be sorry i went with soldered and not welded. I've read some stories on here about some soldered pans getting pin holes, is this commonplace. Do I get the soldered pan now and i can slowly grow my operation until a tig welded pan is in the budget, or would you recommend I keep cooking on the flat pan until I can afford the welded pan. Any and all advice is appreciated, thanks for your time. -justin

[BreezyHill]

Go with the budget as your first divective. The second directive is production time. If you have time to keep boiling as you are then stay as you are. If lacking time or you can grow faster with the solder pans then buy them.

Yes tig is better as the two surfaces or seems are melted together. Solder is a connective binder.

Pin holes are found in all pans that are treated the same way over time. It is simply a hole from cleaning or just corrosion over time.

IMO..I would buy the amish pans and enjoy your next season. My rig is a several years old and is soldered and is just fine. There was a couple of pin holes in the bottom of two flues that I easily took care of. I will be upgrading in a few seasons to a new unit that will be wielded, as it is easier to clean and I run a rig for several years and at the end it will have a better resale value being tiged.

Good Luck!

[brookledge]

The biggest difference in my mind is what will happen if you accidently burn your pan. In both types they will deform or warp some but the tig welded will not leak. The soldered one will (or it is possible)and you will have to get it repaired.
Keith

[markct]

Pinholes is more an issue with older 400 series stainless which contained carbon. Its the material type not the fact it was soldered.

[buck3m]

I think there is no question the tig welded pans are better, and as mentioned I think it is primarily because a soldered pan run dry may be a much bigger disaster.

I bought an Amish soldered pan though, and have used it for three seasons and for me it was a good choice. I can do much more boiling for the money. That makes it a better value for me, at least so far.

[DrTimPerkins]

Resale value will be better with the welded pan than the soldered pan. Same for buying from one of the larger equipment manufacturers....any buyer down the road will be pretty well assured of being able to get support, whereas they will likely be less comfortable with a lesser-known outfit. Scorching the soldered pan and melting out the solder is probably the biggest concern though. With a welded pan you'll have a good amount of work to clean the scorch. With a soldered pan you'll likely have leaks that will mean some repairs....which is real problematic when you've got sap coming in.

[unc23win]

I'm not sure about your Amish shop, but A&A Metal in Ulysses, PA is very well known for their evaporators all over the syrup belt. It is true what others have said about solder verse tig and more than likely true about resale (maybe resale isn't and issue at all), but the up front cost is definitely less. Another issue I have been told about the Amish is that they can't bend the flues as tight so they are less efficient (not sure how much of a difference). However the quality is very good and there is a thread on here about A&A Metal and someone asks about them just about every season. I can tell you this from experience you can learn how to repair a soldered pan yourself and I would also say this for that price buy two syrup pans and take all the pans off after the season and avoid corrosion and you won't need to make repairs and ORDER EARLY!

[motowbrowne]

This is what I would do: you say you're going to expand a little each year. Buy the Amish pans now since you'll grow out of them in a few years. When you're ready to stop expanding sell the Amish pans and buy your dream rig from smoky lake.

[lyford]

Thanks for all the replies everybody. I've learned alot by reading this forum over the last few years and asking questions. It seems like the consensus is to go ahead with the amish built pans. I appreciate all the advice and will be going that route. Time to order the pan and start planning an arch, gonna be a busy off season.