My retaining wall block evaporator - preheater suggestions?

[311Hemi]

I built a new house on some land 3 years ago and my new neighbors planted the bug in me for maple syrup. At that time, I watched them tap some trees and then helped them with their boils. The following year I tapped a few of my own trees and borrowed a barrel evaporator to do my first. Last year I wanted to start doing this myself and wanted something a little bigger so I had my brother in law weld up a 14 guage 2x4 SS pan. Trying to do this on the cheap, I built my arch out of retaining wall block (which I have a large number of extra from building the house).

Here is my setup from last year:
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Last year I was able to get around 8 gph if I remember correctly (no forced air), but I am hoping I can increase that. This year I pan to build a metal structure out of angle iron to sit on top of the block walls for the pan to sit on and add a front to the arch with a door. I will also be lining the inside walls with firebrick with the idea that this will help keep more heat (I had a number of gaps in the blocks last year). Last, I plan to add some grates for the fire to sit on (was on the ground last year).

My main question is related to pre-warming the sap. In the pics above, I am pre-warming in the restaurant style SS pain which seems to take a little while, even though I am getting flames back to that area. Is there a better way I could set up the pre-warming pan to make it more efficient (I only fill that pan about half way)? I had thought about moving it to the front of the arch, directly over the fire but I don't know how that would affect the boil in my main pan. Last year I had to pre-warm on a turkey fryer to keep up with the main pan, but would prefere to burn wood for everything.

Any thoughts/recommendations?

[psparr]

I think the way you have it is about the best way. Adding grates and some air under the fire will greatly improve your rig.

[mellondome]

And split your wood smaller.

[311Hemi]

And split your wood smaller.

When the pan is on I am splitting the wood much smaller, that pic was just taking when I was starting the first fire in that setup.

[Sugarmaker]

Reminds me of the first time I remember making syrup as a kid. I got to play with fire, stay up late, and drink all the sweet syrup I wanted! I was hooked, that was 55+ years ago.
Regards,,
Chris

[311Hemi]

Reminds me of the first time I remember making syrup as a kid. I got to play with fire, stay up late, and drink all the sweet syrup I wanted! I was hooked, that was 55+ years ago.
Regards,,
Chris

My kids enjoy it, especially jumping on the wheeler to go tap trees and collect sap. They are only 4 and 6 now, so they tire quickly of the 12-16 hour day when we boil but are out and around a lot of the day.

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[Daveg]

Some people use 1/4" soft copper tubing that they coil around their smokestack. To do that, you'd need a way to rig a container with a valve to control the feed rate. Another way (that I rigged up) was using a 5 gallon Igloo water container. I replaced the spring loaded thumb valve with a plastic faucet. I had some radiant hot water copper pipe that still had the aluminum fins intact, and using some copper fittings I was able to fashion a way for it to stand next to my chimney and hooked it up to the Igloo container with copper pipe. A true Rube Goldberg set up, but the sap went from 35°F to around 90°F at a slow feed rate.

[Bucket Head]

311Hemi,
Don't feel bad- I get tired of the 12-16 hour days too, lol! I guess it's all part of the experience!
Good luck this season!

[311Hemi]

Thanks everyone. My warming pan is currently one of the resaurant pans so I think I am going to make that into a drop tube setup which should help increase my prewarming. Once I get that done I will need to look into a way to either elevate it a bit, or make a siphon setup of some sort.

[berkshires]

Thanks everyone. My warming pan is currently one of the resaurant pans so I think I am going to make that into a drop tube setup which should help increase my prewarming. Once I get that done I will need to look into a way to either elevate it a bit, or make a siphon setup of some sort.

You could do that, but you'll get much more bang from your buck from putting drop tubes on pans that are boiling. Better to put those drop tubes in the back (flue) half of your big pan, and if you don't like how the little pan is warming things, just put a pot on a turkey fryer/camp stove.

Good luck!

[311Hemi]

You could do that, but you'll get much more bang from your buck from putting drop tubes on pans that are boiling. Better to put those drop tubes in the back (flue) half of your big pan, and if you don't like how the little pan is warming things, just put a pot on a turkey fryer/camp stove.

Good luck!

I would do that if I knew I always had help. My pan is 2x4 and is 16 gauge steel, so it's quiet heavy even without sap in it. I think it would be difficult to manage with one person when trying to empty it of sap when I am done boiling for the day and trying not to burn the pan.