New pans, "V" flues

[Everhard]

Hello all, I'm in the process of planning out and having new pans made - I'm debating going away from the traditional flue build and trying out "V" shaped flues instead.
Has anyone had any experience with this? Good bad otherwise?

Also is there a reason I should keep the V from being too tight? ie if I go with a V that's 2" wide at the open end would that work? can I go tighter? Should I go wider?
My apologies if this has already been discussed, I tried searching but didn't have any luck finding anything.

Thanks,

E.

[toquin]

Mine are 3" deep and 1.5" open at top. I get a 6" to 8" jumping boil. Seems like there was a post (pictures) from a member building his own V flue pan. Hard to clean if to tight

[psparr]

If you can find someone to weld up a traditional flue pan, go that route. It will be much more efficient than a V pan. You'll get more surface area and it will be easier to clean.

[Bernie/MA]

I made a V flue pan. Worked ok but took a lot of sap to cover the flues before you could start boiling. Finishing was ok because you can chase the sap with water.

[Everhard]

I made a V flue pan. Worked ok but took a lot of sap to cover the flues before you could start boiling. Finishing was ok because you can chase the sap with water.

Wouldn't they use the same amount of sap? (approx - if you calculate the area using the drop and the width and if the flues are as wide as the space between the flues then the area for sap is 50% of the total area. whether the flues are rectangular or "v" they should both take 50% of that area.)

What do you mean by chasing the sap out with water to finish? How is that different between the 2 style of flues?

Thanks,
E.

[Bernie/MA]

The factory I was working at could only press flues 6" deep by 6" wide which is why it took so much sap. Your's wouldn't likely be much different than regular flues. When you have run out of sap and won't be boiling again soon or done for the season you can run water in instead of sap. It won't mix much. You can tell by the color when it reaches the syrup pan so you can drain the colored into a bucket and finish it on the stove in the house or dump it in when you fire up again. Then flood with water so residual heat won't run your pans dry.

[wmick]

Hi Folks
Been doing some Pan design and I thought it kind of fit with this thread..
Attached a pic... which includes my basic manufacturing plan.... as well as a few interesting comparisons/calculations on the surface area (heat transfer) and sap capacity.
Thought someone might find it interesting. especially the surface areas. (efficiency)

(FYI - for those not familiar... a "back-brake" is where you put a temporary bend in the steel, in order to allow tooling access for the adjacent bends.. and then "flatten" the temporary bend out. )
Not sure if this how the big guys do it.. but it can be done.

15655

[Everhard]

Nice drawing Wmick! I'd be curious to see what the total surface area is if you went with say 10 v's? Based on your measurements that would make the openings basically 2 inches.

E.

[wmick]

Nice drawing Wmick! I'd be curious to see what the total surface area is if you went with say 10 v's? Based on your measurements that would make the openings basically 2 inches.

E.

No Prob - attached the updated sketch... Volume of sap stayed exactly the same but the surface area almost doubled to 6048 sq in.
15683

[Everhard]

Thanks! Ya, I figured it should work out well. Unfortunately for me time ran out so I'm going to have to get the pans made up for next season. Didn't want to be too rushed. Anyway, have made some changes to my arch and pans, hopefully they will help and then next year new pans.

E.

[Martin Wollmann]

So did you go with the V shaped pan?