2x4 Raised Flue Evaporator

[MaineMapleDave]

While boiling in my little Half Pint Saturday, I was perusing some of my old maple-equipment catalogs, and ran across an interesting evaporator. I have a 1995 Small Brothers catalog that has a beautiful-looking little 2x4 2-pan raised-flue evaporator.

The flue pan was 24x30 and the syrup pan 24x18. Looks perfect for what I aspire to, but it seems that noone makes a 2x4 raised-flue anymore, and I wondered if anyone knew why? A couple of sources have 1-pan, drop-flue 2x4's, but that's about all I can find.

I really really really like the idea of the raised-flue back pan, and am looking to move up from the Half Pint in the next couple of years, so wondered what anyone knew or thought about 2x4 evaporators.

Love that little Half Pint, but the boiling is just plain toooo slooooow...........

[mapleman3]

DAve you should talk with Chris from the maple guys here!! they are creating a new line of evaps, and they may be doing small sizes... who knows they may be able to custom make one with your name on it!!! :D

[Al]

Dave you may want to look at a Algiers Thrifty model evaporator. It's 24 x 66. I got mine this year after boiling on a homemade barrel last year. Love it. I'm running 76 taps now and will go to 101 next season. It's a nice size and boils about 25 gallons an hour. As far as the only drawback I can see is you have to have at least 60-70 taps to get enough sap to start it up. I usaully wait untill I have 125-150 gallons to fire it up. I had 60 buckets but was waiting 6-7 days to get enough sap together to boil. That was alright in cold weather but torwards the end of the season it may be a concern.
Now take this all with a grain of salt because this is my first year boiling on a real rig. :D Chris can really give you all the scoop.
Take care.