when the process is done

[maplekid]

when you get done making syrup and your ready to put the fire out what is the best way to do it. do you smuther it? or do you throw water on it or something.

[Grade "A"]

I would not put water on it, it would most likely crack the bricks in there. What you should do is find out how much sap will boil off in the amount of time it takes for your arch to cool down by itself. Once you know that you can tell when to stop feeding the fire by how much sap you have left in your tanks.

[3% Solution]

Good morning Kid,
Yup Grade "A" is right, you got to figure out when to stop by the amount of sap.
Don't leave that son of a gun, stay with it.
I usually find that is a good time to clean up while the rig is cooling down.
Now my rig, I stop firing at about 5 -7 gallons, that gives me enough sap to keep going through the pre-heater (located on the back of the base stack).
As the rig is cooling down I keep cutting the sap back (this is to keep some in reserve), then when I can put my hand on the base stack I flow the rest of the sap through into the flue pan.
Usually the flue pan will have 1 1/2" in it when I'm done.
That will steam down to about 1", then I can start flowing slowing at the beginning of the next boil.
Now here's the kicker this coming Spring, I have a new arch and will have (fingers crossed) a steam-away, so now I will have to figure it out all over again!
It's trial and error and for the error part you may need a couple of buckets of sap or water handy.
Those two items help with the rectal pucked.

Dave

[hard maple]

I use to know this old farmer that put a kevlar coated goose down comforter on the fire when he was done boiling.
not recommended though.

[Fred Henderson]

I have seen some take a shovel to take all the coals and burning wood out and throw it ouside. Then leave the doors open on the fire box .

[RileySugarbush]

When I was boiling batch style with steam table pans, I needed to shut down the fire fast since there was no draw off and I needed to lift the pans to dump the finished syrup. Because of poor draft, there was always ton's of coals still putting out heat. I found the best way to knock that heat down was to toss a couple of thin sheet metal pieces over the coals to reflect the radiant heat. May work in an evaporator too.

If you have forced draft, there are fewer ashes and embers to deal with and if you do the last firings with fine split wood, the shut down can be very quick.

[Breezy Lane Sugarworks]

AND with the forced draft it will continue to blow in air to help cool everything very well. it especially helps if the air suction is from the outside.