New 2'x5' pan on a 2'x6' home built evaporator

[craig1bc]

I just finished building my evaporator and did my first burn last Friday and I wanted to get your take on my success. I have a flat divided pan 2'x5' stainless and evaporator inside is filled with 1" insulation and 1" firebrick both 2" and 1" on the sides and the back of the evaporator. I also installed a 124cfm dayton fan as well on the back of the ash pan.

We will getting a consistent boil at 212' to 214' for almost the entire 24 hours that we used it last week. I was averaging 15gph. We have a small prefilter we installed half way though the night and it allowed us to add the sap at a more consistent format.

1. How many gallons should a pan this size burn per hour? GPH?
2. We were blowing alot of high temp heat out of the stack. We stack at times we pushing 800' does that sound correct?
3. Any tips to up the GPH rate?
4. Anything you can see that I did wrong that I can change to make it better next season?

Here is a link to a video I took at full boil.

https://youtu.be/E-qNILqOHqo

Thanks,

[Super Sapper]

Stack temp is fine, many are hotter. Try reducing the area under pan to equal your stack. An 8 inch stack should have 2 inches below the pan.

[craig1bc]

i am hoping to convert to a dropped flue pan for next season so I made a 8" gap under the back of the pan. Do you think I can lay some firebrick down there to push the air closer to the pan? What else could I lay down there to pusch the heat closer to the pan?

[fisheatingbagel]

15 gph on a 2x5 flat pan is pretty darn good. My 2x5 hybrid drop flue pan gets around 25 gph without forced air, and that's with careful firing.

[WESTMAPLES]

i would fill from the top of the ramp to just before the bottom of your stack with brick for now , keep it a 1/2 in - 1 inch from the bottom of the pan, it will boil like crazy. then when you change it over to a drop flue you can just pull them out .

[craig1bc]

Can I get a piece of Fireboard and use that instead of the fire brick? It would be considerably less weight and easy to install?

[maple75]

I used sand/ash mixture last year to close up the space (for lack of anything else available to me at the time) and it worked fine. Use whatever you have that will withstand the heat.

[craig1bc]

Yep I agree. I went to my local Leader deal in East Concord and he recommended using sand. It made a huge change to the boil rate and production today.

Thanks for the tip everyone!

Craig

[Russell Lampron]

I agree with everyone else except you should have used vermiculite though. It doesn't hold moisture and doesn't weigh anything. You could shovel it out when you get your flue pan and put it in your garden.