Boiling with Leader supreme pan?

[steve J]

I have a new supreme pan for my 2x4 Mason. I never boiled with drop flu and this pan has clues on in center track. It boils wildly in that track but not nearly as hard in third track. I found that my syrup was not moving to third track well until I cut my blower to half speed. Also pan boils best at just under 1 inch but Leader has draw off starting at 1/2 inch so if you have a good boiled it will draw only a trickle I have to open feed tank to raise level which is sort of stupid from my point of view!

[sbingham]

Steve - you will get a great boil at 1" depth, but you will need to keep a close eye on it - bad things can happen really quick.
I'd run a sap depth of 1.5" or so - that will also put the level a bit higher on your draw off valve.
It sounds like you may be pushing the heat past the pan too quickly.
I have had a couple arches with forced air - I've found it is best to fabricate a "plate" that you can put over the intake side of the fan.
You can move the plate to allow more or less air in - I usually have 2/3 of the opening covered.
I did this even though the fan had a rheostat to control the speed.
It will keep more heat under your pan. I would think that you should expect 10-12 gallons per hour evaporation rate with your set up.
Good luck!

[steve J]

I do think I was boiling to hot and forcing heat up chimney although I never saw elbow get cherry red like in the past. for my flat pan I had a wall built inside evaporator to within 2 inches of the bottom of the pan to force heat to bottom of pan at the rear. With this pan having flues that drop down 2.5 inches in center channel only I had to lower the wall in the middle to allow for these flues. But I maintained the higher wall for both side channels. I wonder if that is a mistake and most of the heat is passing under the center channel? Or is the design f this pan meant to make that center channel run hotter? I think I was getting close to 18 per hour once I back off the heat but will try to figure accurately tomorrow when I boil again..

[mol1jb]

I do think I was boiling to hot and forcing heat up chimney although I never saw elbow get cherry red like in the past. for my flat pan I had a wall built inside evaporator to within 2 inches of the bottom of the pan to force heat to bottom of pan at the rear. With this pan having flues that drop down 2.5 inches in center channel only I had to lower the wall in the middle to allow for these flues. But I maintained the higher wall for both side channels. I wonder if that is a mistake and most of the heat is passing under the center channel? Or is the design f this pan meant to make that center channel run hotter? I think I was getting close to 18 per hour once I back off the heat but will try to figure accurately tomorrow when I boil again..

Since the flues are only in the center pan it will always boil harder. Flues are designed to add surface are to a pan so that the sap has a greater exposure to the heat. So your center channel has much better transfer from heat to sap and will always boil harder than your side channels.