New Evaporator Questions

[NHnewbie]

Let me start and say I am new to this all, but I have seem to quickly caught the bug. I bought a barrel evaporator from a local guy who makes them, and he made a stainless baffled continuous flow pan. After looking back I think was a little too exuberant in buying such a pan, because I only intend to do this as a hobby. Regardless, here is my situation and question.. The pan is 22"x 19" w/baffles for the gradients to form. I boiled about 15 gallons last week and I had a homemade warming pan constantly adding sap on one end to keep the level consistent and the boil going. I know that hadn't boiled enough for a draw, but I didn't have time for to boil all 50 gallons of sap, so i finished on propane. But i noticed after 15 gallons, I could see a difference in color, but no gradient seemed to be forming, in other words the two baffles nearest the draw point, seemed to be the same color. Should I have even seen a difference yet or does it take more sap to get a gradient formed?

Also, if in the future, could I stop my boil without a gradient formed, and pick up the next day, similar to the idea as if the pan had been sweetened, or should i finish on propane like I did?

Lastly, as a hobbyist, next year I intend on tapping more trees, but I'm not sure if I will boil more than once weekly, is it worth having a second pan built to match my evaporator to use just as a batch boil pan, or does it make sense to sweeten the pan and try to use it as it was intended even if my boils will be spread out by a few days? I think this is where my over excitement in buying a setup too soon may have gotten the better of me...

[snakes14009]

So this year was my first year boiling on my own rig as well. My pan is 24x32 with 4 channels and i have had a similar concern the most sap i have boiled until this last weekend was 65 gallons or so. This past weekend i went through 120, and after 2 days of boiling i still was not at finish temperature or density. The most i got the pan to was 215 and the hydrometer was just starting to float. So it takes way more sap than you think to setup a gradient and maintain one. I had to split up my boiling days between Saturday and Sunday due to time restrictions. As long as you pull some of the sweetest sap off and add it the next day you will be fine. you dont need to have another pan made to batch boil yours will work just fine.