danfredw
12-27-2020, 11:39 PM
Hi, looking for some evaporator arrangement advice and thoughts on an additional pan to what I currently have. Sorry for the long post and the sideways photos - they're normal on my computer.
I've gone from 5 hotel pans on a block arch evaporator to continuing to use 2 of the hotel pans but replacing 3 pans with a 2x3 smokey lake divided pan evaporator from my neighbor as we work together. We have been batch boiling tho we're considering actually going to continuous flow this year. Here is my old setup:
21695
Here is the new (tho we've tried having the large divided pan at the back, and in between 2 hotel pans (not sure which worked best):
21696
We like having the hotel pans for the extra gph capacity (I think we get 8-10 if that seems reasonable), tho it can be annoying adding to each pan, and we've had some slip ups at the end when I have to carefully pick them up and pour 1 hotel pan into the other. Since we're batch boiling, we finish on 1 hotel pan so we have to drag the divided pan off the to the side, drain as much as we feel safe then get it off the heat and remove the rest. Then add those pans back in with just regular water (I have a creek and figure it's safe enough).
Anyways, rather than buying a larger pan as sweetening it would be even harder, what do you think are the best options?
1) Get a 2x2 pan and have both going at the same time? Picking that one up would be a lot easier than the hotel pans, tho I have been looking for handles to attach to them. Hotel pans are 2-4" deeper into the fire than the flat bottom divided pan which affects things. And I guess I could cover both the 2x3 pan we have and if we got the 2x2 pan cover that too, and have them both go continuous flow (seems like a 2x2 pan is $5 cheaper than a 2x3 pan - odd)?
2) Make the evaporator smaller and have a second setup on the side? I would have 2 fires but could finish without having to replace an empty pan with a pan filled with water.
3) Just completely eliminate using the hotel pans and not get another divided pan and therefore make the evaporator smaller.
If I did get a second 2x2-3 pan, would it be best to keep it continuous flow and so get one that's divided, or use that one in batches and when we're close to finishing for the night, add its contents to the other pan? Not sure where to add it - in the middle or a bit everywhere?
On a different note, here is the only photo I could find without any pans in the evaporator:
21697
1) I've raised the back end up to the height of the chimney hole. If the divided pan is in the back, I think that's an 8" gap for the air to flow thru. With a hotel pan it's a little bit different. How much room should I leave for air flow?
2) How long should that section be? I think from the picture it's about 1.5 bricks. So probably about 2'. Should it be more or less?
We have around 35 taps currently, and he has 100-200 more trees available (I haven't counted). They aren't too close to where our other taps are, so we're still trying to figure out what we can do to access them as they're across a hay field that has some soggy parts year round. Basically, I'm saying we have potential to grow more. I think last year we boiled and RO'd around 300 gallons. Not many are sugar maples. I do want to switch to a real chimney with I think a through the wall insert so we can be more stable, draft better etc, and then eventually build a shack around it.
I've gone from 5 hotel pans on a block arch evaporator to continuing to use 2 of the hotel pans but replacing 3 pans with a 2x3 smokey lake divided pan evaporator from my neighbor as we work together. We have been batch boiling tho we're considering actually going to continuous flow this year. Here is my old setup:
21695
Here is the new (tho we've tried having the large divided pan at the back, and in between 2 hotel pans (not sure which worked best):
21696
We like having the hotel pans for the extra gph capacity (I think we get 8-10 if that seems reasonable), tho it can be annoying adding to each pan, and we've had some slip ups at the end when I have to carefully pick them up and pour 1 hotel pan into the other. Since we're batch boiling, we finish on 1 hotel pan so we have to drag the divided pan off the to the side, drain as much as we feel safe then get it off the heat and remove the rest. Then add those pans back in with just regular water (I have a creek and figure it's safe enough).
Anyways, rather than buying a larger pan as sweetening it would be even harder, what do you think are the best options?
1) Get a 2x2 pan and have both going at the same time? Picking that one up would be a lot easier than the hotel pans, tho I have been looking for handles to attach to them. Hotel pans are 2-4" deeper into the fire than the flat bottom divided pan which affects things. And I guess I could cover both the 2x3 pan we have and if we got the 2x2 pan cover that too, and have them both go continuous flow (seems like a 2x2 pan is $5 cheaper than a 2x3 pan - odd)?
2) Make the evaporator smaller and have a second setup on the side? I would have 2 fires but could finish without having to replace an empty pan with a pan filled with water.
3) Just completely eliminate using the hotel pans and not get another divided pan and therefore make the evaporator smaller.
If I did get a second 2x2-3 pan, would it be best to keep it continuous flow and so get one that's divided, or use that one in batches and when we're close to finishing for the night, add its contents to the other pan? Not sure where to add it - in the middle or a bit everywhere?
On a different note, here is the only photo I could find without any pans in the evaporator:
21697
1) I've raised the back end up to the height of the chimney hole. If the divided pan is in the back, I think that's an 8" gap for the air to flow thru. With a hotel pan it's a little bit different. How much room should I leave for air flow?
2) How long should that section be? I think from the picture it's about 1.5 bricks. So probably about 2'. Should it be more or less?
We have around 35 taps currently, and he has 100-200 more trees available (I haven't counted). They aren't too close to where our other taps are, so we're still trying to figure out what we can do to access them as they're across a hay field that has some soggy parts year round. Basically, I'm saying we have potential to grow more. I think last year we boiled and RO'd around 300 gallons. Not many are sugar maples. I do want to switch to a real chimney with I think a through the wall insert so we can be more stable, draft better etc, and then eventually build a shack around it.