The right pan for my cinder block evaporator

[Swingpure]

My biggest investment for 2023 will be a new pan for my cinder block evaporator.

Changes for 2023, I will be dropping down from 109 taps to 80 and if the new recommendations come out against double taps, it will be more like 68 taps.

I will have a pan that will be sitting on top, instead of the five steam pans sitting inside. I will redesign my evaporator slightly because of that, which should help to keep the heat and smoke better inside the evaporator.

My evaporator this year had a lot of heat on the front two thirds of the evaporator and a fair drop off in heat on the last third, which makes me afraid of any two pan system. Flue pans are outside my price range.

That sort of leaves a 2x5 flat pan or 2x5 divided pan.

I really like the idea of a float box. I know I can use a float box with a divided pan, not sure if it typical to use one with a flat pan. I like the idea of maintaining the sap level in the pan with the float box.

I like the idea of a divided pan, but I worry if I have enough sap volume for it, especially if my RO is working and it halves the volumes.

If I have a float box, I will design my sugar shelter to have a head tank and I would pump concentrate from my garage to the head tank.

Thanks for any suggestions.

[NhShaun]

In 2015 i purchased a 2x6(2x4 sap pan,2x2 syrup pan) flat pan with dividers and preheater for about $800 and used it on my cinder block arch for 3 years. I have since built a steel mostly airtight arch but am still running the same pan set up. I have increased my tap count every year since and this set up still gets the job done even with 300 taps. I would suggest getting yourself a good set of pans now so you can upgrade to an arch instead of cinder blocks down the road without having to buy new pans. Just make sure your pans are a somewhat standard size and not some oddball dimensions.
Having dividers in your pan is ideal, even better to have a 2 pan system(Front/back) a 2x6 may be easier to get your hands on with that set up than a 2x5.

[Russell Lampron]

I agree with NhShaun, 2x5 is kind of an odd size. If you could make your arch 2x4 or 2x6 you could look for and probably find a used divided cross flow pan from a larger evaporator. The float box may be a little harder to find but you may be able to have a local welding shop fabricate one for you. If you could go to NH, Bascom's has a lot of used equipment and may have the pan that you're looking for.

As for the heat distribution you could make a ramp just behind the firebox out of fire brick and fill behind it with sand. Build it up so that there's about a 1/2 inch gap between the bottom of the pan and top of the ramp. Taper it back just before the smoke stack so that it can breathe. This will keep the heat under the pan better for a better boil and evaporation rate.

[Swingpure]

Thank you for the tips.

As I was waking up this morning, I was thinking a 2x4 divided pan would be best for me, for all of the reasons you had mentioned and I think it would better match my volumes of sap I would be getting. I could shorten up my evaporator a little and design it so the ramp leading to the stack would be fairly close to the bottom of the pan. The person I would get the 2x4 pan from, makes the float boxes. As mentioned in the tips, if I ever decide to upscale, I can still use the pan on a real evaporator.

Taking advice for an earlier post on another thread, I could add a base stack, so the exhaust would exit the width of the pan, but a twist to it, I would still have it exiting out the rear of the evaporator and would embed the base stack in concrete like it did for my previous pipe. Or I could find a way to have it upright at the end. I would increase my stove pipe size to 8” from 6”.

I will speaking to the pan maker tomorrow.

I could then have a preheat coil sort of around the stove pipe, but would have it more U shaped so I could control the distance away from the stove pipe.

Although I am downsizing the number of taps I will have next season, I may find with the RO working and the new pan, that I can add more taps without a much greater demand on my time.

[aamyotte]

Do you have a local pan maker near you that builds custom size pans?

[Swingpure]

Do you have a local pan maker near you that builds custom size pans?

He is out of Owen Sound. A little hike, but not too bad.

I pm’d his contact information to you.

[berkshires]

I like the idea of a divided pan, but I worry if I have enough sap volume for it, especially if my RO is working and it halves the volumes.


Could you explain what you mean by this? For a given size pan, I would think that if you have less sap, a divided pan would be better than a big flat pan, as you could just boil for a bit and do a draw or three, rather than having to take everything to syrup in a big batch in a pan that might be big for you.

I definitely agree that 2x4 is better than 2x5.

GO

[Swingpure]

Could you explain what you mean by this? For a given size pan, I would think that if you have less sap, a divided pan would be better than a big flat pan, as you could just boil for a bit and do a draw or three, rather than having to take everything to syrup in a big batch in a pan that might be big for you.

I definitely agree that 2x4 is better than 2x5.

GO

I guess I am a little ignorant on how the pan works. I guess once you fill the pan to the level you want (2”), whatever you have to add, is what you boil. I guess the trick with a wood burning evaporator, is to stop adding wood in advance of running out of sap.

When you rotate the pan to change the direction of the flow, usually is the pan ported such that the float box stays in the same place? (ie rear left)

[Swingpure]

Spoke with the guy who I will be buying the divided pan and float box from and also discussed my evaporator. We talked about him making a stainless steel base stack coming from the top of the evaporator. He said you do not want any 90° in the pipe. He would build it so it could be attached to my cinder block evaporator.

He also said I should have an 8” stack pipe. He asked if my stack ever got red hot. I said no. He sent me a picture of how hot his stainless steel stack gets. He said, half jokingly, if it does not get red hot, you are just having a camp fire.

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0b8zH-M_BgG3LMZJkgxrzYppg

Just have to find a way to afford the base stack and attaching plate. It is not that expensive, but that is on top of the cost of the pan and float box. I will find a way.

[berkshires]

I guess I am a little ignorant on how the pan works.

No dividers: You have to fill the whole pan, then you have to boil and keep adding sap until everything has turned to syrup or near syrup, then you have to get it all off and finish it.

Dividers: After sweetening the pan at the start of the season, each time you boil you just add as much sap as you have to one end, and the equivalent amount of syrup comes out the syrup end (more or less). You then leave the remaining sweet on the pan and repeat each time you have a run.

In short, no dividers equals one big batch each time you boil. Dividers equals sap in one end and equivalent syrup out the other.

Gabe

[thomashansen871]

I have a flat pan, I love it. Mine is 3x6 feet. I made it myself. This was the first year we cooked over wood. We were using propane, but went through a lot on one cook. So I will be building a block arch. The benefit to a flat pan is being able to get it close to finished, then pull it off and finish it.

[Wannabe]

Swingpure, I wouldn't sweat about too expensive of a pan if I was you. Once/if you get your RO up and running and fine tune your wood/draft to get a HOT fire you'll be sitting just fine. It doesn't have to drain your bank account if you just want to make enough syrup for you and some friends/gifts.

[Swingpure]

Swingpure, I wouldn't sweat about too expensive of a pan if I was you. Once/if you get your RO up and running and fine tune your wood/draft to get a HOT fire you'll be sitting just fine. It doesn't have to drain your bank account if you just want to make enough syrup for you and some friends/gifts.


It’s funny you mentioned that.

I have been reflecting on the season and I enjoyed it and it was a lot of work and I did it all myself and I made 106.5 L of great tasting syrup and I am both grateful and proud. But it truly totally dominated my time for the six weeks of the season.

I don’t need 106.5 L. I just need enough for me, my family and a few close friends.

The big realization, as I now move on to season 2, is this is a hobby. I am not making it to sell. I was asked if it was fun and fun was not one of the adjectives that came to mind, although many other positive adjectives did.

(Edit: Actually making and designing and testing the evaporator was fun, making the RO and vacuum filter was fun, and all of the other redneck things I made was fun, and seeing the sap coming out of the tree and the first boil, finish, filter and first bottles of syrup was very cool, and tasting it for the first time was very rewarding.)

I have already made the decision to downsize my number of taps, go strictly with lines and lose all of the pails. For sure get the RO going and to get a better pan.

As I was taking apart my temporary sugar shack and taking apart the evaporator somewhat, I started to think about what do I really need, to make about 70 L of syrup. I have a good 6” stovepipe, do I really need to go to 8”, do I really need a base stack, do I really need to go through the roof of the shack and buy the extra stuff to do that safely. I haven’t answered those questions yet.

I know I want a better pan. A 2x4 flat pan is a better pan for me than what I currently have and would work just fine and would be less expensive. A 2x4 divided pan is an even better pan, but you need a float box with that and essentially that will double the price. That setup has advantages as the float box would allow the sap be shallower, than likely I would dare to allow it on a flat pan, and I think it would be less work with the only pan responsibilities is to keep enough concentrate in the head tank and drawing off the syrup from time to time. I think it would reduce boiling time and I think it will make lighter syrup.

I have a lot of different decisions to make, from the shack, to the evaporator, to the pan, and have to make them in the context of this is a hobby, watch your dollars, and try it make it fun. But those are all fun decisions to make and I now have a little bit of experience to help me make the right decisions for me.

[Swingpure]

If I just went with a 2x4 flat pan, with draw off valve and temp probe, is the lightest colour of syrup I can hope for is amber (which is okay), or is it possible to get a golden colour from a flat pan?

One other question, this past season using the steam pans, if I boiled 40 gallons of sap, let’s say for easy math, I produced about a gallon or so of nearup. Now on a 2x4 pan, a gallon of nearup would not be very deep, so I have to figure one of two things, both with the same conclusion, which is you likely need closer to 100 gallons of sap, either on a one day boil, or over the course of two days of boiling with an overnight break, so that you end up with enough nearup, so that it is not too shallow when you go to pull the pan off?

Edit: I found the answer to the second paragraph with a little searching, which brings up another question, if I boil let’s say 50 gallons of sap, each day for three days, before pulling it off, I suspect that will be fairly dark syrup?

Thanks

[DRoseum]

Id recommend to go with a divided flat pan. You can use it in continuous flow mode or in batch mode. This leaves you with options/flexibility. Get it with alternate ports so you can reverse it and add a float box later if you are uncertain of how you want to grow for upcoming year and beyond.

[Swingpure]

Id recommend to go with a divided flat pan. You can use it in continuous flow mode or in batch mode. This leaves you with options/flexibility. Get it with alternate ports so you can reverse it and add a float box later if you are uncertain of how you want to grow for upcoming year and beyond.

So you could just rig up something that drizzles sap into the one corner and you do not need a float box? For some reason I thought it was a necessary component, but I can see now, how it would be a good thing, but not an absolutely necessary thing. I will have to ask what the price is just for the divided pan.

Thanks

[berkshires]

So you could just rig up something that drizzles sap into the one corner and you do not need a float box? For some reason I thought it was a necessary component, but I can see now, how it would be a good thing, but not an absolutely necessary thing. I will have to ask what the price is just for the divided pan.

Thanks

You don't even need anything to drizzle continuously into one corner. You just need to keep adding sap, like any other pan (including your steam tray pans). A steady flow and a shallow pan will increase how often you can make draws. But as long as you add sap to one end only, you'll wind up with syrup on the other end.

GO

[Pdiamond]

I started off with a flat pan 2 x 3. The arch was made from an old fuel oil drum. We had a space behind the pan to set metal coffee cans filled with sap as our pre-heat for the sap Once one can would start to boil I would add it and place cold sap back in and rotate cans. I kept 3 or 4 inches in the pan until I ran out of sap then boiled it down just so far and would empty into a canning pan to finish. Now that I have learned some things, if I were still using a flat pan I would maintain a level of 3/4 to 1 inch of sap ( faster boil ) and use something above the pan as a head tank to keep the pan at a constant level. The same would be true for a divided pan, but I would run that at 1 to 2 inches, with something above for a head tank to trickle in to maintain a constant level.

[Brien]

I stopped boiling after I burned off my stack of wood. Cutting down, splitting, hauling and stacking 3 face cord of wood is enough for me. So I am not going to aim at making a certain amount of syrup. Once the woods gone, im done. By saying that, I guess buying a RO makes sense. This year though I am going to make my 10ft x 20ft shack. Oh yeah, I have a 2x3 flat pan and finishing up with 10litres of near syrup works good for me

[johnallin]

The Leader Half Pint - where lots of us started - covers all of your concerns and (in my opinion) is one of the best starter rigs ever produced.
It has a true divided pan, preheat "tank" and I made lots of really good syrup on mine. Back in 2006 I purchased one brand new for about $850 and sold 3 years later for almost the same.

[berkshires]

The Leader Half Pint - where lots of us started - covers all of your concerns and (in my opinion) is one of the best starter rigs ever produced.
It has a true divided pan, preheat "tank" and I made lots of really good syrup on mine. Back in 2006 I purchased one brand new for about $850 and sold 3 years later for almost the same.

The leader half pint would be a huge downgrade in GPH. Unless you want to drop to 50 or fewer taps I would not consider it. You'd be better off with what you have now.

GO

[DiWe]

After I burned through my stack of wood, I stopped boiling. 3 face cord of wood is enough for me to cut down, split, haul, and stack. So I'm not going to set a goal to make a specific amount of syrup. I'm done once the woods are gone. Considering that, I suppose purchasing a RO makes sense.

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