How important is reverse flow on a pan?

[Bruce L]

Found a used evaporator for my nephew,but there is no way of reversing flow on this 2 x 6, am wondering how you would keep syrup pan clean that nitre won’t burn on?

[motowbrowne]

Found a used evaporator for my nephew,but there is no way of reversing flow on this 2 x 6, am wondering how you would keep syrup pan clean that nitre won’t burn on?

If that's the only thing you don't like, I wouldn't worry too much. The front pan should be small enough that it's not a big hassle to drain it and clean it. When I had a 2x10 that's all I ever did because drawing from the other side wasn't convenient. About every 60 gallons of syrup or so I'd clean it out. Worked fine.

[wiam]

I was boiling about 2000 taps on a 2x6. ROing to about 16%. 2x2 front pan. Not reversable. Pretty sure it would not have helped to reverse that small a pan. After boiling about 3 hours it was time to shut down and clean it anyway.

[tcross]

i'd think it wouldn't' be an issue 85% of the time. towards the end of the year it might suck. i was switching syrup pans every 1.5 hours the last 3 boils this year due to nitre build up! much of the reason i decided to call it a year about a week early!

[SeanD]

I was boiling about 2000 taps on a 2x6. ROing to about 16%. 2x2 front pan. Not reversable. Pretty sure it would not have helped to reverse that small a pan. After boiling about 3 hours it was time to shut down and clean it anyway.

That's what I do. With the RO, my boils are 2-3 hours. It's more effective to clean the pan between boils. Before the RO, boils were 8, 10, 12 hours depending on the run. That's when I wanted a reversible pan. I'd base part of your decision on the length of the boil.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

We've boiled over 600 gallons or about 12 hours of raw sap on our front pan without any niter burns. We usually try to clean every 8 hours or so (400-500 gallons) of sap. I assume it would be proportionally the same with RO'd sap. I actually have a local stainless contractor making me a new 2x2 so we have a spare pan. Then we will just change every boil or can easily shut down mid-boil and have a clean pan ready to go. I would look at investing into that before the reverse setup. About $1000 for our pan to be made.

[Super Sapper]

A lot depends on the amount of niter you get. I have gone 1500 gallons of raw sap on a 2X6 with a 2x2 front pan and have had to stop at as little as 300 to clean. The end of the season usually has more niter than the early season. I concentrate to 10 to 12% and switch half way through. My last boil was only 410 gallons of raw sap that I concentrated and boiled, switching half way through and the whole pan was nitered pretty good. Being able to reverse flow is nice if you have it but not a necessity, you just have to clean sooner.