Evaporating over Solo Stove?

[Andy VT]

Has anyone tried boiling sap over a Solo Stove? (A stainless steel secondary-burn fire pit)
I don't think I'd buy one for the express purpose of boiling sap, but since I have one anyway (Yukon model), and it is quite smoke-less, I can't help but wonder what it could do under a pan large enough to handle the flame.
Today I jury-rigged a stand and put a 12"x20"x4" hotel pan full to the brim with water and it boiled hard in 15 minutes from cold.
But the hotel pan would be too small for sap. Flames go around the sides and I'm pretty sure it would scorch.

So, since I expect to be a batch boiler for the forseeable future, not having the undistracted time to achieve or maintain a gradient, I'm considering getting a 2x2 or 2x3 flat pan with or without dividers and supporting it somehow to slide the Yukon under it.

Has anyone here already invented this wheel?

Last year I ran 3 hotel pans on 3 coleman liquid-fuel two-burner stoves burning gasoline outside and then finished in the kitchen. It worked fine for 9 taps but would have worked better when gasoline was cheaper! It was fun to have an excuse to operate those stoves. But I'm expanding this year, plus that setup would only be viable with considerably lower gasoline prices.

Anyone got a 2x2 or 2x3 pan for sale not too crazy far from Essex Junction, VT for this slightly embarrassing experiment? This is a case where a bit of warp may not be a biggie.

Side-note: the topic of "air-over-fire" has come up quite a bit. Is this a form of secondary burn?

Andy

[Andy VT]

Woops, slight correction, what I have is the Bonfire model (mid size), not the Yukon. The Yukon model is huge.

[DairyVet]

Can’t speak from experience with that stove, but how do you intend to feed the fire with a pan over the top? Another concern is that if you do decide to try it and just move the pan to feed the fire (sounds hazardous) it won’t be nearly as smokeless as you’re used to.

My suggestion would be search this site for concrete block arch designs. I started that way with hotel pans and upgraded to a Smoky Lake flat pan this year. If I ever get a toy barn built I’ll probably upgrade to one of their iron arches, but concrete works well enough for now.

[Andy VT]

The idea would be to have enough space between the top of the pit and the bottom of the pan to slide maybe a 4" log through. No moving of anything, other than that the pit might have to be slid out part way to initially start the fire. There would have to be some gap for the fire to burn as designed anyway (exact ideal spacing would take some experimenting). Plenty of reasons to have doubts about it though! The more I think about it though, it can't hurt to obtain a basic flat 2x3 pan either way. I'll heat it up somehow for many years to come, and if it stops suiting my needs someone will want it.

That said, has anyone tried reducing smoke in your outdoor evaporator of any kind with some kind of blower-less (convection) secondary burn? One thing the solo stove has taught me is that such a thing is possible and isn't rocket science (or maybe it kind of is), but could potentially take quite a bit of experimentation.

My main goal is keeping smoke flavor in the syrup to a minimum. Up to now I've avoided wood as fuel for this reason since I don't have a sugarhouse and won't any time soon. Of course it is quite possible that the lack of a chimney for my idea would negate any smoke-reduction benefits of the secondary burn.

[jniv]

We just started evaporating over our Bonfire Solo Stove and it's worked really well for our needs! Keeping in mind, we're a teeny tiny backyard operation (5 taps, processing just 10-15gal at a time).

The last few years we've used a fryer stand w/ propane, and this year we tried the solo stove w/ a catering pan on top (4" x 12" x 20"). That size pan gives us enough space to add logs as needed. The biggest challenge is, of course, trying to keep the heat consistent. But it goes much faster than the propane setup (and is way cheaper), and I love how it's super efficient.

We'll keep using the solo stove for the rest of this years' sugaring, and I'll share updates on any major findings. But yesterday's batch was definitely our tastiest and most beautiful yet! :D

22906

[Andy VT]

And all this time I was agonizing how to put a hotel pan over the solo stove without burning the sides of the pan, and you're like, why wouldn't I want to burn the sides, it tastes better that way!

Neat, thanks for sharing! I'm still not sure I can bring myself to purposely burn sides like that but I might at some point this season try my 2x3 pan over the solo stove if I can figure out a way to support it over it. Possible job for cinder blocks.

P.S., what I actually settled on for the 2023 season is a 2x2 propane 4-pipe-burner stand from a syrup canner, with the 2x3 flat pan on top and cinder blocks along the sides and a red brick floor underneath. Plus a 3-burner propane stove that can heat 3 hotel pans as overflow and pre-heating.

[donka]

Andy,
I think you’re on to something with solo stove idea. One thing you could try is a tripod with chain and cauldron setup. Flat pan would be a lot better. Does the bottom of the solo stove get super hot? I would maybe look into putting solo stove on casters. You could weld angle iron in a way so that solo stove fits in securely and attach casters and long handle so that you move fire pit when adding more wood instead of sap pan. For sap pan maybe you could stack cinder block on 3 sides so that fire pot slides in and under sap pan. Good luck and post pictures if you build, cool idea!!