ICE HURTS

[WF MASON]

We had temps this morning at 10', talked to a guy in Jackson , NH, his drop flue pan froze and split the flue drain.
Awhile later heard from a sugarmaker in Chocorua NH, he had sap in his storage tank, went out this morning and found the end of his tank split open with a big chunk of ice in there, BEWARE THE COLD TEMPERATURES.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Keep relaying the message because I went over yesterday to drain my evaporator for the season and it got below 20 the night before and I had the flue pan drain full of ice and that was with a TON of sugar content in the pan.

I don't know a lot about evaporators but I thing when the temps get down in the teens or single digits, better take some precautions. Better safe than sorry because when it gets that cold, my aluminum sap buckets on the tree freeze nearly solid and expand and I don't see why a flue wouldn't do the same!

[Brian]

That was what I was afraid of. I have seen ice do alot of damage on the farm and diffrent things. An old fella I knew told me about drilling holes in granite and filling the holes with water and letting it freeze and the next day the granite would be split. Water can be powerful.

[Salmoneye]

Interesting...

Sorry to hear about the 'freeze' troubles others are having/have had...

I must just live right as I couldn't get the temp over 25 last week and the nights were almost in single digits...I boiled last Saturday with 'solid slush' in all the pans...

I have still never seen a pan afffected by low temps if it did not have raw sap in it...Spose I will have to pay more attention in the future...