How often do you clean your evaporator pan?

[ScottT]

I have a small set up: 16x30x6 evaporator pan on propane. I only plan on boiling on weekends.

How often should I thoroughly clean my evaporator pan? Is it ok to simply rinse the pan after every use or should I do a deeper clean with white vinegar each time?

Thanks for the advice.

[MISugarDaddy]

That really depends on how the pan looks when you empty it. We have a 2' by 6', with a 2' by 2' syrup pan. Whenever we have a day that we are not going to boil, I drain the syrup pan and clean it with white vinegar. The cleaner the pan, the better the boil and less buildup of sugar sand to clean later. In fact, when we have multiple days when we are not going to boil, I also drain the flue pan and rinse it out. It is amazing how much sludge comes out of the flue pan. Hope this help you decide what to do.
Gary

[SDdave]

I got about the same setup, continuous 2x4 on propane. The point where I know I have to do a deep clean is when you are boiling and you think to yourself "this is taking forever...". That is the point to drain and do a deep clean.

A more simplified method is to take your hydrometer cup and drag it on the bottom of the pan, you'll feel the resistance of the niter.

Hope that helps!

SDdave

[bigschuss]

I clean my 2x4 pan at the end of the season. That's it.

I think you'll be fine skipping the vinegar bath after each use, especially if you're just a weekend boiler.

[ScottT]

All great advice. Thank you! We just used turkey fryer post the last two years with very small batches. This is our first year with a larger pan and more sap. Looking forward to the weekend.

[ecolbeck]

How often you clean really depends on how much sugar sand (niter)you encounter and this varies quite a lot by location and from year to year. Failure to clean is one cause of a burned pan. If the niter gets thick enough the bottom of the pan will no longer be in contact with water and it will overheat and potentially warp. One symptom of a pan that needs to be cleaned is foaming in the syrup section that is not easily controlled with defoamer. As other posters have mentioned, you can also feel the bottom of the pan for grittiness. This is not an issue to be ignored until the end of the season unless you are confident that it won’t be a problem. Cleaning is a pain but a burned pan is worse. This is one reason why multiple pan systems are so nice, you only have to clean a small front pan rather than one large pan.

[Super Sapper]

For me, it can be anywhere between 300 and 2,500 gallons (sometimes in the same year) of raw sap before I need to clean the syrup pan. I normally will drain the syrup pan the next morning before work and rinse it. Then fill about 1/2 way up with permeate and use an aquarium pump to recirculate through the pan. This normally will take off all of the niter except for a slight dull haze. I then heat up the syrup pan contents and filter before starting back up on the next boil. Occasionally I will do an acid wash on it and save the water for the next time.

[tcross]

don't scrape the bottom of your pan with your hydrometer cup. us something like a wooden spatula or something not metal so. no need to scratch the bottom of your pan up! that'll only cause more nitre to stick to it.

[groomer_guy]

I usually just clean my pans at the end of the season. This year however I have cleaned twice already. There is a lot of niter build up this season where I am. Some of my sap had sat for a few days though so that might have contributed to the niter build up. Unfortunately my syrup pan has a slight warp in it now due to a heavy niter build up from last weekend. Still works ok I just need to pay closer attention to the evaporator.

[berkshires]

I have a reversible flow pan so I just switch sides if the niter starts to look like it might become a problem. I processed over 600 gallons of sap this year and only had to switch once in the middle of the season. I never drain and clean, unless I have to because of warm weather that might spoil the sweet in the pan.

GO

[eustis22]

I clean with hot water and vinegar every four boils (alternating flow).

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

We clean our 2x2 syrup pan every +/- 500 gallons through it at the maximum, never more than 2 boils between cleanings. We had a 2nd syrup pan made last year which has been great. If we have a boil around 300 gallons and expect more sap soon, we'll just do a pan swap after the boil and be ready to go for the next one. We let the dirty pan soak and clean it during the next boil so we always have one ready to go.
Occasionally we will give the flue pan a hot water rinse mid-season but usually don't bother as we need to make a dark syrup anyway. Even so, I believe what we have in the pot now will be a light dark. Last year we put 3300 gallons through the machine and never dropped below LT 45.