Brick made a BIG difference!

[Pete S]

We are in our third season of maple syrup. (disease)

I had put together a quaint little evaporator rig, which simply was a metal box that I found in the junk. It's about the size of a samll chest freezer. We have a large baking pan on top with a Nesco pan for pre-heat.

The "metal box" was just that beside the "baffle" that I installed in to make the flue gasses flow over to hold more heat.

It held more heat, enough to really warp up the sides.

Well this season, I thought that bricking up the combustion chamber would be a good idea, as we're loosing heat and the darn thing is almost not approachable when she's really rippin'. The sides actually glow in the dark!

Long story short, to save some $ (cuz I like it being low cost) I decided to use some USED "common" type brick rather than spend money on fire brick. (besides I'm looking to build a better unit next year)

I lined the combustion chamber with these common brick,.................WOW what a difference! Our sap was really frothy. We went through 32 gallons of sap in 10 hours, in a 24 x 14 (+/-) baking pan.

We're looking to boil another 50+ gallons later possibly within a week.

Thought I'd share.

Pete
Plymouth, WI

[barrelstove]

similar story,

we had an old small brothers barrel stove with a 24"x33" pan and a feeder pan above that. (gift from aunt)

we boiled in it several years with just the open stove but last time we did it (several years ago), we used some bricks to build an arch in it. it definately made a difference and i move the hot spots in the pan around some.

this year the arch is a little higher on the firebox end and a little lower going into the flue. theoretically i can get an eddy in there and get some good heat to the back of the pan.

where its a round barrel i havent figured out how to brick the sides. but the materials were free or cheap. i plan to tinker on this unit, try different things, etc. then when i get a design i like ill probly get one build with racks to hold bricking etc.

that being said i test fired with just water yesterday and it took awhile to get my draft established and the thermal mass of the bricks up to temperature. after that things got rolling pretty well. first real boil on thursday!