"the Lightning"

[Justin Turco]

Always felt confident that my arch was a Grimm. But it doesn't actually say that on it anywhere. It just says "THE LIGHTNING" over the doors. The Grimm Arches that I have seen lately say, "GH Grimm, Rutland, Vermont" over the doors. My pans ARE marked, grimm lightning. I picked my evaporator up "new" through a private sale from a guy that had never used it before. He thought she was all "Grimm" too.

What's the deal??!

[H. Walker]

As far as I know "The Lightning" was made by Small Brothers.

[DS Maple]

I'm pretty sure that both Grimm and Small Brothers made pans with the name "lightning." Our Grimm arch has the Grimm "lightning" pans and I do recall seeing another Grimm evaporator that had Small Brothers "lightning" pans instead of their own brand. I'm not quite sure why the pans and the arch would be different though. Just out of curiosity how old is it? Also, a picture might help.
On another note, while doing a Google search for "lightning evaporator" I came up with an interesting article about evaporator efficiency. It's old, but might be worth reading. Hopefully this link will work. http://www.fs.fed.us/ne/newtown_square/publications/research_papers/pdfs/scanned/OCR/ne_rp388.pdf

[Valley View Sugarhouse]

I was told that at one time Grimm and Small Bros joined forces to try and compete with Leader, But after a few years (like 10) the two owners could not get along and they seperated ways again.... Then in the 70's Leader fineally got the owner of grimm to cave and they baut the grimm line and name...

Not sure on the exact story, but was what I was told... I also have Lightning pans made by Small Bros, and had a Grimm Lightning at one time..

[Justin Turco]

The pans are dated 98', I think the arch was bought the same year. Small Brothers? Maybe! Interesting. If you check out our website you can see some pictures of the arch if that helps in identifying it.

That article on the preheater that DS Maple put in is a good one. The thing I can't figure out is how that little loop on the high end of the preheater would relieve air bubbles without having a continuous flow sap out of it. I would think the vent would have to be higher than the level of the sap in the feed tank.

[DS Maple]

That to me looks like a Grimm/Leader evaporator. I believe that it was right about that time (1998) when Leader took over G.H. Grimm. It appears that they kept the overall shape of the evaporator the same, but instead of reading "G.H. Grimm & Co. Rutland, Vermont" they changed it to read "The Lightning." I know that when my friend bought the evaporator that we use it was around 1997 or 1998 and he had to fight with Leader to get the G.H. Grimm castings. He pretty much told them to re-cast the front with the old molds that said Grimm, or he would simply go buy an evaporator from someone else. He really didn't want it to say Leader anywhere. (Then later on came the Steam-Away with the big red Leader sticker on the front.)
Anyhow, I've posted a picture of our 3x12 Grimm for you to observe the similarity. The overall shape of the arch and doors appears the same. The only difference is the lettering.

[Justin Turco]

Very similar. Thanks for the info. That is a nice picture. She's really rippin.