Maple Syrup Digest

[WF MASON]

Did anyone see the article in the June Maple Syrup Digest about improving efficiency ?? The author says by insulating his front pan , three sides, he was able to have the entire pan boil and make syrup 30% faster.
Sounds like a Big increase to me by just insulating.

[mapleman3]

Sounds right... but the Shiny goes away!!!!

[WF MASON]

Maybe I'm missing something here , but say you have 3'x8' that evaporates 75GPH and then you insulate your front pan and your evaporation jumps to 100GPH ? If thats the secret , front pans should be made with a double wall with insulation. I'm skeptical to say the least.

[themapleking]

I think he means 30% increase in the front pan only not the hole evaporator. I.E. if your evap boils 100gph, the flue pan does 75 gph of the boiling and the 3x3 syrup pan boils 25 gal an hour without insulation, with insulation would be 32.5 gal hr. Increase of 7.5 gph in the front pan.
Still a good increase. I was thinking why not insluate both pans. Keep more heat in the pans for increase boiling

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

By insulating, do you mean putting insulation on the sides of the pans--the outside walls?? Seems to me that a maple inspector or a health dept person wouldn't appreciate that very much. :? :?

[Al]

Maybe you could do a pan with double wall construction with insulation inbetween and still have shiney side out if you had the technical skill to do it. Maybe use a honey comb technique with insulation and steam running down the inside of the pan?
Just a way out there shot!!!!!! :D