need to spread heat better

[maple sapper]

I have a pan that had 1 divider and modified it. I had two more dividers installed and so it now has four channels. The problem I created was it seems the heat is not getting to the outer channels now. Not sure why that is. I guess I never realized how much the inner sap was keeping the outer hot. This pan is heated on two propane banjo burners.

I have tried building a skirt around the bottom to try to build up the heat. That didnt help cause the propane cant burn properly. The flames get all lazy looking and large flames come out in areas of small openings. That tells me there is not enough air. I may try opening up the air intakes to add more air to the fuel and see if the flames stay more typical. The other thing I may do is try to find some sheets of copper. maybe use copper roof flashing and lay 2 or three layers under the pan and see if the heat will spread out better. Copper disperses heat really well.

Any further insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Maple sapper

[RileySugarbush]

Adding layers of metal, even if it is a good conductor of heat like copper, will almost completely stop your pan from boiling. The minute gaps between the sheets will act as insulators. You would need to bond copper to the bottom like Revereware saucepans to make that work.

You would be better off fixing the problem with the arch. Make sure the heat is force up to the pan bottom by building up a back wall so the exhaust needs to go out through a narrow horizontal slot to get to your stack.

Good luck!

[maple sapper]

I suppose that would work if it were on a arch. Its a metal stand with two banjo propane burners. I guess if the copper sheet will work against me, then I will try dabbling with allowing more air in through the air inlets where the propane and air mix. There is a circular cover that has a slot in it to adjust the air intake. Right now I have the slot positioned to allow all the air it wants plus I have the bottom held open with a few washers to allow more air to sneek in where the cover overlaps. It gets so hot I cant experiment with tape or anything sticky to block the hole partially. Of course the thought of drilling more holes in the sloted cover crossed my mind. But, what if thats not the problem, now I have swiss cheese covers.

[RileySugarbush]

Opps, sorry I missed that. You might have trouble getting an even heat with the propane burners. There really isn't that much heat to go around, and it will always be hotter right over the flame. Messing with the air to the intake mixture might mess up your flame, adding more air probably won't help. The flames got all messed up because they were burning in their own exhaust.

You might try making your skirt stand off the sides of the pan about 1/4 inch on all sides. That way the air flow is up through your flame, and out along the bottom of your pan and up the sides a bit, but still forced to stay under the pan. Keeps the wind from blowing away the heat as well. We have had success doing this around a round turkey fryer pot on propane.

[maple sapper]

I did have just the base and the pan at first (before channels were addes.) and was getting burnt sugar all along the edges where the extreme heat and flames were wrapping up sides So I put a commercial roof edging all around hanging out to keep flames from going up the sides. Then decided, hmmmm put panels to keep heat in after realizing how much heat was actually comming from under there. So then put the skirting around and completley enclosed it. When I added the channels it changed the entire behavior of the boiling. So thats where the copper Idea came up. Can copper be soldered to stainless? Im sure its a speacial kind of solder and how do you heat it up enough with out trashing the pan? not sure I like the sounds of that.

[RileySugarbush]

Yes, you can solder copper to stainless with lead free solder and the right flux. I do it all the time. Soldering a whole sheet on would be a major undertaking and likely have disappointing results.

I still suggest you run the skirting around and slightly away from the sides of the pan. If you object to the edge burning, run a little deeper sap.

By the way, the edge burning will not hurt your syrup.

[maple sapper]

I will go back from start and add pieces and watch the behavior. This will allow me to figure out whats working and not working. Thanks for your input. Maple sapper