Sweeten pan left over night

[steve J]

If my pan is sweeten well how cold a temperture can the pan be left filled over night. I normally have about 3/4 of an inch in the pan when the fire is out.

[johnallin]

Steve,

I've left my pan over night and worst I've seen is about 1/4" ice on top after a really cold night of 20° or so. No problem at all as it all melts away as soon as I fire up the half pint. The concentrate doesn't freeze as quick as water.

Hope this helps some.

[slammer3364]

I got a trick off of this site the last two nites it has been about 10 degrees,hooked up a heat lamp over pan at nite worked great..

[PerryW]

The pans will usually not freeze solid overnight; expecially if you fininshed boiling after dark and it warms up above freezing the next day.

The light bulb trick will work, but I found that during a long cold spell, even the light bulb can not prevent my back pan from freezing (on my 3x7 flue pan).

When I'm expecting a hard freeze (for several days), I will make sure and run my evaporator down as shallow as I dare at the end; sometimes even drawing a buckt off after it has cooled down a little to lower the sap level to just above the metal.

Just like a sap bucket, the pans will not be damaged if you only have an inch or less of sap in them.