Half Pint Pre-Heater Concept on a 2 by 6

[backyardsugarer]

Anyone every try putting a stainless tank on the back of their 2x6 or bigger with a half pint feed tank? Seems like the steam and heat from the stack would be enough to at least take the edge off cold sap. I have an extra home made stainless feeder I could use.

Chris

[Dill]

Actually that's pretty similar to what I did last year with my 2x4, of course I didn't take a picture of it. But I took a steam tray pan that fit across my flu pan, and installed a tap in it which then dumped into the flu pan.
It was impressive how much the sap heated with just the steam hitting the bottom of the pan. I had looked into having a half pint style pan bent up for this year. But you know I found a better setup. The whole steam pan setup cost less than 20 bucks a resturant supply house near me. And would heat up enough to be worth it within 20 minutes of boiling.

[KenWP]

I put a SS pot on the back of the pan that touched the stack also plus the heat from the steam. I worked great to keep sap boiling. There is a lot of wasted heat goes up the stack and such on a evaporator.

[slammer3364]

:D I put a pan by the stack and it also heated from the steam, had a valve on it and dribbled in to my evap worked like a champ 18x48 D@G:D

[802maple]

On the faster boiling 2x6 you would want to put a drip pan under it as the condensation coming off the preheater would overcome any benefit that you would receive