One pan or two?

[Scott O]

I am planning on a 2 x 6' arch and was wondering the opinions of having one divided pan versus having two pans.

Are there advantages or disadvantages to either setup?

Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

[vtsnowedin]

A commercial made 2x6 has two pans. They are very well thought out and every feature has a good reason to be there. The closer you come to one of their designs the better off you will be. The back pan ,usually 2x4 has raised or dropped flues to increase the surface area exposed to the hot smoke from the fire in effect making a 2x4 pan boil away as much sap as a 2x8 flat pan would. But you cant finish syrup in a flue pan so the other 2x2 pan has a flat bottom and dividers so you can isolate the last section and finish it to syrup. This gives you a complete set up that lets you do the job start to finish on the one rig in front of you. No need to draw off and carry it into the house and finish it on the stove. Hope that helps.

[Scott O]

I am not able to do a flue pan at this time. I was just wondering if there were any advantages to having two pans versus one pan.

Thank you.

[KenWP]

Also when your low on sap you can fill the back with water and finish on the front. Instead of haveing a large pan running shallow.

[Gary R]

I think it depends on where your boiling and if you have help. On a single pan with dividers you can "chase" the sweet to the front at the end. If you are inside, I wouldn't go with two pans. A 2X3 pan with a inch of boiling sap is heavy and awkward to handle. Your shack will get full of smoke and you may need help dumping, refilling with water, then placing back on the fire. If your outside and have help, two pans would work well. When you start expanding, your going to want to add preheater and hood:) Those aren't going to be fun to deal with on a two pan flat pan set up.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Just go with one pan and put 2 or 3 dividers in it so it has 3 or 4 sections. No advantage to go with 2 pans. You could probably get 12 to 15 gallons per hour out of it, maybe more with a blower and good wood.

[3rdgen.maple]

My 2 cents worth says go with 2 pans. My reasoning is if at any point in time you want to upgrade to a flue pan that single big pan is of no use in the future. Now if you went with a 4 foot back pan and a 2 foot front pan you can save money later down the road and only purchase the flue pan and then sell your back flat pan. My old setup I actually had 5 pans on it. Don't ask I did not buy it. My syrup pan was just a 1 foot pan the width of the arch. As the gradient increased to the front pan I would finish right on the evaporator in that 1 foot syrup pan. It worked out very well for me as it was easy to lift off. Put 3 dividers in that front pan going crossways. That way you can reach gradient and do drawoffs and not have to batch boil. It also would work very well with a future flue pan with the dividers. Think ahead as to where you want to be and save yourself some money down the road.

[PerryW]

Advantages of two pans:

1) They are easier to lift off the evaporator when you need to finish on the kitchen stove

2) As mentioned, upgrading to a flue pan

3) If you have two pans (or two separate sections of a single pan), it is easier to take syrup off directly from the evaporator because you can add your cold sap to the back pan and dipper the partially concentrated sap from the back pan into the front pan. Syrup will eventually develop in the front pan.

As a kid we boiled on a 2x4 flat pan for a few years and were never able to take syrup off the evaporator. We soldered a divider in the pan so about 1/4 of the pan was a separate, isolated section of pan (with a drawoff valve). From then on, we finished off directly from the evaporator.

[Big_Eddy]

I highly recommend a 2x4 pan and a 2x2 pan. Even if you don't put dividers into either pan, 2 pans gives you flexibility. If you have a small day - you can run 1 pan only, and fill the other with water / replace it with steel plate, and as mentioned above, at some time in the future you can replace the back pan with a flue pan if you wish.

However - the main reason is that a 2x6 pan needs ~120 gallons of sap boiled down to get to the point where you're close enough to syrup to take it off. Any less than that and you're either going to scorch, or you're going to have to do a LOT of finishing off the fire. With a 2x2 and a 2x4 moving sap from the back to the front- you only need 40 gallons of sap boiled down to the point where you're "close enough" in the front pan, plus another 5-10 gallons to keep the back pan from going dry. Add the fact that it's darn near impossible to lift a 2x6 pan even with only 1/4" of syrup in it, and I think the choice is clear.

You're only talking about 2sq ft more material - and another 4 welds - so the cost differences should be minor, depending on where you're getting them from.