variation in the amount of steam comming off the evaporator

[michiganfarmer]

I have a 3x12 drop flue king. Once in a while, mabey 2 or 3 times a day, the steam seems to triple, or quadruple. Its really weird. when it happens my heart sinnks because I automotically think the pan is boiling dry, but when I check, there is plenty of sap. Other times there wont be hardly any steam at all.

I realize that atmospheric conditions can affect evaporation rates, but Ive seen some rare extremes over the weekend that kinda freaked me out. I was runing aorund checking the float to make sure sap was comming in, checking the amount of sap in my feed tank, sticking a tape measure in the syrup pan to check the level, checking the draw off box to see is it had syrup in it, smelling for burnt smell, double checking, and re-checking.

Within a few moments the extremely heavy steam reduced back to normal.

Any ideas?

OH! It was a fantastic weekend by the way. Sap is running like crazy.

[vtsnowedin]

It could be a couple of things. One simple one is you just shut all the doors and shut off the incoming air and restricted the draft to the cupola. First time you open the door to the shed the problem goes away. The steam can't get out if there isn't a supply of air coming in to take its place. Next is your wood supply. If it's less then fully dry it will chug along for a while until the water in it gets boiled out buy the fire then the now dry wood and coals get going good and you really get to see what the fire will do until you have to fire again. Load it less each time and more often and it will even out but you might get more done by stuffing it as full as you can without bumping the pans and letting her have a long full cycle. Other then that it might be something as simple as which way the wind is blowing and how your sugar house sets compared to the surrounding hills and trees. I'm glad to hear somebody has plenty of sap. I wish I had your problems.