Hobby evaporator nightly shut down process - how would you do it?

[Ntatar]

Wondering if someone might be willing to share their shut down and clean-up process when working at the hobby scale (80-120 gallons of sap a week). I'm able to cook down 2 maybe 3 times a week after coming home from work and between kid's sporting events on the weekends. For the sake of argument, let's say I have a 3-4 hour window to work with at night and 6-8 hour window to work with on the weekend. I'm working on a 2x3 mason that has a standard pre-heater pan, 3 section flat pan, and blower. Thanks in advance for your thoughts!!!

[buckeye gold]

If you are not cooking all your sap then it's easy, just quit firing and have enough in your head tank to feed until cool down. You'll learn this by experience. It will take some practice but you'll learn when to quit firing and let the evaporator slowly cook down. Typically I quit firing when I have what would normally be an hour's worth of sap left. When the boil dies down I draw off about a gallon of sweet (this will get added back to your syrup section on the next boil), then I flood the pan to about 2 to 3 times it's boiling depth and shut the draft off and leave it. The residual coals and heat will continue to steam off sap for hours. When you start back you get your pan boiling then add the near syrup into your syrup section right at the draw off. I do this slowly, it helps maintain your gradient. Although small pans don't always keep a gradient well.

Clean up- Wash everything sap or syrup has touched. An easy way is take a stock pot of boiling water, it works well. Just throw in all your utensils, boil and pull them out and dry and done. I will usually wipe out my head tank with a wet rag dipped in a light bleach solution and then rinse it with water. I have a threaded union in my line to my float box that makes it easy to take apart and drain. I take it down and completely wash it once a week. I will not do much in my pan on a daily bases, but I will usually drain it and wash it every 10 days or so until the end of season then it needs washed just about every three boils.

I'll give you a tip. I keep a thermos of hot water or sap that I keep my hydrometer in when I'm making syrup. It keeps it clean and hot. I put a sheet of aluminum foil down on my work cart and lay all my utensils and gear on it. AT the end of the day just wad up the foil and toss it. Saves washing the table top of sticky syrup. I keep a bottle of chlorox wipes I just run over the table then. Quick and easy.

[Ntatar]

Thank you for pulling all these thoughts together! -Nick

[MISugarDaddy]

One other suggestion...if the outside temperature is going to drop below freezing on a day you are not going to boil, you should cover your pan and put a heat lamp or large bulb in the firebox to keep the sap from freezing and ruining your pan.
Gary

[Chickenman]

One other suggestion...if the outside temperature is going to drop below freezing on a day you are not going to boil, you should cover your pan and put a heat lamp or large bulb in the firebox to keep the sap from freezing and ruining your pan.
Gary

How come I never thought of that. I made a cover for my pan to keep snow and water out before I had a roof over my arch, but I never thought to put a light inside the firebox to keep pan from freezing.

[Russell Lampron]

I have let my pans freeze up several times with no damage and sometimes the temp has been below zero for days at a time. When it's time to boil again I just light the fire and continue on. I do have a raised flue evaporator and if you have a drop flue you may have to worry about it. If you have a flat pan or raised flue let it freeze.

[ecolbeck]

A sweetened pan will not freeze solid. Any ice that does form would push its way upwards and out of the flues anyway.

[bigschuss]

Ntatar, I've got a 2x4 Mason and I am in your boat...kids' sports, hectic weekly schedule, etc. After a long boil on the weekends I begin my shutdown by keeping a close eye on the level of sap in the pan and then adding smaller and smaller sticks of wood of softwood to the firebox. By adding a small chunk of pine or spruce or poplar to the coal bed I can fine tune the amount of burn time while I clean up. When you leave your pan for the night and it is still steaming be very sure that the level is high enough to allow for continued evaporation from the pan as you sleep. When your pan is fully sweetened you'd be surprised how much additional evap. occurs after you've left the sugar house. If I am at all concerned about the level of sap in my pan at shutdown I'll fill the preheater with a few gallons and just let it trickle out after I've left the shack. I often can't boil during the week so allowing the sap or sweet to ice up and freeze in my pan is a benefit. I keep it covered. Good luck.

[maple flats]

On a flat pan, once it has been sweetened, you need not worry about it freezing, it will form slush on top but will not freeze solid. If you are still worried, a 60 watt incandescent bulb with a cover over the pan will even prevent the slush from forming on a 2x3 or 2x4, with a 2x6 up to a 3x8 you may want a 100 watt bulb.

[steve J]

i have used both a 2x3 mason and a 2x4 mason. On my 2x3 I used to boil with 1" in pan as that was the fastest boil. when I was ready to shut down I stop firing when pre heater was about 1/2 full. By the time the fire was out the sap depth would have increased to 1.5" or a bit more. But your arch bricks are still very hot and it will evaporate down over night to about 1". Also another tip is when you fire up the next time because your sap in pan has blended together your boil starts in the center and you want to get that boil to your last channel. So I start drawing off into a put and dump it into the center channel. I will do this a few times over 10 or 15 mins and that will move your hard boil to third channel sooner and will get you in position of drawing syrup faster. On real cold nights I use to empty my pan and still do on my 2x4. I just dont trust that it wont freeze when you start hitting single digits even thou many say it won't.