I do about the same as Russ. I dump the head tank about 5 minutes after my last fueling of the day, into my back pan (when I have about 18-20 gal of concentrate in the tank). Then I drain the pre-heater into the back pan. I then do my clean up for shut down. My evaporator takes about 45-50 minutes before the front pan boil slows almost to a stop and the bed of coals are almost all burned up. I then bring the syrup pan level up from about 1" up to 2" deep. I then close the valves between the pans(raised flue so I have 2 valves closed) Then I put my covers on every opening (I made a SS cover for each float box (3) and for the syrup pan. The back pan has a closed hood. Then I shut off the lights and go home. In the morning, when I return I usually have about 3/4-1" in the front pan and the back pan is about at normal operating level (about 1/2-3/4" over the raised flues.
I never had any issue doing that, except occasionally I forget to close the valves between the front and back pan after the first boil of the season. When that happens, the front pan is at about 4-5" deep the next day. Even with that, I just light the fire and let it evaporate. In about 60-90 minutes it is down to my 1" operating level and when ready my first draw is longer than normal (auto draw). That happens once every 3-4 years, this year it did.
Dave Klish, I recently ordered a 2x6 wood fired evaporator from A&A Sheet Metal which I will be converting to oil fired
Now have solar, 2x6 finish pan, 5 bank 7x7 filter press, large water jacketed bottler, and tankless water heater.
Recently bought another Gingerich RO, this one was a 125, but a second membrane was added thus is a 250, like I had.
After running a 2x3, a 2x6, 3x8 tapping from 79 taps up to 1320 all woodfired, now I'm going to a 2x6 oil fired and a 200-425 taps.