Steam Pans

[Jaredd91]

Im trying to figure out what most people do on here for a steam pan. Would i be better off with a few smaller pans or one big pan? What size is best? Also where is the best place?

[mol1jb]

Main thing you want to think about is sap depth. Having 1 inch of sap boils a lot faster and starts much quicker than 4 inches of sap. Steam pans don't vary a lot in size. I bet you could dig up a lot of evaporators with a steam pan design on this forum.

I think I bought mine on Amazon (cheapest) but if you want to go through a maple dealer I know bascom has them.

Below was my first evaporator made out of a 55 gallon drum. I first made it into a wood stove with the converter kit and cut two holes in the top that the pans fit into.
11061216_10101581887566735_4879230365926794351_n.jpg

[DRoseum]

Agree with comments about sap depth. You want to keep it thin to have better boiling efficiency. However a deeper steam pan is nice to help contain splashes from boiling and when it foams up as your boil approaches syrup density/temp. That said the more pans the better so (1) you can keep depth lower and (2) you could keep sap in stages. For example, imagine 3 pans, one could be fresh sap, one closest to syrup and one in middle that is in between. Keep moving your boil from one pan to next to emulate the benefits of continuous flow evaps. Amazon is a good source for full size 6 inch deep steam table pans.

[Wannabe]

This was the cheapest place I could find them.
https://www.webstaurantstore.com/cho...p/4070069.html

And yes the more pans the better.

Not sure how many taps you plan on having but I stole this guys idea on building one, but I have 4 pans down inside. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a83Yv2m6HKQ. Cheap, easy, no welding. Regular old house bricks without the holes in them will work good enough for the firebricks too.

[mol1jb]

Here is a block configuration that my dad has used for many years.

Pic 1.jpg

[Swingpure]

This is an interesting thread for me having not boiled before. I was going to start off with 4” of sap in each pan and when it got down to 3”, start ladling from one steam pan to the other.

If I understand this thread, I want to start off with more like 2” of sap and I guess start to ladle about an inch deep. (which on the surface sounds tough to ladle at that depth)

[berkshires]

This is an interesting thread for me having not boiled before. I was going to start off with 4” of sap in each pan and when it got down to 3”, start ladling from one steam pan to the other.

If I understand this thread, I want to start off with more like 2” of sap and I guess start to ladle about an inch deep. (which on the surface sounds tough to ladle at that depth)

You want to try to keep the depth in your pans fairly constant over the course of the boil. How deep you go is a matter of personal preference. The shallower you go, the more gallons per hour you will get, but you also need to watch it like a hawk. In my previous evaporator, once I knew it well, I was running at around 3/4 of an anchor, and never burned the pans. However if you might need to go split more wood or gather sap, you will want more sap in the pans as a cushion.

2" is a conservative depth if you're just starting out.

GO

[Swingpure]

You want to try to keep the depth in your pans fairly constant over the course of the boil. How deep you go is a matter of personal preference. The shallower you go, the more gallons per hour you will get, but you also need to watch it like a hawk. In my previous evaporator, once I knew it well, I was running at around 3/4 of an anchor, and never burned the pans. However if you might need to go split more wood or gather sap, you will want more sap in the pans as a cushion.

2" is a conservative depth if you're just starting out.

GO

Thanks. I can understand it now, the lower the depth, the higher the boil rate, and the deeper the depth, the less you need to baby sit it. I can also understand now at least one reason why people migrate to a larger pan. At a shallow boiling depth, it will be a pain to ladle the sap from one pan to another. I will play that one by ear, boiling rate versus ease of ladleing.

I also decided it I will get another steam pan for sure for the hot plate

[berkshires]

Thanks. I can understand it now, the lower the depth, the higher the boil rate, and the deeper the depth, the less you need to baby sit it. I can also understand now at least one reason why people migrate to a larger pan. At a shallow boiling depth, it will be a pain to ladle the sap from one pan to another. I will play that one by ear, boiling rate versus ease of ladleing.

I also decided it I will get another steam pan for sure for the hot plate

The biggest reason to get a larger pan is that with steam tray pans you're not using a lot of your hot surface area. It may not seem like a lot with one or two pans, but I think you're up to five pans now, with your addition of a small pan in the back? That's something like 2" between each pan, plus about an inch along the length of the whole block arch on each side.

If my math is right, that's 20 inches wide * 4 gaps between pans = 80 inches, plus something like 50 inches along each side = 100 inches. Add them together and that's 180 square inches of surface area that's being wasted, or well over a gallon of evaporation per hour.

GO

[Sugar Bear]

I have been steam panning for 6 years now. The first 4 years were with 3 steam pans and the last 2 years with 4 steam pans. One of many things I have learned through my steam panning years is that while its true the shallower you boil in pans the better rate of evaporation you will get, it is also true that the shallower the sap is in your pans the darker your syrup is going to be, especially if the sidewalls of your pans are in the flames. This is because you will get burning on the sides of the pans. The higher the sugar count in the pan the more susceptible it is to sidewall scorching, darkening and well .... that flavor that is mistaken by some as "robust flavored syrup".

Through the use of angle iron I keep the sides of my steam pans out of the flames and in addition I run sap on the high side at least 2 inches. Thus I have been able to produce some light and lot of medium high quality syrup.

When pour off time comes to the sugar pan, I let the fire die down a bit. then take the high sugar pan off the fire, pour it in a pot for filtering/finishing and then fill it with fresh sap/concentrate. I then move each pan down the line one spot and put the pan I just poured off back at the start of then line. My pans are out of the fire box so they are easy to grab and quickly move.

This diminishes sidewall scorching as it rotates the sugar content in the pans. (pans with the highest sugar content scorch the easiest and I still get a little even though my sidewalls are up out of the flames) . Hint .... I also use flat iron in conjunction to the angle iron between the pans.

In the past my boil time has run into the midnight howls of the coyote gangs of Devils Den Preserve.

This past season I did the home built 4 cannister 150 GPD RO and found that with the efficiency it provided my 4 steam pans never saw boil time into the darkness of the night. I was done by then.

If I were starting over I would have done it just the way I did, going from steam pans to RO rather then steam pans to a divided flat pan.

That is not to say that I might not move additionally onto a divided flat pan as well, but as of now I have 50 taps and with RO in play now I feel I would need at least 100 taps before I considered a divided flat pan. At this point the weak link in the efficiency of my operation is the number of taps I have.

By the way ... the reason you get a better evaporation rate with shallower sap is only because you are more easily able to heat the sap to the maximum evaporation rate. If Your sap is deep and your fire is hot enough it evaporates just as fast at 4 inches deep as it does at 1 inch deep.