Homemade preheater pan idea?

[buck3m]

I won't be using a steam hood with my newly purchased evaporator, and it currently has no preheater setup.

I'm thinking of using my old 3 x 6, or an old 3 x 4 aluminum flat pan over the top as a preheater. I'd run the sap in one end, have a slightly low corner to drip the condensation off to the side, and drill a hole in the preheater pan, and put in a spout there to drip the warmed sap into the smokestack end of the main (flat, partioned) pan.

Does that sound like it would work?

If so, how deep should I run the sap in the preheater?

I suppose I'm going to need the preheater pan high enough so I can see the whole evaporator pan, not just the final compartments, correct?

How much efficiency could I expect to gain?

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

The only problem with that idea in my opinion would be you would be getting about as much condensation dripping off the bottom of the pan back into the evaporator pan as you would be gaining. What I did with my last homemade setup was I had a piece of 1/2 copper tubing that I ran completely thru the firebox and back into the pan. It did not have a float on it, so I manually controlled the flow and at the end of the day, I disconnected the tubing and flushed it with aprox 1 quart of water to prevent any scorching of sugar in the tubing and the heat usually evaporated out about all of the water.

[buck3m]

That sounds like a good idea you had.

The plan with my idea would be to have the low corner of the preheater pan dripping condensation into a container off to the side.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

It is cheap and the sap comes out boiling and steam even coming out too, the nyou are even getting a little evap from the preheater. Copper quick connects are easy to connect and disconnect and solder right on.

[Cardigan99]

Buck, check out my post '275 Gal Oil Tank Evap' under homemade equip. We did the same thing i think you are talking about. pan is much smaller, but we were almost bringing it to a boil with 5 gal of sap in it. First pic the pre heater pan is on a log in the right side of the picture. second two pics you can see it on the flat pan by the stack. It made a big difference for us.

[VA maple guy]

Hay Brandon, I'm buying a used Leader 2x6 drop flue this weekend, I was thinking of making a preheater similar to what you described a few posts ago.
How many feet of copper pipe did you put in your firebox. If you have any
better ideas for a preheater for a 2x6 with out a hood I'am all ears. On
my last evaporator, I had about forty feet of 1/2 copper line wrapped around
the stack. It worked pretty good but I though I'd try something different
this time.
Gerry