Mason 2x3 pre-heater mod ... will this work

[ducxsterdoo]

This will be my first year boiling indoors and on a 'commercial' evaporator, prior setup was steam table pan setup on a home welded arch.

I did a test boil of some water and noticed that there is quite a bit of condensation that collects on the bottom of the pre-heater and searches on this site show this is common. I decided to make a 'rack' to move the pre-heater back and over the pipe coming out of the evaporator and closer to the stack itself to attempt to use the heat coming off the stack and minimize the condensation.

I have not tried it yet, but does anybody see any concerns having the elbow pipe somewhat 'enclosed', obviously it's not a tight seal or anything? Thoughts? Think this idea has any value or did I waste a Saturday sticking pieces of metal together?

Here are a bunch of pics...

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THX...

-craig

[ducxsterdoo]

...and I apologize for the orientation of some of the pics, didn't realize they would all go landscape mode.

Here's a link to my Google Photos Album if you want to see better pics.

[berkshires]

My only thoughts are: brilliant, and beautifully made.

When you run out of sap you'll need to pour in water to keep it from warping from the heat if your rig is still hot. But I assume this is also the case with the newer Mason evaporators that have the pre-heater built over the stack right from the "factory". Someone with one of those rigs would have to comment, though.

[phil-t]

Similar to how my HalfPint is set up. I have an open top metal box at the rear of theevaporator that the flue dumps into, a flue outlet from that box that goes into the chimney. Works great, my sap is nearly boiling point in that "pre-heater".

[Pdiamond]

You certainly did not waste your time on that Saturday. What a great idea. I would've liked to have had that when I had my 2 x 3 evaporator. I'll bet when you test it now its going to be rolling when it goes into the main pan.

[RedMapleCreek]

I have a 2014 Mason 2x3 XL which has the preheater hung off the back of the evaporator over the stack elbow, similar to where you moved yours. I have often thought about building a shroud like you did to concentrate the stack heat onto the preheater. You have definitely improved your evaporator and should get at least some improved preheating and perhaps the biggest advantage will be the fact that you will no longer be condensing steam on the preheater which would drip back into the evaporator. I believe your model of evaporator depends on being able to move the preheater to each end of the evaporator in order to reverse flow. You will have lost the ability to reverse the flow in your evaporator between boils so you will see more of a buildup of niter in the syrup channel.

[ducxsterdoo]

I believe your model of evaporator depends on being able to move the preheater to each end of the evaporator in order to reverse flow. You will have lost the ability to reverse the flow in your evaporator between boils so you will see more of a buildup of niter in the syrup channel.

I was wondering about that, but my pan only has 1 draw off, so I'm not sure I can even reverse the flow if I wanted to, unless I'm missing something. I think I'd have to add a draw off to the other side of the pan...which is probably something I can't easily do myself...but not sure.

[Pdiamond]

I went out to your google pictures and your setup is only made for the single side draw off. which is not that big of a deal. once you see a large build up of nitre you can drain your almost syrup into a bucket, then drain the remaining sap from the pan. clean the pan with hot water and vinegar, no soap, just the hot water and vinegar. you can let that sit over night and the nitre should come right off. rinse with hot water. then pour back the sap in reverse order into the pan, putting the almost syrup into the channel that is the draw off channel. this will re-establish your gradient quicker.

[ducxsterdoo]

If I wanted to make the pan reversible, how reliable are the stainless weldless bulkhead fittings?

[Sugarmaker]

Craig,
Looks real good!
Keep boiling!
Regards,
Chris