One other question, a friend told me that once the cinder blocks were hot, that if water hit them, let’s say from rain or heavy snow, they would break. He is known to pull my chain from time to time.
I will have my evaporator sheltered with a metal roof above and two sides covered except at the top. The stove pipe end will have some siding to keep rain or whatever away from the pans, but not necessarily the bottom of the blocks at the stove pipe end and the front will be mostly wide open with the door of the evaporator 4 to 5 feet away from the opening of the shelter, but strong blowing winds could blow in some snow. (The front will likely be fully closed over night)
Do I have to have a big worry about the cinder blocks getting wet while evaporating?
I can at more expense, close it in more at the stove pipe end.
My shelter is something I put up prior to the season and take down after it, so the evaporator will be totally snow covered until such time it comes to build the shelter. It has plywood and poly over top of it to keep it dry inside and I will shovel as much snow as possible away from it. I am sure there will be some traces of snow around it, when I start my first boil.
2022 - 5 pan block arch - 109 taps, 73 on 3/16 lines, 36 on drops into 5 gallon pails.
930 gallons boiled, 109 L (28.8 gals) of delicious syrup made.
DYI Vacuum Filter
2023 - 170 taps, mostly on lines, 1153 gallons boiled, 130 L (34.34 gals) of delicious syrup made, on a 2x4 divided pan and base stack, 8” pipe, on a block arch that boiled at a rate of 13 gallons per hour.
2024 - made 48 L, December to March, primarily over two fire bowls.
Reply With Quote