The right pan for my cinder block evaporator

[Swingpure]

My biggest investment for 2023 will be a new pan for my cinder block evaporator.

Changes for 2023, I will be dropping down from 109 taps to 80 and if the new recommendations come out against double taps, it will be more like 68 taps.

I will have a pan that will be sitting on top, instead of the five steam pans sitting inside. I will redesign my evaporator slightly because of that, which should help to keep the heat and smoke better inside the evaporator.

My evaporator this year had a lot of heat on the front two thirds of the evaporator and a fair drop off in heat on the last third, which makes me afraid of any two pan system. Flue pans are outside my price range.

That sort of leaves a 2x5 flat pan or 2x5 divided pan.

I really like the idea of a float box. I know I can use a float box with a divided pan, not sure if it typical to use one with a flat pan. I like the idea of maintaining the sap level in the pan with the float box.

I like the idea of a divided pan, but I worry if I have enough sap volume for it, especially if my RO is working and it halves the volumes.

If I have a float box, I will design my sugar shelter to have a head tank and I would pump concentrate from my garage to the head tank.

Thanks for any suggestions.

[NhShaun]

In 2015 i purchased a 2x6(2x4 sap pan,2x2 syrup pan) flat pan with dividers and preheater for about $800 and used it on my cinder block arch for 3 years. I have since built a steel mostly airtight arch but am still running the same pan set up. I have increased my tap count every year since and this set up still gets the job done even with 300 taps. I would suggest getting yourself a good set of pans now so you can upgrade to an arch instead of cinder blocks down the road without having to buy new pans. Just make sure your pans are a somewhat standard size and not some oddball dimensions.
Having dividers in your pan is ideal, even better to have a 2 pan system(Front/back) a 2x6 may be easier to get your hands on with that set up than a 2x5.

[Russell Lampron]

I agree with NhShaun, 2x5 is kind of an odd size. If you could make your arch 2x4 or 2x6 you could look for and probably find a used divided cross flow pan from a larger evaporator. The float box may be a little harder to find but you may be able to have a local welding shop fabricate one for you. If you could go to NH, Bascom's has a lot of used equipment and may have the pan that you're looking for.

As for the heat distribution you could make a ramp just behind the firebox out of fire brick and fill behind it with sand. Build it up so that there's about a 1/2 inch gap between the bottom of the pan and top of the ramp. Taper it back just before the smoke stack so that it can breathe. This will keep the heat under the pan better for a better boil and evaporation rate.

[Swingpure]

Thank you for the tips.

As I was waking up this morning, I was thinking a 2x4 divided pan would be best for me, for all of the reasons you had mentioned and I think it would better match my volumes of sap I would be getting. I could shorten up my evaporator a little and design it so the ramp leading to the stack would be fairly close to the bottom of the pan. The person I would get the 2x4 pan from, makes the float boxes. As mentioned in the tips, if I ever decide to upscale, I can still use the pan on a real evaporator.

Taking advice for an earlier post on another thread, I could add a base stack, so the exhaust would exit the width of the pan, but a twist to it, I would still have it exiting out the rear of the evaporator and would embed the base stack in concrete like it did for my previous pipe. Or I could find a way to have it upright at the end. I would increase my stove pipe size to 8” from 6”.

I will speaking to the pan maker tomorrow.

I could then have a preheat coil sort of around the stove pipe, but would have it more U shaped so I could control the distance away from the stove pipe.

Although I am downsizing the number of taps I will have next season, I may find with the RO working and the new pan, that I can add more taps without a much greater demand on my time.

[aamyotte]

Do you have a local pan maker near you that builds custom size pans?

[Swingpure]

Do you have a local pan maker near you that builds custom size pans?

He is out of Owen Sound. A little hike, but not too bad.

I pm’d his contact information to you.

[DRoseum]

Id recommend to go with a divided flat pan. You can use it in continuous flow mode or in batch mode. This leaves you with options/flexibility. Get it with alternate ports so you can reverse it and add a float box later if you are uncertain of how you want to grow for upcoming year and beyond.

[Swingpure]

Id recommend to go with a divided flat pan. You can use it in continuous flow mode or in batch mode. This leaves you with options/flexibility. Get it with alternate ports so you can reverse it and add a float box later if you are uncertain of how you want to grow for upcoming year and beyond.

So you could just rig up something that drizzles sap into the one corner and you do not need a float box? For some reason I thought it was a necessary component, but I can see now, how it would be a good thing, but not an absolutely necessary thing. I will have to ask what the price is just for the divided pan.

Thanks

[berkshires]

So you could just rig up something that drizzles sap into the one corner and you do not need a float box? For some reason I thought it was a necessary component, but I can see now, how it would be a good thing, but not an absolutely necessary thing. I will have to ask what the price is just for the divided pan.

Thanks

You don't even need anything to drizzle continuously into one corner. You just need to keep adding sap, like any other pan (including your steam tray pans). A steady flow and a shallow pan will increase how often you can make draws. But as long as you add sap to one end only, you'll wind up with syrup on the other end.

GO

[Swingpure]

If I just went with a 2x4 flat pan, with draw off valve and temp probe, is the lightest colour of syrup I can hope for is amber (which is okay), or is it possible to get a golden colour from a flat pan?

One other question, this past season using the steam pans, if I boiled 40 gallons of sap, let’s say for easy math, I produced about a gallon or so of nearup. Now on a 2x4 pan, a gallon of nearup would not be very deep, so I have to figure one of two things, both with the same conclusion, which is you likely need closer to 100 gallons of sap, either on a one day boil, or over the course of two days of boiling with an overnight break, so that you end up with enough nearup, so that it is not too shallow when you go to pull the pan off?

Edit: I found the answer to the second paragraph with a little searching, which brings up another question, if I boil let’s say 50 gallons of sap, each day for three days, before pulling it off, I suspect that will be fairly dark syrup?

Thanks