If you have a float box, can your pre heat the sap?

[Swingpure]

Are you planning on having a steam hood? I put a 25ft copper coil in my steam hood then feed that into my float box. This has worked great for me. I did have the pipe on the stack before the hood but was always worried about the scorching. now I don't have to worry and my sap usually runs about 110 deg.

I don’t have a steam hood and likely will not get one for the foreseeable future. Could I suspend the pipe just above the pan and get heat from the steam coming off the pan?

I know I could wrap it around the stack, but I am not sure how that works with a float box and if I would get scorching.

I know also I could have a preheat pan sitting on top of my divided pan at the back, but my pan builder is not a big fan of those, although he said he would build it if I asked for it.

[berkshires]

I don’t have a steam hood and likely will not get one for the foreseeable future. Could I suspend the pipe just above the pan and get heat from the steam coming off the pan?

Yes, though you would get less efficiency for two reasons:
1 - Without the steam captured in a hood the temperature would be lower, so you'd get less heat to the pipe.
2 - A hood has channels running under all the pipes that capture the steam condensing on the pipe so it doesn't just rain back into your evaporator. Without these channels you'd have water dripping off your pipes back into the pan.

GO

[maple flats]

I used 4 copper manifolds, each was !" copper with 6 @1/2" take offs. The sap entered the hood at the rear of the, on the long side. Once inside it had a cap on the other end and each 1/2" take off got a 52" long copper pipe. That rose 1.5" above the entrance, then #2 manifold. At the opposite end from where it entered, I had an elbow and then a tee (1x1/4 threaded x 1). Then #3 manifold, ell on for end, then a 1x1/4 threaded reducer) The 6 5tubes then rose another 1.5" as they proceeded to over the first manifold. Then a 6" length of 1" copper got it out from under the hood. I used a 1.25" Greenlee punch to make those holes for into and out of the hood. My hood was 60" long. Once out from under the hood I had a length of 1" copper and an ell, so it extended about 3-4" post the float box entrance, then a 1x3/4" threaded x 1" tee, pointed down to a 1" tee, and ento feed the float box valve. The last tee had a 1" copper feed teed off the 1" infeed from the head tank, with a ball v. Doing that, if I ever needed to bypass the heater I could, the tubing into the heater also had a ball valve. In the 1/4" threaded fittings I put coin vents (used for venting hydronic baseboards or radiators) and the 3/4 " threaded was where I mounted my thermometer, with the 6"? probe surrounded with the heated sap. I also on the inlet, directly above the float box had a Tee, pointed down with a 1/2" ball vale for draining the preheater when the boil was done for the day. While I had the coin vents I never needed to vent any air in over 10 years of using the set up. My head tank bottom was 20" above the float box sap level and 10" above the inlet to the hood.
I bought the 4 manifolds from Ebay, the rest was locally sourced. Where the preheater lines entered and exited the hood I used a 1.25" Greenlee punch and the whole pre-heater sat on a drip tray, higher at the front, lower in the rear and the low end rested on the edge of the hood drain channel so condensation ran out the hood drain and not back into the flue pan.
Good luck!