Steam Table Pan Evaporator

[Chris1971vermont]

My Brother And I Are Also Using Propane To Boil Our Sap As Well. We Started Last Year With 4 Steam Table Pans, With 4 Turkey Fryers Getting About 6-8 Gph. We Figured Around 8-10 Gallons Of Propane To Boil 42 Gallons Of Sap At 2% Sugar To Make A Gallon Of Maple Syrup. Costed Us Roughly $25-$30 In Propane Per Gallon Of Syrup. $2.50-$3.00 Per Gallon Of Propane, Expensive But Fun To Do With The Family. This Year We Bought A 2x4 Flat Pan/ Preheater, and Set The Flat Pan On The Turkey Fryers. Still Using About The Same Amount Of Propane, Like You Said, Losing Alot Of Heat Out The Sides. So We Made A Homemade R.O For Around $400 That Processes About 12 Gallons/Hour Of Sap. And Takes It From 2% Sugar And Brings It Between 6-8% Sugar. We Can Now Make A Gallon Of Syrup Using About 2.5 Gallons Of Propane. We Think We Could Do Even Better With A Similar Design That You Have Built To Put Our Pan In. We Love The Simplicity Of Propane,And Even More With The R.0. Thanks For Sharing Your Design. My Brother And I Will Be Building This For Next Season. Chris

[TSilly]

Hello,

I've been using steam pans myself but eventually may need a replacement. Where did you find that size/shape with handles? What are their measurements?

Thanks -

Tom in Leeds, MA

We were a little bit late for the party but overall things are pretty far behind up here in the Northeast Kingdom anyway. We tapped around the 26th but didn’t really get much until this week. I had to rehab the propane rig because of neglect mostly, but changed a few things with the hope of improving its efficiency.

I really made only two big changes but it seems to be working a lot better.



In the past we had a lot of problems with wind & the burners, so I enclosed the sides completely & added a lining of firebrick at the same time. This keeps the heat in better & the wind out. The bottom is open under the three burners furthest from the pipe & is then closed under the 4th pan , then angles up toward the stack. The 4th pan is a sort of flue pan/pre heater without any direct heat but will eventually reach a light boil.



Because of the sides being fully enclosed, I lengthened the burner stems so that the valve & orifice/air shutter are outside of the enclosure, drawing in fresh air.



We are still batch processing, start from cold & take off about a quart of nearly finished syrup in about 1 ½ hrs. I figure we’re boiling off about 7+ gals an hour, not too bad for a small rig & all I really have to do is watch it & shut it off when it’s done.

[to100]

I had my bulk tank plumbed up to my shed, my gas supplier will not fill small tank in the field. You could take a stock pot and get a draw off valve attached so you could bottle right there.