Northern Ontario 2022

[Swingpure]

I was able to remove a bunch of ice from the pails I put outside this morning and left some ice in them to help keep them cool while they spend the night in my garage. I will do the same thing tomorrow as well.

[Swingpure]

Don’t want to burst any bubbles, but the ones in your picture look to be 2’ x 4’. You would be hard pressed to average 10gph on a 2x4 flat pan, even with a blower. To average 18gph under 5’ long, you are going to need a flue pan.

Maybe they make those too. In for a penny, in for a pound

I emailed the seller and it is a 2x4 and 1x2 and he says it can definitely do it with the right arch, and he sells 52 of them to satisfied customers each year.

[Big_Eddy]

I emailed the seller and it is a 2x4 and 1x2 and he says it can definitely do it with the right arch, and he sells 52 of them to satisfied customers each year.

So that means 2x5 flat pans including preheat. Without blower 10gph all day long. With a blower, 15 is reasonable. You will hit 18 and maybe even 20, but you won’t average that over a day of boiling.

You will easily keep up with 100 taps though.

Flue pans must be divided from the syrup pan. You can separate batches of syrup by closing the valve or blocking the opening between, but you cannot take what’s in the flue pan to syrup. Flue pans are better suited to sweetening once and then “daily” boils, leaving the pans full between boils.

[Pdiamond]

For what it's worth Gary, I realize the money thing is a lot, but from personal experience going from a flat pan then to a divided pan and finally getting the raised flue pan. I often wondered why it took me so long to make the decision. Although you will not batch boil with a flue pan once you get it sweet it remains that way for the season. You may have to drain and clean it depending on nitre build up, more so on the syrup pan. In the end you will be happy with a flue pan. I forgot one thing include a blower for the arch.

[Swingpure]

For what it's worth Gary, I realize the money thing is a lot, but from personal experience going from a flat pan then to a divided pan and finally getting the raised flue pan. I often wondered why it took me so long to make the decision. Although you will not batch boil with a flue pan once you get it sweet it remains that way for the season. You may have to drain and clean it depending on nitre build up, more so on the syrup pan. In the end you will be happy with a flue pan.

I think I have a little trepidation with the flue and divided pans, because I know little about them other than just in general, but mostly I worry if I get enough sap in sufficient quantities to sweeten it and keep it going.

So far my collections have been 45 gallons, 45 gallons, 86 gallons, 70 gallons, 25 gallons and 44 gallons. (Now this coming Thursday flow looks so good, I could have well over a 100 gallons.)

Also it is my belief and it could be wrong, that you can have more disasters with the flue, divided pan combo, whereas a flat pan is pretty straightforward as long as you do not fall asleep or walk away from it.

I still have the find the right moment to approach my bride about it, which may come at the end of the season when I say I love sugar making and need something better for less smoke and greater efficiency.

[Brien]

Well my sons hockey season finished up for the season, so I will have some more time for syruping. We are going to take Thursday and Friday off and head out to the property for a few days. He's pretty excited to be missing school to make some syrup.
I went out today for a few hours to check on things and empty the buckets. Every bucket was pretty much over flowing with half water/ice. So I have around 100 gallon to boil down with more to come on Thursday by the looks of the weather.

[Pdiamond]

watch the Smoky Lake video of the operation of the 2 x 4 raised flue operation, making better than 50 gph. If you have the float boxes and sight glasses on the float boxes you can set it up so that for the first year or two you run the flue pan and syrup pan a little deeper than necessary. I still run my syrup pan at 2 inches, that is where I feel comfortable with it. This year is the first year I ran the flue pan at 1.25 inches over the flues. Before I always ran it at 2 inches over. Its normal to feel that way about one of these rigs. And no matter what you use you NEVER leave it unattended when boiling.

[The Heldeberg Sapper]

I think I have a little trepidation with the flue and divided pans, because I know little about them other than just in general, but mostly I worry if I get enough sap in sufficient quantities to sweeten it and keep it going.

I run a homebuilt air tight oil tank evaporator that has a flat 2x3 divided rear pan that feed a 2x2 divided front syrup pan. I am only on 51 taps and have no issues keeping this thing fed. I typically do multiple short boils per week after work in the 3 hour range and can avg 15GPH over a 3 hr boil. I do have an air under fire (AUF) blower and 2" of insulation in the arch. Big_Eddy is spot on with his evaporation rates, i can hit 20+GPH if i am running wrist size dry wood. The key is having the separate 2x2 front pan, if i was running just one single 2x5 pan i would have a harder time keeping it running with only 51 taps. Two weeks ago i had to drain the pans due to a super warm stretch we had and that 2x2 front pan is super quick to get sweetened again. I was pulling syrup off after about 50 gallons.

[Swingpure]

Put the pails outside again during the day today, and removed some more ice. I put them back in garage which I am keeping at 3° for the sap.

I will likely boil the 40+ gallons tomorrow, once it warms up a little, as Wednesday’s weather is looking worse with freezing rain in the forecast. Thursday is still looking like a super day for sap flow.

[Someclown]

Collected 130 litres with ice removed and boiled it to around 4 litres yesterday as it's not filtered.
I was able to figure out that is the minimal amount of sap I need to be able to finish it to syrup right in my flat pan without burning it if I keep the fire small when nearing the end. Then its just minimal propane burner to get it to brix. That's exciting for me as I was spending a lot of time on propane previously to get it to syrup and brixing it on my wife's stove in the house. She's happy too!!
Now I just have to use her stove for bottling.