Evaporation rates

[Gord]

(I forgot this)The sugar in the sap changes the boiling point of the sap, the pure the water the higher the boiling point.

That's how I see it Brian. You would have to know if the original poster was boiling raw sap, or concentrated sap, in order to come up with a GPH rate. Also, all the considerations berkshires brought up. I have a flat pan and baby sit it, running 1" depth. I also added a blower 2 years ago. That blower made a huge difference in GPH. I also preheat the sap, so the actual boil never stops. I'm never introducing cold sap to the pan. 2 years ago I was running a 3" depth in the pan, until a friend stopped by and told me to try less sap, but keep on top of it. So many variables, going from 3" of sap with no blower, to adding a blower, to going to a 1" depth, changed my GPH for the better at each change in methods.

[berkshires]

One thing - I think I've heard a few times over the years, people who put blowers on block arches wind up with a lot of smoke and ash blowing out all over the place. A blower might not work out for the original poster. But even without that, a flat pan is going to give you a lot higher GPH than a bunch of buffet pans. With buffet pans there's a lot of wasted space between the pans, and a lot more outer surface area that cools the sap, rather than being exposed to the fire. But if you do get a flat pan, I wouldn't go any higher than 20x30 or so unless it's a divided pan. Seems to me that batch boiling in a big pan is big trouble when you have to move that big pan.

Cheers,

GO

[acorn roadster]

Thanks everyone for your input. I think 2 smaller pans are what I'm going to go with. I am only running about 30 taps for 10-12 gallons a year, nothing for sale, and cooking out in the woods with no electricity or shack, no RO, no AUF. I kind of like keeping things "pioneer style" and not spending much on it. I've made a ton of syrup with these buffet pans, they're just kind of a pain sometimes and I'm looking forward to trying some more serious hardware.

[Pdiamond]

My very first evaporator was given to me, and it had a flat pan that was 24" x 36". On the long sides of the pan were handles set about 18" or so apart. It took 2 people to empty the pan when it was close to syrup, as it did not have a draw-off valve. Based on my experiences with this set-up at the minimum have a draw-off valve on the pan if you get a flat pan. The better option is a divided pan, as this will usually have 3 channels, and you will be able to set up a draw-off channel opposite the incoming sap channel. Also, as was previously mentioned if you look on the facebook mapletrader you may be able to get the whole set-up you are looking for relatively cheap. Best of luck to you this year.

[Vtmbz]

Pioneer style has a lot to offer you. How I’ve seen the small batch traditional style done here: 2x3 or 4 flat pan. They came with wood handles or large rings on both sides. Charge with available sap, as deep as necessary. Boil all day until it comes to syrup, tested by sheeting off the ladle, then two people remove from the fire and pour off. This was a common method before sugar making got so intensely automated/monetized.

Im so far from that home model, I mostly think of myself as a plumbing technician, not a sugar maker. It was more fun, though much harder work for less syrup.

[Andy VT]

This is cool, I love reading about people's backyard setups.
Mine is what I call a continuous flow batch system (actually I made that up just now).
I start in a 2x3 flat plan, being fed by a hotel pan with 2 small holes drilled in a bottom corner ("valved" with toothpicks. Not really a warming pan because I offset it pretty far, and tip it toward the holes)
Thanks to a draw off valve, I feed a full-size hotel pan from there, drip by drip, which is on a round propane burner.
The hotel pan does not have a draw off valve but when it gets to where I'm ready to finish indoors, I pour that off into a stock pot to go on the kitchen stove.

The 2x3 and the hotel pan are always boiling concurrently. Sometimes the stock pot is concurrent as well. This year I plan to give myself the option of doing all 3 outdoors for more "concurrency".

One of the most fun discoveries for me getting into maple is to find out how much respect for backyarders the "big guys" have (and vice versa).