Rocket stove in old furnace oil tank?

Hi guys, just thinking out loud here..... I am going to try my hand at tapping a few maple trees this winter and boiling it down into syrup. On one of the websites that I have found a few guys have turned old furnace oil tanks into evaporators for the boil down. They basically cut the top off, put a fire box in the front, chimney in the top at the back, and have the heat pass their boil boxes on it's way out the chimney. Seems like a pretty easy build, and looks like it boils off quite well, but was wondering if it's possible to make a rocket stove work instead? They mention that it takes a lot of wood to get to the syrup. ... Or if it would even be any improvement from what they have created? Any ideas would be great before I start cutting up my tank.

Thanks for the link Satamax! From what I read on these posts, nobody really has a surefire rocket stove figured out for maple boiling yet. As it is my first attempt at the whole maple syrup hobby, think I will just build the simple evaporator for now..... gives me a full year to try to figure out if a rocket may improve things.

Jamie,

Watch it on this one, you do risk scorching the sap if you apply too much too fast to it. Maybe a heat exchanger in line between the rmh and the boiling pot so you could dissipate some heat for building heat might work out.

Thanks Jerry! I read a couple posts stating that could pose a problem. One said to have the boiling pans sit in water, and have the rocket heat the water. That seems redundant! Good thing is I am not in any rush to complete it this year, so maybe somebody here smarter than me can come up with a solution..

Using water to dissipate and distribute the heat is a good idea. That would help keep the sap pans from having hot spots.

While it's not specifically for concentrating sap, I think this dryer design could be modified to do it.

http://www.aprovecho.org/public/Publications/Still-The.Winiarski.Wood.Fired.Agricultural.Food.Dryer.pdf