Like others, I feel the thermometer is mounted too high, it takes 10 gallons of sap in the pan to submerge it. Overall the pan is good quality, and this was my first "real" maple pan, although I have been boiling for a few years. The prewarming hopper is a nice touch and will hold exactly 5 gallons. I initially used the pan on my Blackstone flattop griddle, i just removed the cast iron griddle and put this over the burners. It worked, but the boil was slow. I then built a wood burner out of 25 cinder blocks and some 6" stove pipe and this worked much better.I did realize after purchase that I would have gotten a bigger surface area out of a 2x2 pan, but I like the prewarmer on this one.