Aof piping

[twobears1224]

what size pipe does everybody use to make a air over fire system for a small arch.(2x/fuel drum) i,am thinking about using 1 inch pipe on my fuel drum arch but i,am not sure it,s big enough to carry enough air to the fire.it will fit in the arch nice tho so i,am thinking of using it.

delbert

[RileySugarbush]

It really depends on your blower and number of nozzles, but that is likely much too small.

[berryrd]

the UVM site has a paper on this. They said 2in pipe for 30in wide arch, 3in pipe for 36in arch.

[Sugarmaker]

I used 1.5 inch I.D. Stainless for my 36 inch arch. Seemed to work well when mated with a 1.5 HP SPA blower. (I always have bucked the system. Bull headed or backward depending on what day of the week it is:) )
Regards,
Chris

[RileySugarbush]

Just make sure the area of the feed pipe is significantly bigger than the sum of the nozzles they feed. The idea is to have all the pressure drop right at the nozzles. If the feed pipe is too small, it chokes off the flow and reduces the nozzle velocity.

[maple flats]

Just make sure the area of the feed pipe is significantly bigger than the sum of the nozzles they feed. The idea is to have all the pressure drop right at the nozzles. If the feed pipe is too small, it chokes off the flow and reduces the nozzle velocity.

I agree. you will get much better performance from a 1.25" pipe if you have up to 5 nozzles on it, if 6-8 go to 1.5". Your nozzles should be every 6" all around the firebox and pointed down 10 degrees. Have them 6" below the pan. It may seem like over kill but the main point is that you want the full pressure at the last nozzle just like the first in line gets. The principle is to create turbulance and it takes high pressure to get that. If you do go with 1" it will still boost performance but why not get the full potential from AOF? Your most expensive component will be your time when you did all of the work but only realized a small portion of the gain that could have been realized by going with the larger size. As long as you are doing the work why not go 100%?

[twobears1224]

thanks for the info.i have some 1.5 inch pipe already so i,ll go with that.i was thinking that the pipe was closer to the pan i,ll put it lower.

delbert

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

the pipe cant be under the pan, if it is the fire will not get to that portion of pan and not boil. I did that so I lowered it down so the flames could get above it. This year I am going to install it behind the bricks with just the nozzles sticking out so I wont have that problem. hope you understand what I said

go to my profile check out the couple pics I put up you will undrstand

[RileySugarbush]

Another option is to pull out the top row of bricks, put the manifold up there and wrap with ceramic blanket

Much easier than messing with bricks