Homemade AUF blower

[Longyearfarm]

Just finished the homemade AUF blower. I'm anxious to see how she works. I'm boiling on a 2x6 raised flue grimm. This monstrosity will go where the old draft door was, just below the grates. What does everyone think? Will it work? 555955605561

[MapleME]

That will work real well I think...

[rookie]

couple questions, what size pipe is the main pipe, and how many cfm is your blower? it looks good. one thing to remember, even a little auf, is better than no auf at all

[Longyearfarm]

I used 3" reduced to 2" pipe with 3/4" nipples/caps. We put a steel plate over a few holes on top of the blower to help with air restriction. I'm not sure what size CFM this blower is, as it was a donor from an old junked oil furnace. The blower is wired to a dimmer switch to control the air under the grates. Full power seemed like WAY to much air. I do realize that this is not the type of motor that can be ran "dimmed down", but I do have quite a few replacement motors to throw on this thing if this one is to fail. I collected 100 gallons last night, so the real test is tonight!

[wiam]

You are better to damper the air going into the blower than to use a dimmer.

[RileySugarbush]

You are better to damper the air going into the blower than to use a dimmer.

I agree. Simple damper on the inlet is far better than a dimmer.

[Longyearfarm]

Thanks for the damper idea. I didn't think of that.

[MapleME]

Doesn't dampening down the air intake put stress on the motor? I know nothing about that type of stuff so its a serious question albeit probably a simple one!

[RileySugarbush]

It is actually a much lighter load on the motor. Less air being pumped is less power drawn. That is how I control both my under and over air.

Using a speed control on the wrong kind of motor can really cause problems