how to add forced air to arch

[sugaringcrazy]

I have a 30"x6' set up with flat pans. I am planning on doing 200 taps this year. I almost pulled the trigger on getting a flue pan this year, but was a little overwhelmed by price. Instead I want to make my setup more efficient. My boiling rate was less than perfect last year. I had a hard time getting the rear pan to boil back by the smoke stack. I also have a lot of ash build up, and I want have a stronger, more efficient fire. So, my thought was to cut a hole in the rear of the firebox, below the grates, and set up some sort of fan. I was thinking some blower off a old furnace or something, but I am very open to suggestions. I'm worried about heat on the fan too, so maybe would have the air blow through some sort of pipe into the arch. My other problem is that I'm not going to have power in my sugar house this year. Next year I will. Is it possible to set up a fan powered off a battery of sorts? Thoughts?

[lfdiaff]

I am in the same boat and am no pro at this but here is my 2 cents. Forcing air into you arch is gonna help. Last year I started with a 12v fan that was for camping. It had a converter to plug into 110v but dont see why you could not use a car battery. I just had it set up to blow in my ash door. Make sure it is always on. I melted mine last year. I then moved up to a furnace fan. That made a world of difference. Just about 3 gal an hour on my 2x4. This year I am building a new 2x6 and was planning on AOF but time is not gonna allow it i dont think. I think instead I am gonna do a drop tube pan. I will still have the blower going into the firebox on the back side this year. Last year it was a hassel with the fan in the front of the box. The nice things about furnace fans is they are adjustable. While messing around with what speed setting I wanted I was able to get about a 10'' flame to come out of the stack. I was running 12' of 8'' stack. The elbow and the bottom 3' would be cherry red. Like I said just my 2 cents as this is only my third year but I didnt have any problem getting a ragin boil last year.

[BoarsNest]

I added a 12 v bilge blower on batteries and it worked good. As you can see by the picture it worked but is in the way. I am making a "water reduction unit" so I am going to be running a generator so I am looking at using a wood stove blower this year and mount it on the ash door.

6501

[adk1]

There is a pic of my blower setup on my 2x6 in my gallery. It is a 300cfm or squirrel cage blower. I had some local guys make up a plenum to dimensions that I asked for. I run the blower on a thermostat..I got both off of amazon.com. it works awesome

[not_for_sale]

Dayton 1tdn7 - drill 2 inch hole and attach. My outdoor wood furnace uses the same blower, and with a coupon code they are 55 bucks at zoro tools.