Looking for some advice and help with my new 2x6 evaporator Part 2

[SmellsLikeSyrupNH]

Attempted test boil #2 yesterday.

Will try and post 2 videos and see if they work, excuse the basic education aspect of the videos, I made it to send to family and friends.

https://youtu.be/2VnuyH5VAXA

https://youtu.be/VIWoMQXfjAk

My old evaporator was also a 2x6 with flat pans and was a cylinder shaped barrel stove with a raised pan in the back feeding into my front pan. It was completely home made but got me 20-22gph. The blower I had on it was HUGE....and im thinking that is my big difference here.
My old evap:
14766

The new Evap is sectioned pans and is a "real" arch. The blower is tiny compared to my old one.
Current one:
14768
Old one, easily 3 times as large.
14767

I have ordered a new one from Granger....https://www.grainger.com/product/DAYTON-Rectangular-OEM-Blower-With-1TDT2 I hope this makes a difference because This thing just will not boil close to what my old one did.

I ran for about an hour and a half yesterday with good dry wood and water. The back 2 sections just never got to a boil.

I dammed up the back of the arch as suggested by others on my "Part 1" of this same topic.

My fire box is HUGE compared to my other evaporator as well. I stuffed it fully so fuel shouldn't of been an issue. The front section of my rear pan was the 1st to boil, then the middle section of the front pan, and the 2 side sections a few seconds later.

So im thinking the blower is the only thing else I can improve in this setup. If anyone else can suggest more, I am all ears. I just see my efficiency being worse this year as opposed to better and I am really frustrated. My other thought is removing the blanket again and readjusting and adding more sand to make it a tighter fit under the pan, its only maybe 1-2" now......UGH!!

-Scott

[gmc8757]

I don't know if this would help at all, but I once had a similar situation. Couldn't get the boil I was really expecting. After looking into it, I found there was about a .75" to 1" gap between the bottom of my grate to the top of the brick in the back of the firebox. So the blower was pushing a lot of the air out of this gap instead of up through the fire. I closed off this gap and probably tripled my evap rate.


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[SmellsLikeSyrupNH]

Thank you, I don't think I have that same issue here. Could you feel the air escaping when you had that issue? I don't notice any air escaping anywhere. I really think this bigger blower is going to solve my issue, at least I hope so.

[gmc8757]

Sounds like you already eliminated this possibility. I definitely felt air escaping. Good luck, you'll get it


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[wiam]

I had a blower from a Miller mobile home furnace on my 2x6. Worked very well. A stack probe would help find the problem. Stick on ones are not very accurate.

[SmellsLikeSyrupNH]

What temperature would I be looking to achieve?

[mellondome]

Block off the back and front 6"of your "grates". Your air is not flowing through the wood. It is cheating around it. Also it looks like your grate is just vertical flat steel. Angle iron with the V up would be better.

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[mellondome]

Do you have any pictures of the arch without the pans on it?

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[wiam]

What temperature would I be looking to achieve?

Depends on your level of comfort, wood efficiency vs time efficiency. With blower under the grates I would think around 900-1000. I ran a lot hotter to save time. This about head high with rig on 8" blocks.

[SmellsLikeSyrupNH]

One of the pictures shows the grates it came with, but they were so damaged and warped I went with the other piece of steel.


14771147721477314774



Do you have any pictures of the arch without the pans on it?

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[wiam]

I would say too much surface area of grates. My 2x6 had maybe 2/3 of that width and I had a piece of maybe 2/16 flat plate 6" wide across the front. Tight to door. I think that would help force the air through the fire instead of around it.

[SmellsLikeSyrupNH]

makes perfect sense.....now I gotta figure out how to achieve that.....its a huge firebox to me. 24x29x19"

[Daryl]

I think that you should use either split or full size brick on the sides and ramp wall in the fire box. The blanket insulation will not that the abuse during fireing.

[SmellsLikeSyrupNH]

Thanks Daryl, im already considering doing that......I agree it wont take the abuse. Still working on getting this right. The new fan should be here any day now, once I get that installed I will see what I can do about reworking the fire box. I have the brick and the cement already to do that, but I thought the blanket would be better.

[Daryl]

If you can it is best to use both.

[SmellsLikeSyrupNH]

Thanks everyone....ill keep working on that fire box and insulation setup