Forced air options

[Maplewalnut]

Has anyone ever tried a carpet dryer blower to feed forced air to thier rig? Looking for a cheaper option then the wood saver models that are sold specifically for evaporators. Anyone use something different?

[mountainvan]

I have three small blowers meant for composting toilets, never used for that though, hooked together. They work great.

[Father & Son]

Dayton blowers from the Grainger catalog or off ebay. I have a 265 cfm that runs on 110v. Got it off ebay for about $60.00. Works great.

Jim

[220 maple]

Squirrel cage fan that we found at a flea market works. Basically the same kind of fan that is in a force air oil furnace.
Mark 220 Maple

[blackstrapking]

also have a small twin squirrel cage, found in dump. My buddies call it the twin turbo. Sticks into the ash door. When I trip over the cord and unplug it, It is like turning off a light in a dark room,(loose my rolling boil real fast!) dont know how I got along without it. Really was only like an hour of my first boil with the new rig.

[Fred Henderson]

I also have a small twin squirrel cage with a a motor in the middle. I had it mounted on my ash door but it would get so hot that it would cause the internal overload to trip.Ended up putting it under the arch at the rear and piping it to the ash door. Worked lots better then.

[Maplewalnut]

Thanks for all the response. Do most position it on the ash door in the front or can you position it underneath and blow from the back of the rig? I guess you would have to turn it off everytime you fire or you'll get a snoot full of flame and ash ?

[maplehound]

The best place to put it is at the back of your ash pit. just cut a hole in and rig up a blower. I have no problem with it when I open the doors. I f you have enough draw you won't need to worry about blow out unless you have way to much air.

[danno]

I did as maplehound and have mine duct into the back of the arch below the grates, pointed up slightly into the fire. I ran the electric through a dimmer and have the dimmer mounted close to the arch doors so I can reduce the fan (but not turn it off) while I'm loading.

I must run my fan high cause if I did not turn it down, even with good draw up the stack, the fan on high would blow serious ash out the doors while loading. For that matter, I made my arch air tight to keep the air from blowing ash through the cracks all over the sugar house. Plan this year is to move the fan outside and extend the duct to the arch to cut down on the noise.

[Bucket Head]

Year's ago when we were out in the wood's with no electric, we ducted a gas powered leaf blower to the back of the ash pit.

It was a 3.5 horse power blower and we ran it at idle speed. We used 4" pvc drain pipe and electric dryer vent hose for the ducting. We still had to divert some of the air because even at idle it pushed a lot of air.

No, it did'nt look very pretty, but it got the job done!

So if you guy's ever lose power in the sap house, go get the leaf blower out!

Steve