istalling a blower

[Brien]

Has anyone installed a blower on their setup and regretted it because of the noise? And now you don't want to remove it because of the increased boil rate? I'm talking more for the hobbiest, not for people trying to earn an income.

[darkmachine]

It all depends on the blower, I know that i would not want a loud blower running. Boiling is relaxing time, lol and the RO is loud enough. I did some shopping around to find one that just makes a little 'whrrrr'

[aamyotte]

I installed a 12V blower last year connected to a battery. It was noisy and annoying after a while. For this year I installed a speed controller and can dial down the speed and noise to a good level.

[buckeye gold]

Yup, that is the biggest complaint I get is the noise (mostly from my wife). I made a cover that helps and I have it mounted outside the shack. There's no way I am doing without it though. grin and bare it

[Openwater]

On my homemade file cabinet evaporator (12" x 48"), I just ducted in a bathroom exhaust fan for AUF that moves 110 cfm's. I put a dimmer switch on it so I can control the speed, but usually just put it on the max flow most of the time.
It definitely got the arch hotter with better boils and minimal noise.
I also have a vortex in-line fan I got a while ago as a back-up, but haven't hooked it up yet since I've been happy with the current set-up and am somewhat cautious about how hot I get the arch since it's just thin file-cabinet sheet metal.

[aamyotte]

Yup, that is the biggest complaint I get is the noise (mostly from my wife). I made a cover that helps and I have it mounted outside the shack. There's no way I am doing without it though. grin and bare it
I didn't think of mounting the fan outside. I will do that since I haven't installed the fan yet.

[wobbletop]

On my homemade file cabinet evaporator (12" x 48"), I just ducted in a bathroom exhaust fan for AUF that moves 110 cfm's. I put a dimmer switch on it so I can control the speed, but usually just put it on the max flow most of the time.
It definitely got the arch hotter with better boils and minimal noise.


I did the same on my barrel evaporator.

[jrgagne99]

I hardly hear my squirrel cage blower and it sits right under the evaporator. They are a very quite type, FWIW.

[NhShaun]

If you are stuck with that noisy blower and have a little time, you could try building an air baffle to knock down the sound. I have done so with a few generators and compressors over the years. Something like this (https://zensoundproof.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Sound-maze-for-generator_2-1024x639.webp)

[ecolbeck]

I installed a blower and stopped using it after a few years because of noise. Now I have a RO machine and I hate the noise the pump makes. Noises definitely detract from the experience but they help move the process along.

[Brien]

Mounting it outside is a good idea!

[Openwater]

Here's a couple pictures of my exhaust fan AUF blower.
The intake plenum is held in place by the screw and nut with gasket roping between plenum and front of arch.
This plenum is easily removed for ash cleanout when needed.
Hopefully the pics work
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[MajorWoodchuck]

I tried adding a fan to the back side of one of my file cabinet evaporators and it didn't seem to make much difference so I stopped using it. I was able to keep a boil going on all my pans without much problem and if the back pan stopped boiling I knew it was time to add more wood. Maybe if my evaporator was sealed up better the fan would make more difference. My door doesn't really seal that good.

[Openwater]

Yeah, one thing adding the AUF fan did for me was show me where all my air leaks were. During the first boil using the fan, I used chalk to mark all the cracks, leaks, whatever where I saw smoke or ash coming out of the arch or under the pan and fixed the leaks. I re-welded some of the seams in the file cabinet, put furnace/refractory cement around the cast iron door/frame assembly I have bolted to front of arch and added some good "compressible" ceramic wool gasket material to the rails.
Now, no more leaks, and when the fan is blowing there are flames shooting under the whole length of the pan.
When I was using steam pans on my file cabinet, I had to add a baffle inside arch under the back pan to get it boiling as good as the front pan.

[Pdiamond]

Openwater - can you post some pictures when you boil with your arch. It sounds like a very interesting project you created.

[Openwater]

I was babysitting the RO in the garage all evening so I figured I'd take some pics of my arch.
It's all on wheels, so when I fire it up, I just roll it out just enough that the stack clears the rain gutter over the garage by about 18", so the pan is still inside the garage with all the other equipment, sap tanks, etc.
I'll take some more this weekend when I get it fired up.
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Still don't know why my pics are always sideways. They look normal before being uploaded.

[Pdiamond]

Openwater, did you build the arch yourself? That is really a nifty idea having it on wheels to move it.

[Openwater]

I built it from an old steel file cabinet which I gutted and cut it so I could bend the metal to form the ramp of the arch.
As you can probably see from the pics, the legs on the back of the arch are old steel bedframes.
The first section of stack actually connects to the little shelf I made from the bedframes, and then the next 6' of stack just sits on that.
The wheels are just old steel AV carts that where being trashed by a school. I cut the top off the carts to make "evaporator dollies".

[Pdiamond]

Just a thought crossed my mind while looking at the pictures. If you were to take where you currently have the exhaust stack exit and turn that 90 degrees, so that it went straight up. Then inside the arch where you make the extension for the stack you create a little bump something like this /\ almost up to the bottom of the metal. You would leave a gap of about 3/4" . What that will do is force the fire to stay in the arch longer before it exits the stack. I hope this makes sense.

[Openwater]

Under the back of the pan, my ramp comes up to within about 2" of the bottom of the pan. I also have a piece of 1" angle iron laying sideways on the back of ramp, so the hot gases/flames hopefully "should" be within 1" of the bottom of the pan.
I put a 90 degree 6" stack elbow right after the arch exhaust exit that goes up to about 12' of stack.

[GanaSugar]

It's all on wheels, so when I fire it up, I just roll it out just enough that the stack clears the rain gutter over the garage by about 18", so the pan is still inside the garage with all the other equipment, sap tanks, etc.


How do you keep the steam out of the garage??

[Openwater]

I open up the other garage door 1/2 way and open the top 12" of both windows. Creates enough air flow to keep garage ventilated.