Mounting preheater

[nymapleguy607]

I was just wondering how you guys mount your preheaters into your hoods. I am almost done building my new hood and I figured that it would be easier to install the preheater befroe I had all of the sheet metal on it. I had thought about using some stainless steel J-hooks to mount it to the top but I thought I would get a few second opinions. Thanks Jeff

[Bucket Head]

I'm not saying the "J" hooks would'nt work, but you would have to reinforce the hood where they would mount. Aluminum sheet metal will not hold up much weight before distorting and actually tearing.

The hood I built has an alum. channel frame around the base. From that, I have two "crossmembers" of the same channel going across. Off of that, I have two supports that I mounted the drip tray and preheater to.

This way the preheater is supported by the stronger, thicker metal channel.

Nothing is mounted to the thin, and unsupported sheet metal hood.

Steve

[Sugarmaker]

nymapleguy607,
We have two Stainless supports across the width of the rear pan about 2 feet apart. From there I added 4 sst pcs of 3/8 all thread to support two higher cross bars for the copper preheater to set on. This allows adjusting of the preheater for level and allows a support under the preheater for the drip channels.
The hood can be removed without removing the main portion of the preheater.

Chris

[tapper]

Follow the link in my signature. There are a few pics of my preheater. They show what Sugarmaker has described.

[Sugarmaker]

Tapper that is a "sweet" sugar house and garage combo. very nice job on the finished building!
Looking in that new hood is like fun house mirrors:)
I used the same concept to mount the preheater for sure, I just did mine on the cheap and fabed all the items from scratch.

Chris

[Haynes Forest Products]

First thing you need to decide is do you want to remove the hood and leave the preheater in place or remove it with the the hood. I would opt for the leave it in place so the hood is lighter. Hang it off the drip edge or have it sit in the flue pan dividers. The price of a few fittings and a little planning and you will be showing off how great it is and when it comes time to clean it the family wont run and hide.

[tapper]

Thank You Sugarmaker. Don't shortchange yourself on the homemade equipment if you ever decide to trade up or sell out. In many cases it can be worth as much as the factory made stuff.
The preheater sitting on top of the fluepan and not hanging in the hood is a definite plus.

[maple flats]

Tapper, I like the looks of your preheater (in fact everything) but do not see where the preheater condensate dumps. Does it drip outside the evaporator or into the hood drip channel? If the latter is the case how do you lift the hood without interference? Or does it have it's own drip channel and then out?

[tapper]

maple flats,
There is a short tube from the preheater condensate tray to the hood channel. It has to be removed to lift the hood but only takes a few seconds to do so. Pic # DSC02750 shows the tube. Image on the right is the actual tube and reflection off hood on the left.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

My hood has an aluminum one inch J channel all around the bottom. My drip pan is aprox 14 gauge or heavier stainless and it has a lip that is bent down 90 degrees on each end and the lip sits in the drip channel on each end. I have 2 stainless brackets in the drip pan that have 3 to 4 inches of adjustment up and down by just removing 2 stainless bolts and moving it up and down and the preheater sits right down in the bracket. There are pics on my weblink.