12V forced air question

[Maple Restoration]

Hi everyone I have been searching all the posted and been unsuccessful and finding the info I'm looking for. So hear it goes:

Has anyone that does not have hydro at their shack ever used a 12v auto heater fan on their rig, for forced air. It seems to me that it puts out a lot of air to defrost your windows and heat the inside of your car, the question is how long would one get out of a 12v car battery by running a fan like this for the day of boiling?

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

MR,
Haven't tried it and it might work. Don't know how long a battery might last running it. I do have a solar collector 12v battery charger that I use on electric fences. I think cost was about $100. It would certainly make the battery last more hours even if it could not keep up with the discharge rate. Take battery to the house overnight and put on a conventional charger. Take it to the sugar shack to use and while it is being used, attach to the solar collector......

[Haynes Forest Products]

Yes it will work just dont get a blower out of a 73 Chevy 1/2 pickup they Sucked. If you have buddies with trolling motor batteries laying around get them and have one hooked up to the sap hauler so you can charge it as you go about the day and keep swapping. put out the call that all visitors will be taken advantage of with jumper cables or 12/2 Romex upon arrival.
I saw a 12volt on Ebay sunday also some nice Jenn air 110 volt rated for heat....$25.00

[hotdog]

Funny you should ask because I'm about to gear up that very item on my rig.I have a 12v blower out of an old truck I put it on a test at the shop,the blower ran about 8 hours on high.It did slow some and my battery was down to about 7 v at the end.I figure run all day charge it at night at home should be fine.

[Haynes Forest Products]

Thats not bad. That crappy heater in my 73 didnt have the power to grind up and spit out the one leaf that was stuck in the fan blades. Sounded like that 1 kid on the block with the baseball card in the spokes.

[Maple Restoration]

Thanks guys the blower I have is out of an 85 Buick and I have 3 used 12v batteries to run it. I just need to get a 15amp rheostat to control the speed. not quite sure how many cmf it would be but it sure blew the crap off the work bench.

[Bucket Head]

I would'nt worry about the amount of boiltime that it would be "on".

Think of all the hours that the donor car operated in the cold months, and probably had the heater on. I'm sure it would add up to hundreds of hours.

Steve

[buxtonboiler]

I am doing the car heater blower too. I went to Radio Shack and for $16.00 bought an AC adapter, just had to match up the amperage with the fan, works great.

[maplesyrupstove]

Back to the lake 8 miles in the woods,my friend has a camp.He run 12 volts lights in the camp,radio and small TV.He has 2 small solar panels on the roof to charge his batteries.He uses two 6 volts batteries,he said two 6 volts batteries last longer that one 12 volt battery.Then he has a lawnmower engine with a love joy coupling and a 12 volt alternator on a metal stand.When he has no sunshine for a few days he uses the charger to charge his batteries. Works good.Should work at the sap house. Darrell

[NH Maplemaker]

Now that idea should get the tip of the week award!! Jim L.

[KenWP]

Now to find a car heater blower. I can find junk cars around here but if they have fan motors is the guestion. So far I have a couple microwave fans and the old fan out of the bathroom ceiling that might work for forced air. I am just looking for enough to keep the back pans hot enough to boil.

[lpakiz]

A guy down the road uses a fan out of an old range hood and injects wood chips into the air stream. Claims he can turn the parts of the cumbustion chamber white hot. He uses a variable speed resistor on both the blower and the chip infeed auger. He makes a lot of syrup.

[maple flats]

If you don't get enough run time out of a car battery, deep cycle marine batteries are better but the best would be solar batteries, such as a pair of 6 volt Trojan T125's. A single 12v trojan would run for a day, a pair of 6v 125's would run several days. What ever you do do not run the battery down to 7v from 12, that will radically reduce it's life. A fully charged 12v will read 12.73v and a 50% charge reads 12.1v. Do not run to less than 50% for long life of the battery. Follow this link and refer to pg 15 edit, lets put the link in this reply www.trojanbattery.com/pdf/UsersGuide_English.pdf

[maple flats]

forgot the link: www.trojanbattery.com/pdf/UsersGuide_English.pdf
That will work better