back in the shack- blower question

[maplemark]

after 9 years away from sugaring I'm starting over. Got a 22x66 ( all I could afford ) .some used tubing a few buckets
I have a ?
On my old 2x6 I put a little fan/blower on the back of my arch . Cut a hole in the flat area pointing toward the air intake door. I sealed up the air door so sparks wouldn't fly into the room. I did it that way to keep the blower out of the way and create more air flow.It worked well and I was wondering if thats a good idea for the new rig?

[smitty76]

definitly, will make a huge difference in heat. I put my blower in the back as well, but ran the tube from all the way back in the arch to the front to heat up the incoming draft air as much as posible to keep the fire box temp up as high as possible. It made a difference but i do not know how much it ups the air temp. anyway, the blower under the back side is a nice way to keep it out of the way.

[maplemark]

thanks for that reply
I'll do it
now to figure out a good pre heater. I did have a home made on the old rig , but I'm sure there are better ways to do it. got any ideas?

[smitty76]

yeah, I would suggest staying away from rapping copper around your chimney.
My preheater is in the sap pan hood and works well. The biggest thing on a good preheater is to vent it so that when/if sap boils in the preheater it does not air lock and stop the flow of sap into your pan. also, if you put it in your hood you will need to incorporate a condensate trap or the condensate will drip back in the pan which is pointless.

what kind of preheater did you have on your last pan and how well did it work? being that you need to build from scracth, mite better use what you know works and not what doesn't.

[maplemark]

hey Smitty
I forgot how I made the old preheater. It was in the hood but that was too long ago and I cant afford to buy a premade.
got any drawings for yours?

[KenWP]

Once I get my flue pan working I figure I need a small blower also just to get the heat to the back of the flues. I don't think I need a lot just enough to keep it burning hot especially when the barometric pressure goes haywire and the fire won't burn period.

[Brent]

If you do not have a blower on it now, find a way to blow the air in from under the pan down into the fire.

There are several threads about this but most impressive is the one here about the new Force 5. It puts almost no air under the fire.

If you blow air up through the grate you will get a hotter firebox temp and higher stack temp. The higher stack temp means you are wasting heat and wood. Put the air injection above the fire with small nozzles and higher pressure and you get a hotter firebox with no greater total air flow and more or less the same stack temp. More GPH and fewer cords of wood.