Forced Draft

[Mac & Deb's Sugarhouse]

I have a raised flu 2x8 that I installed a squirrel cage blower with a reostat, it works great except I get some ash blowing out between the doors, any ideas on how to improve on this. I have tried different kinds if mesh door gasket.

250 Taps on natural vacuum, 60 on buckets
2x8 raised flue evaporator with forced draft
Artic Cat 400 with 250 gal tank for gathering
100 gal feed tank to evaporator and 250 gal storag tank.
























8 raised flue evaporater with forced draft

[Maplewalnut]

Airtight front is probably the only thing that will help. Might try some stove gasket but that will come off sooner or later (probably sooner) even if you were to groove in a channel for it to sit in.

[Beans Maple]

When I burned wood with a blower at first we had the same problem. Contrary to popular belief you really don't need alot of air for the forced draft to work well. We tried gaskets and mesh...didn't work. We finally realized that we could turn down the blower and still get great results. We did put a piece of sheet metal rolled over like a deflector between the syrup pan and top of arch doors. This kept the stray ash from rolling up and into the syrup pan. We also found alot less ash when we burned straight hardwood.

[bees1st]

Harlan - what size blower moter do you have? rpm & cfm.

[White Barn Farm]

I had the same trouble with my evaporator. Last season I ran a short piece of 4" pipe from the doors back to the fan intake with an elbow pointed at the doors and an elbow and an elbow pointed back to the intake. The ash got sucked into the pipe and the warm air was good for combustion.Worked for me
Ed

[madmantr]

In my attempt to start this hobby on a shoestring (even a used shoestring if it's long enough)I was wondering if something like a shopvac or a leafblower would provide enough air to make a difference.I read that someone said it doesn't take a lot of volume and I see what a bellows does to my wood stove.Thanks for everyones help getting going.
Tony

[Sugarmaker]

Tony,
If you have them I would try both and see what works and what you can live with as far as noise. You may see amarked differrect in the fire with a small amount of forced air.
We ahve a 550 cfm blowere on the 3 x 10 and it roars, boilds like mad and uses a lot of wood quickly.
Hope the used shoe string is in good shape.:) I have been hanging on to one for a long time too!

Regards,
Chris