Can A Blower Be Added ?

[briansickler]

Can a blower be added to a regular non-airtight arch? If so, would it blow into the front of the arch or what? I see that the airtight models blow into the back of the firebox and have special grates. Does any manufacturer make a blower set up for a non-airtight arch front?

[danno]

Many of us without air tight archs have added a blower that enters the arch in the ramp in the back of the fire box. Really improves the boil and evap rate, but also eats alot of wood quickly.

A good draw resulting form the right size stack will prevent smoke in the sugarhouse. You can also make a poor-mans air tight arch. I use wood stove gasket on all doors and metal tape on any open seams. Also insulated the doors due to fear that the cast doors would crack due to the firebox heat. Many use their original grates, I put in drilled brick grates as my steel grates were shot.

[farmall h]

Brian, try it either way...but my arch is not by any means air-tight. I run it in the back at an adjusted speed ( ramped the airflow under the grates with a sheet of steel to midway of the ash box) and open the front damper until I find maximum draft. Once set I leave it. If it doesn't work in the back you can always sheet metal over the hole made for the duct work.

[maple sapper]

I started with a hair drier with the heat element removed. Once I used up that little motor, I bought a blower motor for a furnace. That thing makes my stack glow red up about 8 ft. Makes me nervious. But to have the kind of boil on a flat bottom pan is incredible. The boil rate increased by 5O%. I have a barrell stove and lined it with bricks and ceramic blanket. I had to put a layer on my door with fender washers so It wouldnt glow red. The only problem now is figuring out how to not burn down the neighborhood with the sparks coming out the stack. Spark arrestor???? Do they make those for chimneys?

[Bucket Head]

They do make spark arrestors for chimneys. However, you would have to "oversize" it to accomodate the amount of "exhaust" your arch is generating. Its way more than what a woodstove produces. You don't want to restrict your smokestack and thats just what would happen with too small of an arrestor.

Try reducing the blower air. That should help. You don't need a lot of forced draft to improve a fire. You can still get a good boil without all the "glowing" stuff.

Steve

[maple sapper]

Bucket Head

What fun are you.:lol: my glowing red pipe is sure a conversation piece. I did put a dimmer on my blower but it felt like it was getting warm and was afraid of burning up the motor prematurely by resisting the current so much. I did dim it back a bit. If I had more time to work with it I would be able to refine it to a happy medium.

[briansickler]

I think this is what I'm looking for. Model A and B are listed in Bascom catalog for $437 Has anyone added one of these?.....Let me know how it works if you have one. I copied the ad below from leaderevaporator.com I added the prices from Bascom catalog. The photo in the catalog is a blower with a wide flat duct. It must attach to arch behind the firebox below the grates.... Thanks, Brian

Grimm Woodsaver

The grimm woodsaver is an inexpensive way to increase your wood fired maple syrup evaporator's performance. This specially designed blower and duct work comes with a variable speed fan with speed control. You will increase the BTU output of your wood by burning more of the gases within the evaporator, and reducing the amount of wood burned during the season. Works with your convential grates and front, just adjust the volume of air with the speed control to your liking. We recommend a seperate on/off switch also be wired in series with the speed control.

Available in four sizes to fit all wood fired arches:
Model A - 2x4 and 2x6 evaporators $437
Model B - 2x8, all 30" wide evaporators, 3x8 and 3x10 evaporators $437
Model C - 3x12, and all 40" (or 42") wide evaporators $499
Model E - 4 foot wide evaporators and large $624

[gar]

Put a piece of tin over your blower intake so that it is adjustable and just close it up to where you get your best fire, and lowest stack temp. I would look for 600-900 Stack temp with the best boil. If ou can't get that combination you may have to look to something else like a damper in your stack.

[Father & Son]

Brian,
I made the same set-up that you are talking about. The flat wide duct I made from 2 sheets of flat duct work metal from Home Depot. the blower I got off of ebay, a 265 cfm Dayton blower ($65.00). Had less than $100 in it.

Jim

[briansickler]

Jim,

Did you put a reostat (dimmer switch) on the blower to regulate blower speed?

Brian

[danno]

I've got reostat's on both of my fans - works great.

[maple flats]

Read my thread about adding high pressure air over and under the fire. My arch is not air tight. I improved to boil by 10-15%, and saved wood at the same time. I cut wood use about 30%, fueled every 15 min instead of 5 min (but added more per fueling) As I say, I boiled faster on less wood. I control air volume with a 3" ball valve for each the top and bottom air. After using it I learned were to set the valves, did not stop air when I opened the door to add wood and no sparks or smoke out the front. The stack temp ran between 650-750 most of the time, no sparks or flame out the stack. An excellent project for summer. My air goes in the slope for the top air and in the base for bottom air. I do not think it would work with a furnace fan however, you need high pressure not high volume. Such a blower will be the most expensive part unless you find a used one like I did (free).

[Father & Son]

Brian,
I did put a rheostat on the blower and it worked fine but I was told later that the motor on the blower will last longer if running at full power so I put a damper in the duct work and adjust the air flow with that.

Jim

[Northern Ont. Maple]

For those of you looking for a high pressure blower check out Harbour Freight. They have saw dust vacuum systems with blowers on them that just needs to be reassembled to orient discharge horizontally to enter the arch. I bought a 2hp 3450 rpm unit, works great at home on 120v but kept tripping the breaker on my 7200 watt generator. Start up amperage draw was 60 amps and 15 amps on run. The whole unit was $180. They also had smaller units for less.

[Brent]

Maple Sapper wrote:
"I did put a dimmer on my blower but it felt like it was getting warm and was afraid of burning up the motor prematurely by resisting the current so much."

A standard induction motor is designed to cool itself with a fan mounted on the motor shaft. If you slow down the motor, you slow down the fan, so you lose cooling.

I true inverter motor, designed to run slower and faster than nominal 1750 rpm has a separate constant speed fan or blower to keep it cool. You made a good observation that will likely save your motor. You could get a very small blower and direct it through the cooling channels of the main blower motor to help cool it if you want to run slower contiuously.

[bucksyrup]

anyone have the forced draft with the special grates and everything without the airtight front? right now i have a furnace blower in front. kinda thinking more air would be better?

[maple flats]

my high pressure does not have special grates. However my plan is to cast a refractory floor with cone shaped nozzles cast in, at the rate of 12/sf as per the report I got my design from. I already have the refractory to do it, and the price was good as in free. My brother works where they major overhaul and rebuild commercial aircraft and one plane was shipped in with a bunch of refractory cement in 100# bags just for ballast because it needed more weight to fly right. I benifited with 300#. It seems they could have used something cheaper for ballast but I won't complain. When the plane was repaired the refractory was just being put in the trash dumpster. My brother got a pass to take 6 bags, 3 for me and 3 for casting a new door for his outdoor boiler which uses a steel shell and gets filled with refractory.

[Russell Lampron]

I put my blower in the back under the ramp. I built it with a damper in the duct that goes to the firebox. After some trial and error I got it adjusted so that I can fire without turning the blower off and maintain a constant boil at the same time. I use my stock grates and have the air directed so that it blows into the middle of the grates. I don't have an air tight front yet but that is a planned upgrade for sometime in the future.

I always thought that I didn't need a blower because I have such a good draft with my 17' stack. Boy was I wrong! The evaporator runs so much more consistently now and I don't have to split the wood to get it to burn hot. As for using more wood that isn't a problem either. I made 153 gallons of syrup with less than 2 cords of wood this year with the help of my RO machine.