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View Full Version : Need measurements from a grimm woodsaver or leader forced draft unit



heus
05-17-2010, 10:38 PM
I would like to make my own forced draft unit for my 2x6. What is the cfm for the blowers on these factory units? Anyone know exactly which blower motors are used on these? What about the dimensions of the opening that attaches to the back of the firebox wall? Thanks

maple flats
05-18-2010, 06:26 AM
I can't help with a 2x6 but read this:
http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc/Combustion.pdf
It gives the details on adding high pressure air which works wonders. I did it on my 3x8 for this past season. I went from adding wood every 5 minutes to 15 min, got a faster more even boil, lowered my stack temp and saved about 30% on wood consumption.
On my set up the air enters thru a manifold I made and built into the firebox by removing the top 8" of brick, inserting the manifold and re bricking. I now have 3/8" pipe nozzles blowing into the fire from 6" below the pan angled down 10 degrees all around the firebox from beside one door every 6" around to the other door. The air feeds up thru the slope behind the firebox thru a 2" sq tubing manifold I welded up, the pipe nozzles are welded into that. Additionally I made a under fire air by installing a length of 4" stove pipe with 5/16" holes drilled every 4" in three rows to fan the air the width of the grates. Both of these are run off one high pressure blower that sets outside under my elevated feed tank and in thru a 4" pvc pipe to a Y that then goes to 3" with valves to adjust flow and balance and then into and under the firebox. All told it cost me about $100 but I got lucky. I got the high pressure blower with motor for free from a factory that closed and shipped out to another state. These were just being trashed. Without this a high pressure blower would have run about $500 if memory serves me correctly. Even at that it would have been $ very well spent. Faster boil and huge efficiency improvement in wood use. I think the most important point is the high pressure blower, not like a squirrel cage blower which is high volumn at low pressure. High pressure really add a lot of turbulance inside the firebox burning all of the woodgas and leaving none to re light at the top of the stack. Before this I always had a ball of fire that was unburnt gas getting fresh air at the top of the stack. That is not fire running the whole way but gas relighting when it hits the air, wood gas that you had to cut, split, stack, dry, move a few times and then it just makes a fireball at the top of the stack. In my case about 30% was wasted prior to this new change.
On the other side, if you just want a blower and motor that I used prior to this I have one that was used on both my 2x6 and then my current 3x8. It is a squirrel cage blower and direct drive motor that moves lots of air. PM me and I'll talk turkey.