Blower questions for my homemade arch

[blaircountysugarin85]

Hey everyone, last year I built a homemade evaporator with a 2x3 divided pan. This year I want to add a centrifugal blower to the ash door to get the boiling rate up a little. The grates are made of angle with holes in them for draft. Now my thinking is and really with all the bower set ups, if I attatch a blower to the ash door openings wouldnt that draft be too much force to allow the wood to settle and therefore the ash go out the stack. I have an ash compartment below the ash door and am wondering if it will not longer collect ash with a blower. I am also concerned as I do not want all the ash blowing out the stack and making a mess and getting into my sap and everything else as I boil outside. As far as centrifugal blower size I am looking at some on ebay and what cfm would you say is appropriate, I dont want to get something too strong either. Thanks everyone! 042.jpg039.jpg046.jpg

[jluckay]

i have mine on the ash door also. i have a removable cleanout pan inside. the air from the fan in deflected upwards off the front of the cleanout pan & works just fine. as far as blowing ash out the flu i have never noticed anything out of the ordinary & my flu is piped outside my sugarhouse anyway. not sure as what size my fan is. i know it was from grainger. i welded it directlly to the ash door with a slidable pice of sheetmetal in between as a adjustable damper of sorts. ill c if i can upload aome pictures of it in ther next day or two. good luck!!!

[Indiana-Jones]

Hi, I have been learning about blowers myself. Here is the best place that I have found for small blowers. https://www.surpluscenter.com/sort.a...c&keyword=EBSA

I agree that you won't need a whole lot of CFM's to light up your wood with air under the fire. One of the 60CFM units would work, but let one the other guys here with more experience chime in.

Nice looking rig.

[buckeye gold]

I added a blower to my half pint last year and was really happy with the results.I cut a hole in the fire box and plumbed pipe into the mid area (across fire) of the firebox. I think I'll spit it into two nozzles this year as sometimes wood blocked air flow on one side. I used a blower out of an old vacuum and really don't know the CFM, but it works fine. I had no problem with ash going up my flue pipe. I'm guessing my efficiency went up 20-30% with the blower. I would definately recommend it even for small evaporators.

[English River Maple]

I agree with the blower suggestion. We used to have a Mason 2x3 with a homemade preheater and just a small fan clipped on the ash door blowing air in under the grates. We would simply switch the fan off when we opened the door to fire. We increased our evaporation rate from 7 to 9+ gph. Boiled like crazy, had a lot of fun!!

[RileySugarbush]

With a blower adding air up through the grates you will get much more complete combustion and therefore much less ash. If you really crank it up, you might get some flying out the stack, but it shouldn't be bad. If you want to throttle back the blower, I find the best way is to have an adjustable baffle on the blower inlet. It is much easier on the motor and works great.

Also, from looking at your photos, I suggest you tilt your sap warmer and have it hang over the back of your pan so condensate doesn't drip back into your sap, forcing you to evaporate it again.

[blaircountysugarin85]

Thanks alot guys I will take that into consideration and yes typically I pull the preheater back as there is about a 6 inch gap between the base stack and the pan so it just leans up agains the base stack for the most part. I ordered a centrifugal blower off of ebay a few days ago and I am planning on hooking up rheostat or variable speed control knob to adjust the speed. Also when looking at alot of you commercial and factory build evaporators i notice that they mount the blower behind the firebox and not in front on the ash door. What is the reasoning behind this and/or does it make a difference? Thanks

[RileySugarbush]

Thanks alot guys I will take that into consideration and yes typically I pull the preheater back as there is about a 6 inch gap between the base stack and the pan so it just leans up agains the base stack for the most part. I ordered a centrifugal blower off of ebay a few days ago and I am planning on hooking up rheostat or variable speed control knob to adjust the speed. Also when looking at alot of you commercial and factory build evaporators i notice that they mount the blower behind the firebox and not in front on the ash door. What is the reasoning behind this and/or does it make a difference? Thanks

It won't make a difference in performance. It is just blowing air in the volume under the grates. much more convenient and quiet out of the way back there though.

[blaircountysugarin85]

ok that's what I had figured thanks

[wiam]

Thanks alot guys I will take that into consideration and yes typically I pull the preheater back as there is about a 6 inch gap between the base stack and the pan so it just leans up agains the base stack for the most part. I ordered a centrifugal blower off of ebay a few days ago and I am planning on hooking up rheostat or variable speed control knob to adjust the speed. Also when looking at alot of you commercial and factory build evaporators i notice that they mount the blower behind the firebox and not in front on the ash door. What is the reasoning behind this and/or does it make a difference? Thanks

I have fired rigs with blower in front and underneath. The nice part about underneath is your not bumping it with wood or tripping over it.