Why you guys talking about drying stuff twice

[Hopperbin]

Like the title says, why not dry in one cycle?

[Wheatking]

Because you will cook the grain instead of drying it. The grain will stay in the dryer too long and get hot increasing the risk of fire or ruining the grain by cooking it. You have to keep the grain flowing and turning to dry properly. It is easier to dry something twice when going from 17 to 10. There is a fairly steep learning curve with a dryer but you will catch on quick when yours arrives.

[wedino]

Set your max grain temp & dry it till it's done. Doesn't make sense to cool it down and then heat it up again. At least that's the way I did it, back in the day!

[redbaron]

We use the two pass method on a smaller continuous flow drier for high moisture grains. It is hard to bring the canola down 6 to 7 percentage points in one pass. You are only dribbling the stuff out. Using high temperatures to dry it can cause problems. So I run the stuff through twice. do not cool. Ya loose a bit of heat but the safety and keeping it moving makes it easier to dry. At least our experiences.

[fjlip]

Farm Fans batch dryer, drying 16-18% canola for 2hrs= 8.8%MT. Will see if it rebounds any when we move it to storage bin. Using 160F air temp. Have lots of canola at 5%MT this year to blend.

[Hopperbin]

One reason why I posted this topic is I could not easily figure out the logistics of running the grain through the dryer twice, so much easier if going through once, enters from wet bin exits to dry bin, then auger into truck then auger to another bin. Redbaron what you say makes no sense to me, you say you are running continuous and running it through twice, how ever is that set up, as far as I can figure if you run continuous you must put it through once. My neighbors say that with their Farmfans they only run through once batch even with snow in sample very high moisture, never spoiled the canola, possibly they use lower plenim temperatures.

[redbaron]

I use high temperatures to dry. Increases my production. At 160 I get nothing done. I use it for smaller volumes. Not often you harvest canola in the 18-20 per cent range.

[nicolaas]

with untestable canola in years past we ran trough twice. reason why it was going through continuous grain dryer so slow that the unload auger spins empty. We just pull out 500 BU loads out of the dry bin and stick it back into the wet bin. It can mix with the wet canola and gradually bring it up. We believe it is safer this way with less chance of damage to augers running nearly empty and less chance of fire. This year I dryed 16-17 % in one pass, but outside temps were above zero. Try doing it in subzero deg weather and I would think that you will dry untestable (18-20%) canola in 2 passes with a continous dryer. Since we are all farmers though we all do what we want though. If you are going to run canola through your dryer really slow, keep your temp down below 160 F, otherwise you can dry canola up to 180 degF as long as its moving at a decent clip. It sucks to burn down a dryer.

[per]

I have zero drying experience and just have a curiosity questions. How many bph can you guys dry? What is the speed range and cost range? NG would be the best source of heat or propane or are there other alternatives?

[fjlip]

My Farm Fans dryer is 180bu.At 2hrs a batch, 90bu per hr removing 8% moisture in canola with 5 temp today. We can do 180 per hr of 18% wheat during 20 C. Air flow is restricted due to canola density.

[fjlip]

Fijlip, what size motor on your fan?? Is it the same size fan on the 180's as the 250's.

Just curious if it is. I have a 250, and am drying same canola as you but have to run 3hrs.

[fjlip]

I think it is, 36" 10HP. It looks big, lots of air flow. On hi flame especially the air still blows out of fan. I guess you get 83 bu per hr.