Aeration heat.

[blackpowder]

Renting a 700,000 btu diesel heater tomorrow to try and pull 3 points out of 2 barley bins at once tomorrow. Claims I'll have it in less than a week if keep incoming air close to 40. Maybe shutoff at night. I know the bin size, floor type,fan size, grain height all make a difference.
Anybody used these heaters?
They also have 1.4m btu units.
Cant mention company name on here.

[SASKFARMER3]

Redland had something similar from Bourgault I think it was on 10000 bus hoppers seemed to work.

Also a cousin uses a similar system heats the air going in.

We use a continuous dryer thats the best. Harvest tough its dry in the morning when you wake up.

[biglentil]

Bought a blue one a few years ago pile of junk. Had a plumber friend set inches of water column n crap. Still brutal pissy little flame next to impossible to lite phoned them they said too much static pressure in bin it was only half full. Could try renting a 500000 btu frost fighter and run ducting to inlet. Just dont tell em what your doing with it lol.

[hobbyfrmr]

I bought and Air-o--Don heater and a big propane tank. Basically a big propane furnace. Ducting goes to the fan. It's a bit of a wrestling match to put the tube on the fans but otherwise it works well. It cycles up and down like a furnace so not always immediate heat. It has a few quirks but so far so good. I have opi moisture cables in the bins to tell me what is happening. I am satisfied it works good for a one man (gong) show.

[blackpowder]

I have a 500000 air o don on NG. Works well. Just too small for what i need this year. The post fan blue ones are too small and unreliable to be worth taking home. Too many safeties too difficult to keep open flame behind fan. Ill sell you mine.

[farmaholic]

I think you would have to be careful drying malt barley with a batch or continuous dryer. What is the maximum temperature you should use before damaging the germination, stay well under it if you want to ensure the least damage... even if it takes a lot longer. Not an ideal situation.

Good luck blackpowder. What pisses me off is all the blowing and turning and handling or drying you will do and no one is willing to give you an extra cent for your efforts.... just being miserable again I guess! I SINCERELY hope you don't run into any rejection issues after all you are going through to try to ensure quality is maintained.

[fjlip]

Farma lots of malt dried in this area, all kinds of dryers, even at the elevators. Just keep air temp about 130F, grain temp under 115F. Seems to work.

[blackpowder]

Thanx. Feed price here $2.80.

[Oliver88]

Blackpowder are you referring to a 700,000 Btu/Hr unit that heats water and circulates it through a heat-coil/rad?

Or does this a burner that heats air directly?

[Oliver88]

140F is the temperature I heat to not heat malt above to affect germ.

[farmaholic]

Now my prick attitude would say it isn't malt until there is a check in hand for a value that is reflective of malt prices....with that stuff it ain't over til it's over!

[blackpowder]

My unit is air to air. The unit showing up tommorow i dont know.
Farma, I admit sometimes it's a little salty to swalliw.

[farmaholic]

blackpowder....your last comment to me has me wondering, the malt barley game a little salty to swallow or my attitude? If you're referring to my attitude, I would prefer you use the word "bitter" to describe it....and that can be hard to swallow too. Please make yourself clear, no innuendos next time. ;-)

[poorboy]

Be careful over drying the barley. You don't want to just add 40 degree heat or you will have 6% barley in bottom of bin and top of bin still tough.

For every 20 degree F temp rise (if my memory is correct) will cut your humidity in half.

So say you were just planning on setting temp to 100 degrees F this is what happens as an example:

Daytime temp averages 60 and you heat air to 100 you reduce humidity twice by 50%. So 60% incoming humidity drops to 15%.

Night time air is 40 degrees and 100% humidity. That drops 3x by 50% when add 60 degrees of heat. Makes air 12.5% humidity.

If you look at the chart on a standard 919 grain testor, I think the one scale is humidity and other temp. If you look at 12.5 humidity and 30+ degrees grain, you will be ultra dry.

Sorry if this is not very clear, but ideally you need to vary the temp you are drying at as humidity changes.

Continuous flow grain dryers take this into account by speeding up/slowing down the flow of grain. In bin drying can't do this unless you have a stirring system.

[blackpowder]

Unit arrived today. Diesel engine drives a glycol pump that itself heats the glycol. Flameless. Self contained unit with its own fan.
Their ducting rather smaller than fan intakes. 7hp - bottom of bin warm quick. 10hp not so much. Have to bleed in a lot of ambient to keep ducting from collapsing. Unit works well tho. Hope to be done by end of week.