Purchased fan at FarmFest 2013 – Toowoomba.
I put in a late 20HA of sorghum in January because the season and prices were looking good and I’m now having to take it off at 15-16% moisture – we were getting showers nearly every day.
The knock-down you take if you try to sell it like that makes it not worth it.
I’ve had my eye on one of these for years, but right now I really couldn’t go past it.
Don Sempf
Bowenville,QLD
I have 3 x 2.2kW electric fans and a controller which I use on 4 x 250t elevated silos and 2 x 120t elevated silos. The fans have been a great help to me because we farm close to the Dividing Range and don’t get the ideal harvest conditions very often. I harvest when the weather is OK and the grain moisture is 13-14% then dry in the Silos. In 2009 I put sorghum harvested at 19% into the 120T silos and over 3 weeks brought it down to 13%. I recommend them highly.
John Mcphee, McPhee Farms
Clifton
QLD
I had a great result with the fan bought from Silo Sealing. I set up a field bin to dry canola I couldn’t sell due to high Moisture. I put 16t in at 8.4% (Tested at the Rock Facility) and ran the fan for 8 hours on a day of 21 deg C and below 50% humidity. The canola tested after that at at 5.5% at the bottom and 6.9% at the top. I delivered it back to the Rock and it averaged 7.1%. Great result in a short time.
Rolf Malmo, ‘Pine Lodge’
Yerong Creek
NSW
Our decision to use high pressure fans this year to dry buckwheat has been very successful. We used a small Spit Fire gas burner on each fan and adjusted the distance between the inlet and the burner depending on the outside temperature. Each fan dried about 20 tons of buckwheat down about 1-2% moisture per day when outside temperature was between 15-25 Celsius. We just had to be careful to turn the fans off at night if temperatures fell below 10 Celsius, to stop condensation in the silos.
Compared to the Vertec drier that we previously used , the Smallaire fans were much more reliable, much cheaper, more versatile and much cleaner and our gas bill is significantly less.
This system would have to be the most cost effective way to dry grain.
Geoff Brown, Buckwheat Enterprises Pty Ltd.
Parkes
NSW
Diagram of airflow through a silo
I have been in the silo sealing trade for 24 years now and I reckon this is the best dryer/aerator ever introduced into the on-farm storage market. No other aerator in the market can dry grain! They can cool and even out moisture between a dry load and a moist one in a silo, but cannot dry grain. The system has been tested and been in use by farmers for 10 years now.
250 ltr/sec fan
I cover a large slice of the grain growing are in the Eastern States, from Ceduna, South Australia, to Emerald, Queensland. This is the best machine I have ever come across. The only dryer that comes close is a Kotzur drying silo, which starts at $20,000 each.
1000 ltr/sec 2.2 kw elec fan
Powered by a 3hp electric motor or 6.0hp Yamaha ($400 extra); the air is blown by a huge fan through 150m (6”) ducting on the silo. Then distributed by a device called a plenum; which is an open upside down ‘V’, 2.4m (8 feet) long and 300mm (1 foot) across at the open side. It is fixed across the centre of the silo cone and attached to each side (see attached diagram of the air flow). There are no holes in the ‘V’ so it can be used to dry all seed types; canola, lentils, grains etc.
When drying stored grain we use ambient air and pump it through the grain and it dries surprisingly quickly during the warmer periods of the day (depending on the weather conditions). If they can get it off and into the silo and then dry it they will get much better returns. Wheat and barley were generally harvested at 12-13% moisture, our system allows stripping at 16-17%. Our system works the same as an evaporator air conditioner although in this case the grain is the wet filter. To cool stored grain the fan should be operated during the coolest periods of the night to achieve maximum cooling performance. An automatic controller is available to select only the coldest conditions when cooling or the warmest conditions when drying.
110 ltr/sec fan
Air runs through ducts from a fan to the base of the silo and flows upwards through the grain, taking the moisture and heat with it. It does depend on how big the silo is, but a normal system would operate in 2 silos at once.
Also developed for use on the dryer/aerator is an automatic on/off controller which is set for the optimum temperature and humidity range for drying, and can be changed with a push of a button to optimum settings for cooling aeration. Cost of one of these controllers is $2400 inc. GST.
The dryer/aerator will fit every cone bottom silo. Flat bottom silos and sheds need different air distribution ducts.
Features
| Cooling, drying and aeration 1000 Litres per second | |
| 1 silo value $3490 inc. GST | 2 silos value $4220 inc. GST |
| Kit consists of: 1 x fan unit, 1 x blank off plate, 2 x duct end connectors, 1 x straight adaptor, 1 x silo kit, 2 x lever locks, 2.5m flexible duct | Kit consists of: 1 x fan unit, 2 x blank off plates, 4 x duct end connectors, 1 x 2 way adaptor, 2 x silo kit, 4 x lever locks, 5m flexible duct |
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Extra Silo Kit consists of the components below and one plenum.
