Looking for opinions on grain dryers.

Question

We are located in South east Saskatchewan. Our main crops we would be drying would be malt barley, spring wheat, canola and maybe some peas. We started looking at setting up a grain dryer on our farm and have looked at MC eco series, GSI 1100 series, and sukup. The Sukup mixed flow dryer has intrigued me based on the supposed gentle handling of crops and the energy efficiency. Thanks to our carbon tax energy efficiency is key IMO. Has anybody used one of these dryers and what are your thoughts? Any info would be greatly appreciated as we are grain drying rookies.

Also down the road we might be looking at a pneumatic system. I have heard mixed reviews, one thing that concerns me is they sound like power pigs. Any thoughts on these types of systems?

Answer

Love our 2410 Sukup mixed flow.  We have it tied to Sukups integrated air system control for great grain quality.  5” 40hp air system.

Answer

I built a stormor ezee dry last year and I have been extremely impressed with it. The capacity and energy efficiency is great, it qualified for the REAP program here in the states. An added benefit is the storage that comes with it. Mine holds 26k in the dry chamber. The dry chamber allows me to run a single leg setup because basically every morning while we’re fueling and getting things ready for the day, I can empty the dryer and be ready to go to work. In order to do that we setup the dryer with a high capacity unload. But my 40hp leg will move 8,000 bph and a 40hp airsystem wont move near that quantity. And if I’m running dry crops I can go straight to every bin without the air system bottleneck.

If you were changing crops frequently, I don’t know that I would go with a ezee dry, just because you have to clean out. But if you do one then the next etc, I would look into them.

I can’t compare the other dryers and air systems from experience, but I have been really happy with what I have.

Answer

I use a superb dryer bought it used in 06 have put over 3000 hrs on it and have had very little trouble with it. I’ve dried wheat barley canola flax oats  works good . I use the sweat dry cycles it takes a little bit longer to dry, but it’s very gentle on grains I have never lost a grade . This year if you have dry it will make you money. I feel it costs me a third of what grain buyer’s charge .

Answer

You should also look at an alvan blanch drier. They are nice to use and efficient

Answer

First, I think, you need to weigh the pros and cons of each type of drier.  Crossflow--MixedFlow--Other  
In the Other column would be ***** and *************.  You could argue one way or another upon classifications, but that is generally the whole gamut.

Next you may want to determine how much savings/benefit you are really getting regarding energy efficiency. Fuel energy efficiency typically will come from fuel types (and their costs), burners and hot air recirculation. Electrical energy efficiency mostly pairs up generators (and their fuel types/costs) compared to a utility line company.

For electrical: 
Lowest cost is typically line company, then a generator with nat gas, propane and diesel fuel in escalating cost. But you need a bigger engine for nat gas versus diesel due to fuel type, compression ratios, blah, blah, blah.. As a side note: walinga pump type grain movers require a lot of HP, generally not being an efficient converter of energy compared to the old grain leg system.

For driers: 
Lowest fuel cost is typically natural gas, propane, then God-forbid diesel. Probably add 7-10 cents a bushel (based wheat 5 pts dry down) when going from natural gas to propane.

You would want to have a drier set up with the best burner and typically, the new ones are.  If you're retrofitting it'd be good to spend some money in this area.

For hot air recirculation, how much do you think it saves? The independent testing data we managed to find showed at max 25-30%. So, stretch your fuel costs up to say 20 cents per bushel and take 30% of that for a savings of 6 cents per bushel. Are we nickel and diming? However, over time it could add up. 
For crossflow either gsi or superb I believe has an optional shrouding kit whereby the bottom half of the drier can be recirculated. For mixed flow, I think Sukup is the only one with vacuum cooling that allows recirculation of hot air.  ************* recircs all its cooling air.

For your grains, a Tower isn't necessary. The corn guys rave left and right about it though.
In the end it most likely comes down to money. You could probably have a crossflow in your yard for 100k, a mixedflow for 150-200k and an Alvin Blanche for 280k, more or less similarly sized. Plus of course all the necessary hook ups to get it operational.
Just my 2 cents per bushel...

I thought it'd be interesting to list some drier manufacturers both past and present.  Maybe others could add as well.
MIXED FLOW
---Vertec---Grain Handler---Grain King---Neco---MC---Sukup---LAW---Mega

CROSSFLOW
---Delux---Sukup---GSI---MC---Superb

OTHER
---Tower Types---***** Blanche

Answer

Western Grain Dryer built in Manitoba

Answer

Consider Neco ,screen dryer are a pain to deal with when you dry in humid conditions ,you have to shut everything down at least once a day and clean the screens plus they are a bigger fire hazard

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