Get FREE HEAT with Wavcor's dual purpose fan: Grain Aeration + Drying

Airblast fans are dual purpose, allowing farmers to AERATE and DRY grain without the need for additional equipment such as heaters. Once grain is harvested it is best to get air onto it within 24 hours of harvesting. Grain needs to be cooled, dried and tempered. Cooling and drying grain to acceptable storage limits is common to prevent spoilage or heating. Tempering the grain is pushing ambient air through the grain to even out the temperature and moisture. It is common to use a combination of cooling, drying and tempering grain to prepare it for storage through winter months. Which method is used varies from bin to bin depending on the harvest conditions. Having an Airblast fan allows you to be ready for any situation when grain is going into the bin.

When aerating grain, the Airblast fan is ran at or near an idle. This produces less airflow, but for aerating the airflows do not need to be high. A common recommendation is to have 0.1 cubic feet per minute (CFM) per bushel. So for a 10,000 bushel bin, 1000 cfm is recommended for aerating grain. With the Airblast fan running near an idle the required airflow is available and the amount of heat generated is much less, therefor reducing the amount of heat being put into the grain. Typically when idling, the fan will add approximately 2°C of heat to the air. Running the fan at an idle will consume just under 3 liters of fuel per hour.

When it is necessary to dry grain farmers typically use their aeration fans paired with a heater. The heaters that are utilized with fans varies widely with common ones being construction heaters as well as dedicated heaters designed for aeration fans. Regardless of the heater in use, it will be either a direct flame or indirect flame heater. A direct flame heater has an open flame that blows into the airstream. With this type of heater the combustion occurs in the airstream, which means any water vapor or other byproducts from burning the fuel will be added to the airstream. Typically the amount of water vapor added to the airstream is offset by the increase in temperature of the air. Direct flame heaters can be challenging because the pressure generated by the aeration fan can cause the flame to be blown out or cause the flame to flow backwards.

The other style of heater is an indirect heater. The design of these can vary quite a bit, but the combustion of the fuel is not in the air stream. This means the water vapors and the other byproducts produced by the combustion will not be added to the air.

With an Airblast heater there is no additional heater... the engine is the heater. This means there are no orifices or burners to maintain. There is no concern of blowing a flame out or causing a fire because it is all contained within the engine. The heat from the engine exhaust is extracted by using an air exchanger and the water vapor and other byproducts are deposited outside the air stream, maintaining clean and dry air. The best part about the heat from an Airblast fan is that it is FREE! With an Airblast fan natural gas or propane is used to fuel an engine, which powers the fan. Heat from the engine is captured and added to the air creating effectively free heat.

With an Airblast fan you can handle all situations within the bin easily and affordably. Purchase an Airblast fan for aerating your grain, but know that when you need to dry grain you have that ability and are ready to go.