TexAir dryer info needed

[blue moon]

Gas dryer, $3500 in MA.
I could really use a bigger (and forced air) dryer, but money is tight.

Has anybody used one of these? Should I be worried that it will be more trouble than it's worth (and should look into a new one instead)?

How hot do they run? I am i air conditioned space, would hate to keep warming it up as I am cooling it down at the same time.

If they need fixing, how hard is it? I used to work as an industrial sparky so I know my way around industrial equipment. Will a dryer like this require a company tech or can somebody handy with a crescent hammer actually fix it?

pierre

[ebscreen]

Great dryers, many of them still in service.

They do run hot. Ain't no CoolSkin on these old guys.

Most will have pretty serious radiant bump panels as well.
E/G/E or EEG etc.


Mine is 4ft in 12ft heat 4 ft out. I have the first panel disconnected
to keep the draw down. I run the gas on full temp and the electric
at 625.

I run discharge at about 600 pieces/hr on a full belt ~10x10 print
size. Plastisol faster then I can print.


I'll admit I'm pretty wet behind the ears when it comes to the mysteries
of gas control hardware and electronics. But the things do look danged simple.
Bunch of solenoid valves and whatnot.

[alan802]

We run a 88' american texair gas with electric ir panels and it's a monster.  We have had issues with it here and there, but it's always been easy to fix if you have the right person on the other end of the phone, and you can use a multimeter.  Ours is a 48", 5' 10' 5'.  I run ours at 380 on the gas and 800 on the radiant panels and run the belt at 25 and that will hold at least 1200 an hour without stacking the shirts all funky.  I think these dyers are awesome, especially if you think about the number of shirts that have gone through this dryer of ours and the small amount of downtime.  We had a transformer blow last week and it blew 3 fuses on our dryer and with a phone call and the multimeter, we had it up and running in 15 minutes.

Hey EB, what's full temp on the gas settings?  I ran ours at 400 gas and 1000 on the radiant panels at one time!  That was way too hot for what we were doing and the belt speed was at 30 then too.

I've heard of people covering their texairs with refrigerator type skin to further insulate them to keep them cooler.  One guy in town supposedly put those panels they use for the freezers and coolers at sam's club and it made his shop 15 degrees cooler in the summer.

[ebscreen]

425 is as high as the controller for the gas section will go on mine. When we're running slowly or fleece
or stuff like that I'll turn the electric portion off. Gas is danged cheaper out here.

I would love to insulate this beast. It's getting to be about the time of year where that will be
almost necessary.

I've heard in the past that insulating behind radiant panels can lead to more contacts burning off.
Not sure if that's true. Kaowool is cheap enough though and I've got like 3 replacement panels
for some reason.

I've also got the schematics for the dryer if anyone ever needs 'em. Shop I bought it from said
they paid $500 for them awhile back.

And Frog, you might remember this beast. Came from Andy's by way of another shop in Fresno.