Dryer Advice

[cleveprint]

Hey All. So Im really torn here about a dryer. I think its time to upgrade to gas here. What we are torn about is size.

Right now we have an electric dryer, 48" wide with 6 ft of heat. We feed a manual and our DBack into it. Rarely is it ever backed up, but if we have a design on the auto that is full size, it gets a little tight on the belt. Especially with the manual going too. I think we've settled on a Sprint, either a Mini or a 48". I know both come with 8 ft of heat.

My questions and where we are torn, is what size to get. I know the answer is to always go bigger than you need, but from what I understand, its a pretty good chunk of change between the 2 (I think its close to 8K difference, thats a huge amount to us). Is there going to be a noticeable difference in the belt speed between what we have now and a sprint that has an extra 2 feet of heat? I know they make extensions to the chambers, is that going to help speed everything up coming out of the dryer?

I guess Im just asking because we have no experience with gas. I understand that it still boils down to the shirts time in the chamber and when it cures. But I guess I do not understand the actual productions numbers coming out. If we go down to a 38" we are losing belt space we have now, but does the speed of the belt on a longer chamber make up for that?

Really, it will be our biggest purchase we've made here in a really long time. Bigger, and possibly more expensive than the automatic we have. For as long as we've been in business (about 30 years), we are behind the ball technology-wise. Im trying to get us up to speed slowly and this place has been a huge help. Thanks guys.

Matt C

[tonypep]

2 feet may not necessarily make up for the ten inch width loss enough to matter. Printing WB this could be an issue. There may be actual hard #s out there but the cost savings of the gas vs electric will make up for the extra $$. Guestimation is 2 ys will make up the 8k in savings. I believe Rich is out of the country right now but I'm sure will give better info.

[244]

Hey All. So Im really torn here about a dryer. I think its time to upgrade to gas here. What we are torn about is size.

Right now we have an electric dryer, 48" wide with 6 ft of heat. We feed a manual and our DBack into it. Rarely is it ever backed up, but if we have a design on the auto that is full size, it gets a little tight on the belt. Especially with the manual going too. I think we've settled on a Sprint, either a Mini or a 48". I know both come with 8 ft of heat.

My questions and where we are torn, is what size to get. I know the answer is to always go bigger than you need, but from what I understand, its a pretty good chunk of change between the 2 (I think its close to 8K difference, thats a huge amount to us). Is there going to be a noticeable difference in the belt speed between what we have now and a sprint that has an extra 2 feet of heat? I know they make extensions to the chambers, is that going to help speed everything up coming out of the dryer?

I guess Im just asking because we have no experience with gas. I understand that it still boils down to the shirts time in the chamber and when it cures. But I guess I do not understand the actual productions numbers coming out. If we go down to a 38" we are losing belt space we have now, but does the speed of the belt on a longer chamber make up for that?

Really, it will be our biggest purchase we've made here in a really long time. Bigger, and possibly more expensive than the automatic we have. For as long as we've been in business (about 30 years), we are behind the ball technology-wise. Im trying to get us up to speed slowly and this place has been a huge help. Thanks guys.

Matt C

The difference really won't count after a year of running. I would get the 48 as you can grow with it. The burner section is rated for 16' of heat so expansion as you need will be a low cost experience when needed.

[cleveprint]

I know the answer is go with the 48". It makes sense. Just trying to justify it all to ourselves before we pull the trigger. Thanks guys.

[jvanick]

Can't give much advice on 38" vs 48" (we went with 38" due to space issues in what we thought was going to be our new shop... the place we ended up with we could have easily git the 48" no problem).

If you plan on any DC, or need higher production #'s tho, go with at least 10' if not 12' of heat from the get-go.  We went with 10' on our mini-sprint, and it's great.  no problem with a 'slow' 12' per minute dwell and lower temp for performance fabric.. we were hitting 800 pcs/hr with a full front, no problem.

You'll love going gas after dealing with electric tho... no scorching issues, way less chance of dye sublimation on performance wear, and WAY more efficient.  Heck, we have to run the HEAT while printing, vs with the electric dryer we had before heating the place to 120 degrees.

[Gilligan]

Everyone talks gas savings but ppl should look carefully at it.

My electric is like 8 cents per kw.  That's CHEAP!  Hard to really get much savings there.

Now, don't get me wrong, I would still LOVE to have gas!  I though I'd be able to justify it given all this talk about savings... But I'm pretty sure I'm under $1/hour when my dryer is running (fuzzy math off the top of my head so forgive me if I'm off.)

[244]

Everyone talks gas savings but ppl should look carefully at it.

My electric is like 8 cents per kw.  That's CHEAP!  Hard to really get much savings there.

Now, don't get me wrong, I would still LOVE to have gas!  I though I'd be able to justify it given all this talk about savings... But I'm pretty sure I'm under $1/hour when my dryer is running (fuzzy math off the top of my head so forgive me if I'm off.)

That seems really low. What type of dryer do you have? What size, voltage, and amp draw is it rated at on the nomenclature?

[Gilligan]

Rich, that's the Radicure (3 panel) that I can't seem to get the temp set properly with.

[Squeegie]

My electric is like 8 cents per kw.

I wish our rate was that low. Depending on the month it is easily double and sometimes triple that rate.

Bill

[alan802]

Going from electric/gas combo dryer to straight gas saved us about $600 per month in electricity costs for this building. 

[Gilligan]

My electric is like 8 cents per kw.

I wish our rate was that low. Depending on the month it is easily double and sometimes triple that rate.

Bill

Yeah, exactly... it's starts to make a lot more sense when your rates are getting north of 20 cents/KW like some of you guys have to deal with.

My electric company is a CoOp so it's essentially a non-profit and the savings get passed right onto us.

[cleveprint]

wow thats crazy. just checked our bill and we are at 31/kw. i would assume that would be a SIGNIFICANT savings in electric over gas.

edit, gas over electric

[244]

My electric is like 8 cents per kw.

I wish our rate was that low. Depending on the month it is easily double and sometimes triple that rate.

Bill

Yeah, exactly... it's starts to make a lot more sense when your rates are getting north of 20 cents/KW like some of you guys have to deal with.

My electric company is a CoOp so it's essentially a non-profit and the savings get passed right onto us.

You might want to check all included like taxes, peak demand , delivery, etc. just a FYI. You should also check with other Radicure users for their settings. The ones posted before work for most.

[DaveZ]

wow thats crazy. just checked our bill and we are at 31/kw. i would assume that would be a SIGNIFICANT savings in electric over gas.

edit, gas over electric

Hmmm, something doesn't sound right here.  I've looked at dozens (if not hundreds) of utility bills over the years and have never seen an effective KWH rate anything close to that high...

To calculate the effective rate, simply divide the total KW usage by the bill total. For instance 1000 KWH usage and $100.00 invoice total would mean an effective rate of $0.10 per KWH....

[Gilligan]

My electric is like 8 cents per kw.

I wish our rate was that low. Depending on the month it is easily double and sometimes triple that rate.

Bill

Yeah, exactly... it's starts to make a lot more sense when your rates are getting north of 20 cents/KW like some of you guys have to deal with.

My electric company is a CoOp so it's essentially a non-profit and the savings get passed right onto us.

You might want to check all included like taxes, peak demand , delivery, etc. just a FYI. You should also check with other Radicure users for their settings. The ones posted before work for most.

As stated, it's a coop... so it's pretty straight forward.  I'm commercial rated and have 3 phase power.  I've attached the last bill... if you do the math the actual FINAL bill divided by KW used is just a HAIR over 8 cents per KW.

(removed account numbers and such)