GAS dryer

[Croft]

Need help on pulling the trigger on switching to gas dryer.

I have found a good used sprint 3000 38" belt 10' heat

Currently we have a 38" Radicure with the extra panel, we run it daily (9hrs+)  and has been an awesome dryer, my electricity bills run around $500 month for the shop ( dryer /compressor / 3 spot dryers etc)

Am I going to get any more throughput with the gas dryer over electric? I'm thinking of getting the dryer this year to run with my air 6 colour Sportsman but want to upgrade to a 10-12 colour servo press in a year.

Some plus's I see are
-the ability to start trying water base or discharge base prints
-programability for different cure temps
-speed?

cons
-will take up more shop space
-sounds like more maintenance is needed on gas dryers
-read a comment about noise? hadn't heard that before or considered it?
- not sure if it can dry say 70-80 doz an hour of plastisol , thought I hade seen an M&R throughput chart before but can't find it

Any info or isight would be appreciated ,

[244]

Need help on pulling the trigger on switching to gas dryer.

I have found a good used sprint 3000 38" belt 10' heat

Currently we have a 38" Radicure with the extra panel, we run it daily (9hrs+)  and has been an awesome dryer, my electricity bills run around $500 month for the shop ( dryer /compressor / 3 spot dryers etc)

Am I going to get any more throughput with the gas dryer over electric? I'm thinking of getting the dryer this year to run with my air 6 colour Sportsman but want to upgrade to a 10-12 colour servo press in a year.

Some plus's I see are
-the ability to start trying water base or discharge base prints
-programability for different cure temps
-speed?

cons
-will take up more shop space
-sounds like more maintenance is needed on gas dryers
-read a comment about noise? hadn't heard that before or considered it?
- not sure if it can dry say 70-80 doz an hour of plastisol , thought I hade seen an M&R throughput chart before but can't find it

Any info or isight would be appreciated ,

the dryer on plastisol should do 900 per hr as an average. Energy cost will be about 1/3 of the electric dryer. Maintenance is minimal with mostly cleaning filters daily and grease to the main blower shaft periodically . Noise will be slightly louder than Radicure as blower is larger but not by much. Its a great dryer. I cant think of anyone who has that dryer that doesn't love it!

[cleveprint]

next to upgrading our exposure unit, the best thing we have ever done was upgrade our dryer. we have a 48" sprint 2k. we run two autos and a manual off of it. although rarely is it full to the gills. the cost savings in gas compared to electric (going off of old bills) more than pays for its loan payment. like rich said, cleaning filters and putting grease on it is the only maintenance. In 4 years, Ive had to replace the spark plug once and the flame rod once. although I have had to clean them a few times in-between. Also I've had to replace a belt on the blower. Nothing took more than 20 minutes to do.

[Stinkhorn Press]

thirding.
totally unsexy purchase that really frees things up.
maintenance? if you buy certain make/models esp used possibly. new with support or used known to be good (and access to someone who knows their way around them - like winston) not an issue.
Noise? yep. it's louder. it's the loudest thing in our shop by a factor of two. but ours is old and beat on and is just big blower on not greased enough in the past bearings.
space needs? sure thing.
bills? at todays gas prices, running it full blast 8 hours a day 5 days a week barely costs more than our bottled water service. it's kinda insane how cheap they are to run just now ($90 - $110 a month here, was paying over $400 a month to run an IR panel joke of a dryer before that)

other PRO:
BETTER CURES.

IF YOU HAVE ROOM, as soon as you can justify it, do it. utils difference pays for itself.

[ZooCity]

Going to a gas from electric dryer is the only case I've seen where a sales person can truthfully tell you "you can't afford not to buy it".   We went from a 100a beast of an electric with 10' of heat to a Sprint HO with 16' of heat and an extra foot wider belt  The gas payment plus the note on the gas dryer is less than the electric payment on the old dryer.  And we have way more capacity, better cure, etc.  The HO is a monster dryer too so it's not even apples to apples and it's still far cheaper. 

We have variable circ speed on ours but run it all the way up.  Wood floors on beams.  Definitely makes a thick white noise that you will notice going from electric but that's the sound of better air circulation.  If you take time to soft foot the circ motor and align the pulleys well you can reduce this I'm sure.

I think the Sprint 3k units look great (just watch out for reinstall on sprints- the hardware that connects the drones is stoooopid and will drive you crazy and I don't think they updated that unfortunately for the 3k models.  I recommend bypassing the window hardware that locks the drones together if they give you trouble and maybe retrofitting buckles or something.  It's just not worth the ag in some cases.  If the dryer wasn't ran too hard it should be easier to reassemble.). 

Anyways, stop paying your utility co for that old electric and upgrade your curing and capacity for less.

[Croft]

Thanks for the replies, think its probably time to go gas.

[pwalsh]

Thanks for the replies, think its probably time to go gas.

If you fold the shirts coming off the press to around 18"x18" you can get two garments across a 38" wide belt, and achieve production speeds of around 1,000/pph with plastisol inks with a Sprint 3000 38" Gas Dryer with 10' Heat

[jupmode]

Going to a gas from electric dryer is the only case I've seen where a sales person can truthfully tell you "you can't afford not to buy it".   We went from a 100a beast of an electric with 10' of heat to a Sprint HO with 16' of heat and an extra foot wider belt  The gas payment plus the note on the gas dryer is less than the electric payment on the old dryer.  And we have way more capacity, better cure, etc.  The HO is a monster dryer too so it's not even apples to apples and it's still far cheaper. 
[/i]. 

Anyways, stop paying your utility co for that old electric and upgrade your curing and capacity for less.

We experienced the same as ZooCity. Our payment on the dryer plus the cost of gas is less than what we're saving in electricity. I would argue making the switch from electric to gas is not only the best move, but also the time to justify going for a bigger dryer since you know you'll be able to cover the payments. You'll never be in this position again and there's an incredible peace of mind in having a really solid dryer.

Another thing to consider, when you switch to gas, you'll need to budget for the electrical work, running the gas line, and venting the dryer. Get quotes, plan ahead, and make sure your contractors know exactly what needs to be done so you don't have down time.

[GraphicDisorder]

LOVE our Sprint 3000!

[Croft]

Going to a gas from electric dryer is the only case I've seen where a sales person can truthfully tell you "you can't afford not to buy it".   We went from a 100a beast of an electric with 10' of heat to a Sprint HO with 16' of heat and an extra foot wider belt  The gas payment plus the note on the gas dryer is less than the electric payment on the old dryer.  And we have way more capacity, better cure, etc.  The HO is a monster dryer too so it's not even apples to apples and it's still far cheaper. 
[/i]. 

Anyways, stop paying your utility co for that old electric and upgrade your curing and capacity for less.

We experienced the same as ZooCity. Our payment on the dryer plus the cost of gas is less than what we're saving in electricity. I would argue making the switch from electric to gas is not only the best move, but also the time to justify going for a bigger dryer since you know you'll be able to cover the payments. You'll never be in this position again and there's an incredible peace of mind in having a really solid dryer.

Yes I'm estimating $4000 on the install, had the gas fitter out there saying approx $1500-$2000 and the last quote on ducting was around $2000

Another thing to consider, when you switch to gas, you'll need to budget for the electrical work, running the gas line, and venting the dryer. Get quotes, plan ahead, and make sure your contractors know exactly what needs to be done so you don't have down time.

[Croft]

Thanks for the replies, think its probably time to go gas.

If you fold the shirts coming off the press to around 18"x18" you can get two garments across a 38" wide belt, and achieve production speeds of around 1,000/pph with plastisol inks with a Sprint 3000 38" Gas Dryer with 10' Heat

I knew I had seen this type of chart before but could never find it thanks

[IntegriTees]

I’ll also be upgrading from my 2004 radicure to a sprint 3000 in the very near future. It’s the very last piece of equipment for me to upgrade in my shop and probably should ha e been the first. Hopefully, I can save a few bucks purchasing it at my first trip to the Long Beach show.

This thread just makes me want to do make the jump sooner.

[mk162]

That was the first thing we upgraded here when I bought the shop from my parents.  We had an old 60" wide maxi-cure and it was just run hard and put up wet.  We really needed to rewire the whole thing and put in some new eletronics, it just wasn't worth saving.  Even if it was running perfectly, it wasn't worth it, it cost too much to run.  We took it apart and sold the heating elements and the control panel and scrapped the rest.

I don't miss that thing at all.

[Doug S]

Anyone have a guess at real world numbers curing discharge PPH through a dryer like the 3000 with a 10 ft chamber?

[pwalsh]

Anyone have a guess at real world numbers curing discharge PPH through a dryer like the 3000 with a 10 ft chamber?

How long are you needing to leave the shirt in the chamber to achieve full discharge & cure?  90 seconds, 120 seconds?  it's all a matter of how many shirts you can stack on the belt and how long a dwell time you need.