opinions on the Woodmizer/ Nyle dehumidification kils

[Maple leaf guy]

I'm fairly new here .....I'm curious about your thoughts of their kiln for smaller scale operations.....All opinions are truly appreciated!!!!!

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

Lumber dries because of the temperature, humidity and air flow.  So, if the DH is the correct size for the amount of lumber in the kiln (1 hp per 1000 bf is a starting point) and if you have the needed heat and fans for air flow, the DH works well.  The smallest units only go to about 115 F.  The lubrication fails if hotter.  At these temperatures, we cannot kiln any insects, eggs or fungi and cannot set the pitch, if these are important.  A larger unit gives hotter operation, but costs more.  A concise summary might be"you get what you pay for."

[wills swamp]

i thought we could sterillize and set pitch in the smaller nyle units with the compressor off,using only the fans and heat strips.what is the lubrication failure?

[tule peak timber]

On the Woodmizer 4000 (Nyle 200 ) you can pitch set with the compressor off. If you contact Nyle they are very friendly at helping with questions on the unit you have.I have had my little kiln for about 8 years ...wish I had two or three !

[WDH]

My Nyle L53 is a little wood drying beast.  You can turn off the compressor at the end of drying and run the temp to 150 degrees to sterilize the load.  With the compressor running, you have to keep the temp below 130 degrees, otherwise, there is a high temp cut-off that will shut down the compressor.

[YellowHammer]

Nyle builds good, solid units.  Mine has been running 24/7 for several years with no mechanical or electrical issues.  Day after day, it just cranks out the money (I mean lumber). ;D
YH

[Maple leaf guy]

You guys make me anxious to get my setup going! !! Thanks for all the info!

[red oaks lumber]

when i ran l-200's my refrigeration man switched out the stock freon and replaced it with a higher temp freon which allowed me to dry wood at a higher temp , can't recall the excact temp but, somewhere around high 130's to low 140's depending on the species.

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

To heat the kiln over the init of the compressor, NYLE used to suggest removing the unit from the kiln so the seals and gas, even on a unit not running, did not get too hot ...maybe this has changed.

Because of the the cost of electric strip heat and the time required, it is probably more reasonable to use natural gas or even propane for the heat.  NYLE can suggest how to do this safely.

[BandsawWarrior]

We've been running our Nyle L300 for about a year now. All I can say is wow! what an amazing unit. Every time I unload a charge of dry vertical grain Fir I'm amazed at how well it works. If you don't have any experience with VG Fir 2" material it's very difficult to dry...but this kiln pumps out bone dry stock 8% every month. The only thing I'd change going back in time is purchasing a kiln sooner.

I think the L300 is only rated for 4000bf of softwood but we load in 8000 bf and it dries it from 30% MC to 8% in about 14 to 17 days. The last 2 days are used to set the pitch at 175. We have no problem getting to 175 with the L300's heat coils.

We almost purchased a L200 but I'm so glad we ended up with a L300...and here's why.
#1 The L300 can have the compressor running up to 160 degrees. This is a huge benefit and saves money. With the compressor running that high we don't have to use the auxiliary heat as much when we set the pitch. It's very easy at the end of the charge to bump the heat from 160 up to 175.  With the smaller units you'd have to bump the heat from 120 to 175....that would take a long time with auxiliary heat. This also means you don't have to worry about venting heat at lower to temperatures to protect the heat pump...
#2  Flexibility. Our chamber is 16' deep by 26' long and 10' tall. The L300 seems to be the perfect size for a small operation. There's no money in loading and unloading a kiln so it's nice to stuff in 8 lifts which equals a substantial amount of wood and flip the switch. If we don't need a full charge we just centre 4 lifts in 1 row of instead of 2 rows deep. The flexibility is invaluable. We can quickly dry 2500 sq ft of flooring to 6% or run a full charge of 8000 bf of door stock. With the larger capacity you will get orders that you just couldn't complete with a smaller kiln.
#3  Profitability. The L300 is cheap to run and get some serious production done (small scale). I do think it would be harder to make money drying smaller charges in the 1500 to 2500 bf range but this is kind of relative to each operation.

The best part about these dehumidification kilns is that they're easy on the wood. With softwood at least it seems like it's very difficult to "wreck" the wood.  I've seen wood boiler kilns that can dry Fir in 5 days with high heat but they get a lot of fall down with warping and serious cracks.

I remember when I first saw the price different between a L200 and L300, yes it's substantial I know. It's hard to see the value there at first but it is there. I believe it's well worth the price and I wouldn't trade my L300 for anything in the world...well except a L500!

The bottom line is that you can't go wrong with any size kiln. Being able to sell kiln dried lumber is a game changer. It opens a whole new world of markets and you'll never look back!

cheers

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

Whenever possible (that is if you can afford it), get a 300; the L300 is a better unit as it is much more flexible in what it can do.

[Escavader]

They still make the l1200 we have one and we actually have 3 more nyles units that are bigger one has an 18 hp compressor  3 hold 15000 bf 1 holds 18000 bf green lumber and in winter I still  have a 7 day drying time they are good systems  cannot go wrong with dehumidification no matter what size