kiln heater/compressor questions

Jim_Rogers · February 11, 2021, 06:04:38 AM

25 years ago, I bought an Ebac LD800 kiln heater/compressor unit, with the idea that I would build my own box and dry wood to sell.
Well, that never happened, because I soon found out that in order to pay my bills I had to keep sawing. And building the box meant I wasn't sawing.
As I am now moving from MA to NC, I have uncovered this kiln heater which was stored in the back of my shop, in MA.
I have plugged it in as I did 25 years ago, and the fan runs fine. I plugged in the control box for the first time yesterday.
And it is giving me a reading on the temperature probe.
I have found and downloaded the instructions for this unit and set the temperature control to 25C as it said to do.
my question is this: am I suppose to be able to feel the heat coming out of the fan unit?
I have had it running here in my cold shop for over an hour and a half and I still can't feel any heat coming out of the unit.

After I turned the right hand knob to 90 the second green light came on.

I want to make sure it's working correctly.
Any advice?
Jim Rogers

K-Guy · February 11, 2021, 10:01:42 AM

I would contact Ebac directly.

Jim_Rogers · February 11, 2021, 10:28:56 AM

Quote from: K-Guy on February 11, 2021, 10:01:42 AM

I would contact Ebac directly.

thanks

farmfromkansas · February 12, 2021, 05:24:59 PM

Is Ebac still in the business of building heaters and dehumidifiers for kiln drying wood? Have read of guys who had them years ago, but none recently.

Don P · February 12, 2021, 09:58:17 PM

I talked to them back and forth a couple of years ago, had an old unit and needed the wiring diagram, they found and emailed it to me.

Jim_Rogers · February 16, 2021, 10:21:34 AM

Problem solved.
Wanting to understand the unit, I took the side cover off.
the first side cover (with a vent in it) was where the air goes in:

the first side was the condensing coil. Behind it was another coil, which I thought was the heater core.
and I turned the knob up so that the condenser got cold:

Then I tried to take off the top panel. But I had to take off the other side panel first.
Which showed the fan unit, the compressor and the back side of the silver coil:

And then I could take off the top panel. the top panel just exposed the wiring connections.

The other side panel exposed the fan, compressor and back side of the silver colored coil shown in the above picture.
The air goes in through the condensing coil first, then the silver coil and then out the fan shown here:

The fan is above the red arrow, the compressor is below the red arrow.
While driving home I was thinking about the system. I said to myself that the silver coil will be cold on this side, but if it's the heating coil it will be hot on the other side. I turned it on and with the heat knob turned up to 95°C I reached in to feel the silver coil to see if it was hot. I almost got burned on the two heater coils beside the silver coil. The red arrow is pointing to one of the heating coils.
This means that this unit is working fine. I put the panels back on.
It's just with the volume of air going through it that the air in my shop doesn't get hot enough to feel it by hand.
Again thanks for everyone's advice.
Jim Rogers

west penn · February 16, 2021, 02:09:32 PM

The first light on the left indicates the heater is on The third light indicates the compressor is running the second light indicates the heat in the unit is above the differential setting for heat and has shut the compressor off

Jim_Rogers · February 16, 2021, 03:42:26 PM

Quote from: west penn on February 16, 2021, 02:09:32 PM
The first light on the left indicates the heater is on The third light indicates the compressor is running the second light indicates the heat in the unit is above the differential setting for heat and has shut the compressor off

Thanks for that info.
Does the red button turn off the heat?

farmfromkansas · February 17, 2021, 08:47:16 AM

So now you are retired, you can cut for yourself, and use this to operate a kiln for your own use? How big a room can you have capacity wise? Container?

Jim_Rogers · February 17, 2021, 04:11:33 PM

Quote from: farmfromkansas on February 17, 2021, 08:47:16 AM
So now you are retired, you can cut for yourself, and use this to operate a kiln for your own use? How big a room can you have capacity wise? Container?

Thanks for your advice, but no thanks, it's going to go down the road to someone who can use it. I don't have room for a Kiln or want to run one now.
Jim Rogers