My kiln had a bug

[Southside]

Started up the kiln Saturday afternoon with a load of pine and didn't pay much attention to it that evening, pine was fresh off the saw and the customer needed it before the logs were even felled so right into the kiln she went.  

I have an old cooler that acts as a catch for the drain water.  Not that I need to catch the water, rather it's a visual way for me to keep an eye on things, basically when I walk by I can see how much water she has pulled out over X hours, so without even stopping I know if things are "on track" or not.  

So Sunday afternoon I noticed that the output was not where it should be but I figured it was just a bit slow getting going, even though my spidey sense told me something was not right.  That evening as I made my final rounds before heading to bed the cooler hardly had anything in it so I knew there was a problem, and I was not looking forward to dealing with it.  

Opened the doors and sure enough water starts to run out from the door seal - great, been circulating the same water for a day now, figured I must have broken the line that comes out of the unit.  Walk up to the kiln and remove the input screen and notice that the catch under the condensing fins is overflowing with water and it's running over the bottom, so I figured the output tube must be plugged - good that's an easy fix.  Grabbed my air compressor and put on the blow gun.  Stuck it into the inside end of the output tube and gave it a few good blasts, few seconds later I noticed the water level going down in the collector.  

Here is the output tube.


 


And here is what was inside of the tube.  Guess he figured the kiln was going to be shut down for the next 17 years.  He choose poorly.  



 

Kiln is humming along just fine now, rolling out the pine scented water the way she should!!!  

[doc henderson]

glad you figured it out! 8) 8) 8)

[WDH]

Nature abhors a vacuum dehumidification kiln . 

[customsawyer]

Had a bird build a nest in my exhaust fan box and almost let the smoke out of the motor. It's always something.