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screen printing => Equipment => Topic started by: sqslabs on September 23, 2016, 12:12:57 PM
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Well, I've finally thrown my last stack of money at our current dryer trying to get it working correctly and am hoping to get a new one in here by the end of the year. Will be looking at M&R and ROQ models, 8'-10' chamber, 60" belt. My main concerns are gas usage (we'll be using propane), and service/support. Would be interested to hear from anyone with these dryer brands and their experience.
Thanks much.
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Well, I've finally thrown my last stack of money at our current dryer trying to get it working correctly and am hoping to get a new one in here by the end of the year. Will be looking at M&R and ROQ models, 8'-10' chamber, 60" belt. My main concerns are gas usage (we'll be using propane), and service/support. Would be interested to hear from anyone with these dryer brands and their experience.
Thanks much.
We love our M&R Sprint 3000. The automatic reminders for maintenance keep my guys honest and the thing is massive. Didn't notice in a major change in gas use from our Boomerang to the Sprint 3000. Highly recommend.
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We love our M&R Sprint 3000. The automatic reminders for maintenance keep my guys honest and the thing is massive. Didn't notice in a major change in gas use from our Boomerang to the Sprint 3000. Highly recommend.
What are you looking at for gas each month? Natural/propane? Dryer size? 40 hour workweek?
Gas usage will play a major part in my decision, and I'm hoping I can do quite a bit better than my current unit, which is averaging around $650/mo.
Thanks..
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Sprint 2000 is kicking but for us man, can't throw anything at it that it can't handle. 3000 is just that much better, but we kept it simple going with the 2,000, 12 feet of heat, 8' in and out belt, 60" wide, I think I would have gone for 14' of heat if I knew what I know now, not that we "need" it right now, but it would have kept us from having to go through the expansion process later when we do it, maybe even 16'. We run our GT3 and our Diamond back into it at the same time, no bog downs at all, pretty awesome and easy to maintain. Propane isn't so bad on such a big dryer either, dude it Rocks, you are welcome to come for a visit if you ever want to, I'm still going to make it down to you one of these days when we visit the family. I have zero regrets going with the Sprint 2000
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We run two 60" dryers and are less than that a month for natural gas. I'm assuming propane is significantly more
expensive?
Look at the figures on the Roq's, their efficiency is almost unbelievable, but apparently is the real deal.
If the 3000's use the same bearing setups and furniture latches as the 2000's I wouldn't be caught dead.
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What are you currently running; electric? The new dryers are extremely efficient. When I replaced my American dryer (Electric panels with gas) with my MD-8 my electric and gas bill dropped by over 50%
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Sprint 2000 is kicking but for us man, can't throw anything at it that it can't handle. 3000 is just that much better, but we kept it simple going with the 2,000, 12 feet of heat, 8' in and out belt, 60" wide, I think I would have gone for 14' of heat if I knew what I know now, not that we "need" it right now, but it would have kept us from having to go through the expansion process later when we do it, maybe even 16'. We run our GT3 and our Diamond back into it at the same time, no bog downs at all, pretty awesome and easy to maintain. Propane isn't so bad on such a big dryer either, dude it Rocks, you are welcome to come for a visit if you ever want to, I'm still going to make it down to you one of these days when we visit the family. I have zero regrets going with the Sprint 2000
Thanks Mike, I appreciate the offer and look forward to having you swing through sometime.
Our current setup is 10' of heat with 5' in and 5' out and we're about as crammed in as possible so that would be the max for us. I actually wouldn't mind going a bit smaller as we don't plan on moving anytime soon and could use the extra space. Good to hear you are diggin the 2000, are you running propane?
We run two 60" dryers and are less than that a month for natural gas. I'm assuming propane is significantly more
expensive?
Look at the figures on the Roq's, their efficiency is almost unbelievable, but apparently is the real deal.
If the 3000's use the same bearing setups and furniture latches as the 2000's I wouldn't be caught dead.
Propane is more than natural, but from what I've been told it shouldn't be anywhere near that much more. Our gallon rate is $2.32.
Interested in hearing more about the bearings/latches if you wouldn't mind sharing.. Thanks.
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What are you currently running; electric? The new dryers are extremely efficient. When I replaced my American dryer (Electric panels with gas) with my MD-8 my electric and gas bill dropped by over 50%
We're currently running an Adelco Jet Force on propane, with no electric panels. It's a newish dryer, but not the most recent model.
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Interested in hearing more about the bearings/latches if you wouldn't mind sharing.. Thanks.
Initial install is fine but god forbid you ever have to move the things. The latches they use to hold the sections
together are woefully unprepared for the task. I invented new curse words dealing with the stupid things.
Search for "sprint" and "bearings" and you'll get the gist of it. From what I can tell the bearings in the tubeaxial
exhaust fans are only rated to 180F or so.
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2000 here and it rocks!
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$86/month on a 60" wide MD-8.
pierre
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$86/month on a 60" wide MD-8.
pierre
I think I remember you telling me you're running natural gas though, correct? Also, how's the support system on Interchange dryers?
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Initial install is fine but god forbid you ever have to move the things. The latches they use to hold the sections
together are woefully unprepared for the task. I invented new curse words dealing with the stupid things.
Search for "sprint" and "bearings" and you'll get the gist of it. From what I can tell the bearings in the tubeaxial
exhaust fans are only rated to 180F or so.
Thanks, that's definitely good to know.
2000 here and it rocks!
Thanks man..
Looks like the M&R owners are happy, where's the ROQ owners?
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We love our M&R Sprint 3000. The automatic reminders for maintenance keep my guys honest and the thing is massive. Didn't notice in a major change in gas use from our Boomerang to the Sprint 3000. Highly recommend.
What are you looking at for gas each month? Natural/propane? Dryer size? 40 hour workweek?
Gas usage will play a major part in my decision, and I'm hoping I can do quite a bit better than my current unit, which is averaging around $650/mo.
Thanks..
Gas bill is about $335. Natural gas. We also have gas water heater and gas heaters in the warehouse (not running in summer though). We run the dryer at least 10hrs a day. Its 28ft long 72 inch wide.
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Gas bill is about $335. Natural gas. We also have gas water heater and gas heaters in the warehouse (not running in summer though). We run the dryer at least 10hrs a day. Its 28ft long 72 inch wide.
Thank you..
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$86/month on a 60" wide MD-8.
pierre
I think I remember you telling me you're running natural gas though, correct? Also, how's the support system on Interchange dryers?
We run one too...I've never really needed support. Almost all parts are available from either Grainer(if you have deep pockets) or some other furnace/boiler supply company. The same igniter from Grainer was $73, vs. $23 at Stromquist.
I can't recall that I've ever contacted support other than to ask what spare parts I should stock.
Our gas bill last month was $67 in gas and over $90 in meter fees and base charges...
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$86/month on a 60" wide MD-8.
pierre
That's insane. We pay about $0.95 a therm plus whatever bs they tack on. I'd imagine you
aren't too far off from that? If so that would really make looking into new dryers worthwhile.
Gas bill is about $335. Natural gas. We also have gas water heater and gas heaters in the warehouse (not running in summer though). We run the dryer at least 10hrs a day. Its 28ft long 72 inch wide.
That's what we pay for two dryers 9 hrs/day? One of them an old inefficient American. Are your per therm charges outrageous or something?
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My mini sprint is 100 for gas on xcel energy in colorado.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk
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$86/month on a 60" wide MD-8.
pierre
That's insane. We pay about $0.95 a therm plus whatever bs they tack on. I'd imagine you
aren't too far off from that? If so that would really make looking into new dryers worthwhile.
Gas bill is about $335. Natural gas. We also have gas water heater and gas heaters in the warehouse (not running in summer though). We run the dryer at least 10hrs a day. Its 28ft long 72 inch wide.
That's what we pay for two dryers 9 hrs/day? One of them an old inefficient American. Are your per therm charges outrageous or something?
No idea what the per therm rate is never looked, our gas bill was always at least $100 a month prior to even having a gas dryer at all. winter it would get up there trying to heat a not very well sealed building.
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Sprint 2000HO with circ blower control. It's a big beast and runs OK for us.
For criticism, heartily agreed on the amateur hardware used to latch the chambers together. Circ blower assy has been ok for us but also agree it's not super smart. Careful install, correct lube, heat slinger and firewall/insulation have helped ours to run without a hitch for a very long time. I keep a shaft and set of pillow block bearings on hand however, that assy just looks like trouble. Worth it for all that air flow though.
Pros are the simplicity of most of the parts, availability and over the phone tech support. I've had to take most of it apart as various parts need tlc or replacement and it hasn't been a major hassle. I can probably continue to overhaul this dryer indefinitely. A sound used buy for a dryer if you can find one. I like that garage door setup on the back of the 3000 models and the access looks much better on them.
One thing I'd toss out in a search for a gas dryer is to find one with some on board diagnostics. I hate when we're getting an alarm or failure and I have to break out the schematics to find it. Would be nice to just go check and fix the part that is sounding off to the system.
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Been researching this as well the last few weeks. Frustrating that Roq does not have a abundance of usage numbers. M&R has lots of usage info. I was able to contact two owners, both not in the states though.... They love the dryers.
For me currently, I was looking to add a dryer before the end of the year, but after looking at our current bill I can not in any way see how we would "save" money or have a decent ROI figure. Our current dryer is 60" gas, old, 10' of heat but only costs us 106 therms or $94.74 a month. Even if we saved 50%, the ROI on a dryer would be ridiculous.
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Yeah once you have a decent gas dryer that's the proper size for your shop getting a new one is more of a luxury item to knock down maintenance. It'll probably be years and years before we upgrade ours as it's a big purchase with slow roi compared to what we have on hand. They're simple machines and you can replace the whole gas train and burner I think without excessive cost.
But initially buying our gas dryer was the only time that sales phrase "you can't afford not to buy this" rang true. The note on the dryer + gas is less than the electric usage on our prior dryer and the capacity is 2x or more.
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Alex I can get you everything you need based on my shop. Right now we are paying an average of $9.00 per day to run our gas dryers. If you want therms etc I can calculate that for you. Both dryers cost around $250.00 a month to run
The roq gas dryers we have are 72" wide belts, 15ft chambers
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Alex I can get you everything you need based on my shop. Right now we are paying an average of $9.00 per day to run our gas dryers. If you want therms etc I can calculate that for you. Both dryers cost around $250.00 a month to run
The roq gas dryers we have are 72" wide belts, 15ft chambers
That would be cool. I just go off of therms because I know the cost depending on location can vary. We pay $0.46/therm
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Yeah once you have a decent gas dryer that's the proper size for your shop getting a new one is more of a luxury item to knock down maintenance. It'll probably be years and years before we upgrade ours as it's a big purchase with slow roi compared to what we have on hand. They're simple machines and you can replace the whole gas train and burner I think without excessive cost.
I wish that were the case for us. I have a split belt with 10' of gas heat that fits my shop perfectly. And I've had the best dryer techs and multiple electricians/gas companies come in and charge me a lot of money for zero results in getting it to run as it should. If I can get my gas bill down to $250/mo or so on a new unit, it would be a fairly easy purchase.
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Alex I can get you everything you need based on my shop. Right now we are paying an average of $9.00 per day to run our gas dryers. If you want therms etc I can calculate that for you. Both dryers cost around $250.00 a month to run
The roq gas dryers we have are 72" wide belts, 15ft chambers
To clarify, is that $250 each or for both?
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Well that sucks, what dryer is it? I'd love me a split belt in here.
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Alex I can get you everything you need based on my shop. Right now we are paying an average of $9.00 per day to run our gas dryers. If you want therms etc I can calculate that for you. Both dryers cost around $250.00 a month to run
The roq gas dryers we have are 72" wide belts, 15ft chambers
To clarify, is that $250 each or for both?
Both dryers
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Well that sucks, what dryer is it? I'd love me a split belt in here.
Adelco Jet Force. I've posted about the issues in this thread: http://www.theshirtboard.com/index.php/topic,18282 (http://www.theshirtboard.com/index.php/topic,18282)
Latest thing we tried is a voltage boost, which didn't work either. I'm fairly certain the issue can be worked out, but with our monthly gas usage it just no longer makes sense to keep throwing money at the dryer when nobody seems to have an answer beyond a guess.
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I will say if I had to do it all over again, i would buy an interchange in a heartbeat...i would just ask for an on-off switch. Seriously, mine didn't come with that. We put a disconnect before it and that works great.
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Just looked at mine. .34 per therm. So my gas bill is $159.34 of $335. Rest are fees. Like $37.80 for "monthly customer charge", "distribution service $118.99", etc.
The previous month was $287.55.
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At .34 a therm $159.34 = 468 therms.
We're at 380 therms for two dryers.
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here's the bill, that's $82 TOTAL this month! It is the only gas operated piece in the shop during the summer time.
pierre
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I have spent a lot of time researching this for different reasons, below is a quick break down:
Gas bills generally have to charges
Charge #1 cost per therm (deca therm or mmbtu)
This charge represents the amount of gas you used multiplied by the charge,
Charge #2 distribution charge
This represents the cost of getting the gas to you for use.
The amount of gas you used is multiplied by this factor.
The two charges above is what you pay per therm. The other charges you pay no matter what you do.
How it relates to the USA
Midwest, Tn, KY (gas is basically free, charges as low .52 cents per therm including distribution)
North East,Califronia, Tx (still relatively inexpensive say .75-.84 including distribution)
South East, SC, NC (most expensive in the country) .85 - 1.20
Hawii - (ouch) 2.45 - 5.00 per therm
International - 1.25-3.00 depending on the country
How it relates to your dryer, let's say a 290,000 Btu burner uses roughly 1.45 therms pr/hr.
(1 therm = 100,000 Btu).
How to get the total cost of your dryer
Gas cost + electric cost (4-10 kW for a single burner) = total hourly cost
Historical side note: Natural gas is the cheapest it has been in history, in 2010-11 you were paying as much as 5* what you are paying today. There are also random issues in some major cities (Miami, Atalanta, San Francisco come to mind that don't fit general models) companies are currently burning natural gas off fields because is is to inexpensive to
Process.
Location side note:
Those of you in the Midwest can waste gas and electricity and obscene rates as energy is very inexpensive!
Watch California as they push for carbon free alternatives (2026) I will believe this when I see it!
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We've always had a higher bill here though than I thought we should have even pre dryer, so I am not sure whats up with that.
For example just pulled up a bill from Jan of 2011, there wasn't even a Gas dryer in this building as we didn't get our auto/dryer until Feb 2011. The bill for Jan was $402.46
The next month, (auto and gas dryer installed that month about mid month), was $298.18. The following month was $226.40. Then you go and look at August of 2012 for kicks and it was $74.42. 8/13 was $119.32. Jump to 5/14 196.25. It was all over the place.
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Side note as it relates to energy, attached is a real time graph from the Fire Fly. The machine was analyzed for 371 hours, primarily running waterbase prints at full capacity. In order to make capacity comparisons and relationships to energy compare with a gas dryer that can run 700 pcs pr/hr water base @ a 2:30 retention time. (Typically two burner dryers, 16' - 22' chambers)
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Side note as it relates to energy, attached is a real time graph from the Fire Fly. The machine was analyzed for 371 hours, primarily running waterbase prints at full capacity. In order to make capacity comparisons and relationships to energy compare with a gas dryer that can run 700 pcs pr/hr water base @ a 2:30 retention time. (Typically two burner dryers, 16' - 22' chambers)
But those things take damn near a 200A service alone. It's a interesting idea, but for me it falls off there.
I can't imagine what one of those would do to our electric bill(aside from needing to upgrade the service again) with peak pricing, our electric bill is ridiculous.
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Side note as it relates to energy, attached is a real time graph from the Fire Fly. The machine was analyzed for 371 hours, primarily running waterbase prints at full capacity. In order to make capacity comparisons and relationships to energy compare with a gas dryer that can run 700 pcs pr/hr water base @ a 2:30 retention time. (Typically two burner dryers, 16' - 22' chambers)
But those things take damn near a 200A service alone. It's a interesting idea, but for me it falls off there.
I can't imagine what one of those would do to our electric bill(aside from needing to upgrade the service again) with peak pricing, our electric bill is ridiculous.
Over here in Europe we pay about $400/month for 90kW. That's before kWh meter is started.
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Boris,
I believe you are talking about a demand charge. $400 dollars for 90 KW is suprisingly
Inexpensive.
US prices, are as high a 14.75 pr/kW to as low as 3.75 pr/kW. Your example
Is 4.44 pr/kW.
Demand charges are calculated on a 15 minute rolling average. The graph posted has a 15 minute rolling average of about 18 KW. A two burner gas dryer has a rolling average of around (9-18 KW) for electric.
I.e. Consider an air compressor kicks on for a short period of time, the instant KW is 40 however over the 15 minute rolling average your demand load is only 8 KW for that air compressor. I wouldn't
want to see a bill of everything was billed at the rated KW.