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InvisibleGroboClone
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6kW Steel Drum Pasteurizer Build
    #14390223 - 05/02/11 06:03 PM (12 years, 9 months ago)

Now that my sawdust block trials are over and my first straw logs are fruiting it's time to step up production.

I decided to make some pasteurizers out of steel drums. Specifically 205 L (55 US Gallon), food grade, Tight Head with a lining. I got them from Great Western Containers. For the first pasteurizer I cut out a 16" opening in the top.



Next I built a simple frame out of 2x4's and installed a drain fitting, thermostat, and elements.

The drum is heated with two hot water tank elements. I went with 3000w/240v Giant brand screw in type elements from RONA. 1 1/4" holes were drilled in the side of the drum as close to the bottom as possible. The elements are held in place by 1" locknuts found in the electrical section and sealed with silicone. I got the idea from here , a good read.


I wrapped the drum with fiberglass insulation followed by shiny Mylar bubble wrap and used the cutout piece as a lid. There is a 12" wide rack at the bottom of the drum to protect the elements and allow drainage.




The elements are controlled by a 40 amp, 300 volt, DPDT relay (only a single throw is needed but it's what I had on hand). The relay is activated by a hot water tank thermostat. A relay is needed because, unlike a hot water tank, I wired the elements to run simultaneously so the current draw would exceed the rating of the thermostat. The next pasteurizers I build will have digital thermostats so relays will be needed there also.

The pasteurized is fed by a 30A/240v dedicated circuit using 10 AWG wire.



Right now I'm putting the pasteurizer through its paces. It took under 2 hours to heat around 50 gallons of water from 40°f to 140°f and is presently sitting at 170°f. Of course I'll start with hot water when I'm using it but I wanted to see what It would do.

I think I'll install a switch to go from 120 to 240 volts. That way I can heat it up on 240v in no time and then switch to 120v for a slow,  even heat. Running at 120v it will only draw 1/4 of the power, 1500w.



This is a prototype build. I mostly used things I had lying around the house. The electrical will be upgraded to watertight boxes with watertight/armoured cable and high heat conductors.

Right now it's good enough to get me making logs again.

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OfflineHumility
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Re: 6kW Steel Drum Pasteurizer Build [Re: GroboClone]
    #14390280 - 05/02/11 06:12 PM (12 years, 9 months ago)

Looks really nice man.  Very clean and industrial/professional setup.

It's very aesthetically pleasing.  Hearing the specs on it makes it very technically appealing as well.


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OfflineRogerRabbitM
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Re: 6kW Steel Drum Pasteurizer Build [Re: Humility]
    #14391421 - 05/02/11 09:25 PM (12 years, 9 months ago)

Very nice.  I like seeing someone who knows to connect the grounds properly.  I'd suggest putting it on a GFCI protected circuit too.
RR


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"I've never had a failed experiment.  I've only discovered 10,000 methods which do not work."
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InvisibleGroboClone
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Re: 6kW Steel Drum Pasteurizer Build [Re: RogerRabbit]
    #14391909 - 05/02/11 10:43 PM (12 years, 9 months ago)

Quote:

RogerRabbit said:
I'd suggest putting it on a GFCI protected circuit too.





I plan to. I'm still shopping around for one. They are crazy expensive up here in Canada. Try $300 all in. Same part is under $100 in the US.

Edited by GroboClone (05/02/11 10:45 PM)

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OfflineRogerRabbitM
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Re: 6kW Steel Drum Pasteurizer Build [Re: GroboClone]
    #14392067 - 05/02/11 11:11 PM (12 years, 9 months ago)

You should be able to get a 2 pole GFCI breaker for your panel.  Or, order what you need from a US supplier.
RR


--------------------
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semper in excretia sumus solim profundum variat

"I've never had a failed experiment.  I've only discovered 10,000 methods which do not work."
Thomas Edison

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InvisibleGroboClone
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Re: 6kW Steel Drum Pasteurizer Build [Re: RogerRabbit]
    #14392265 - 05/02/11 11:49 PM (12 years, 9 months ago)

That is the price for a  2 pole GFCI breaker. I've been down this road before when I was looking for a combination panel for our farm service. I can look at all the cheap stuff in the states but can't use it, it isn't CSA aproved.

Oh well, I'll just keep looking and buy what I have to. You can't put a price on your safety.

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OfflineNSF
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Re: 6kW Steel Drum Pasteurizer Build [Re: GroboClone]
    #14392721 - 05/03/11 02:27 AM (12 years, 9 months ago)

That's some professionalism right there.  It looks fantastic and i'm sure it'll give you many trouble free pasteurisations!

If you made a 'cage' to lower your substrate into the hot water, could you have a second cage loaded and ready to go in the same hot water to save on energy?!


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Offlinefungus_tao
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Re: 6kW Steel Drum Pasteurizer Build [Re: NSF]
    #14393886 - 05/03/11 11:10 AM (12 years, 9 months ago)

:awesomenod:

Very professional setup.


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InvisibleGroboClone
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Re: 6kW Steel Drum Pasteurizer Build [Re: NSF]
    #14394018 - 05/03/11 11:40 AM (12 years, 9 months ago)

Quote:

NSF said:
If you made a 'cage' to lower your substrate into the hot water, could you have a second cage loaded and ready to go in the same hot water to save on energy?!




I was just thinking something along the same lines.

I'm going to put the substrate into Woven Polypropylene Bags. The original idea was to soak, drain, pasteurize, drain and let sit until cool in the pasteurizer. I would be able to do all this without moving the substrate, saving time and effort.

Now I'm thinking a little differently. The run I did yesterday got up to about 170°f. Now, almost 24 hours later, it's still over 140°f. That is a lot of heat ($$$) to flush down the drain. I'm also thinking that if I leave the bags in the pasteurizer they might take an awfully long time to cool down.

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OfflineNSF
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Re: 6kW Steel Drum Pasteurizer Build [Re: GroboClone]
    #14395287 - 05/03/11 04:43 PM (12 years, 9 months ago)

I don't have figures as i wanted provided any but someone once described to me that pasteurised substrate, due to moisture content provides a highly viable food source for moulds and these multiply massively every 12 hours (doesn't mean they are visible to us). This is assuming some moulds have got in but why wouldn't they, they're everywhere.  So we must add our spawn as close as we can to the time the sub drops to the right temperature.

Otherwise, very quickly, it's as if we hadn't pasteurised at all. 

Does anybody out there have more scientific information on this than me?

And grobo, you definitely should drain your substrate as soon as pasteurisation is finished, not just for faster temperature drop but you don't want to over soak and end up with a soggy mess.

I really like your Woven PP bags idea though. If these are feed bags be careful though, some are near watertight.  Nothing some holes with a soldering iron won't fix though.

Although how will you lift hot, heavy, wet bags out of your pasteuriser safely?


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InvisibleMonkeyKnifeFight
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Re: 6kW Steel Drum Pasteurizer Build [Re: NSF]
    #14395477 - 05/03/11 05:20 PM (12 years, 9 months ago)

It's not scientific but I never worry much about leaving pasteurized sub sitting around for a day until I have time to spawn.  When I pasteurize compost I spread it out in the open for a day or so to let it sun dry and I've had good luck.  Depends on how fast the species is I suppose.

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Invisibledwpineal
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Re: 6kW Steel Drum Pasteurizer Build [Re: MonkeyKnifeFight]
    #14405060 - 05/05/11 12:30 PM (12 years, 9 months ago)

Awesome build! Thanks for sharing

:awethumb:

If you could put a second tank, slightly lower then the first, then your drain pipe can connect to the second tank. This way you can drain the first tank after the sub has been at temp for your time (1-2 hours or whatever you do...). The hot drain water flows into the second tank and pasteurizes your second batch.

Meanwhile the 1st batch is cooling in a mostly sealed off container, thereby limiting contams until the sub is cool or mostly cool so you can spawn.

Anyway, wanted to contribute a little more then just saying Awesome Work! but that's what I'm trying to say :smile:

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InvisibleGroboClone
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Re: 6kW Steel Drum Pasteurizer Build [Re: dwpineal]
    #14405727 - 05/05/11 03:00 PM (12 years, 9 months ago)

Now you've got me thinking dwpineal,

I have some large Mag Drive pumps that I could use for transferring water from one drum to another.

I think I may just stick with my original plan for simplicity's sake. I worked it out and it's only about $0.80 worth of electricity to warm up a drum of water. I think that's worth it not to have to deal with scalding substrate bags and water.

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OfflineRogerRabbitM
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Re: 6kW Steel Drum Pasteurizer Build [Re: GroboClone]
    #14406842 - 05/05/11 06:58 PM (12 years, 9 months ago)

I'd forget the poly bags and build a cage to fit the drum out of hardware cloth, since it will drain and cool so much better.  You could build two smaller cages and stack one on the other, to make them lighter to lift.

You can re-use the pasteurizer water. . . once.  If you use it much more than that, it becomes an herbicide and will kill the grass or other vegetation where you dump it out.  It seems I remember in Stamets books saying it was OK three times, but I've found it kills grass after the second use.

Insulate the barrel very well as it heats up and during the pasteurization process.  This will greatly decrease the time to temperature, and the amount of electricity used to keep it there.
RR


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semper in excretia sumus solim profundum variat

"I've never had a failed experiment.  I've only discovered 10,000 methods which do not work."
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OfflinePuma
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Re: 6kW Steel Drum Pasteurizer Build [Re: RogerRabbit]
    #14407723 - 05/05/11 09:59 PM (12 years, 9 months ago)

Wow, this is great! Just sitting here with my buddy as we test our own home-build autoclave, and came in and saw this. Very inspiring. We hope to see some pictures of it in use, loaded up with sawdust or straw. Nice build (from two fellow Canadians cheering on the Canucks tonight!)

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InvisibleGroboClone
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Re: 6kW Steel Drum Pasteurizer Build [Re: Puma]
    #14409489 - 05/06/11 10:33 AM (12 years, 9 months ago)

Thanks Puma, You guys make some serious gear. I'll definitely post some action shots.

So I converted a chest freezer into a fridge for mushroom storage. While I was cleaning the thing out I thought, why can't this  be used as a pasteurizer? It's all metal inside and looks pretty water tight.



Has anyone on here successfully converted a chest freezer into a hot water pasteurizer?

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Invisibledwpineal
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Re: 6kW Steel Drum Pasteurizer Build [Re: GroboClone]
    #14410016 - 05/06/11 12:21 PM (12 years, 9 months ago)

Here's someone with a similar line of thought...
http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/8433030#8433030

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Invisiblesolarity
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Re: 6kW Steel Drum Pasteurizer Build [Re: GroboClone]
    #14410174 - 05/06/11 12:58 PM (12 years, 9 months ago)

Not done it - but I had the exact same idea as it is big and insulated. It would need reinforcing I would think though as that is a lot of weight. I had planned to heat it with a heat exchanger - that could also take the heat back out before the water was drained and return it for the next batch.


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Invisibleife
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Re: 6kW Steel Drum Pasteurizer Build [Re: solarity]
    #14414021 - 05/07/11 06:49 AM (12 years, 9 months ago)

wouldn't that end up being a "super" expensive pasteurizer? Would the return be worth it? Course doing it just for the geekiness is shiek.

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OfflinePuma
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Re: 6kW Steel Drum Pasteurizer Build [Re: GroboClone]
    #14420119 - 05/08/11 03:28 PM (12 years, 9 months ago)

Quote:

GroboClone said:
Thanks Puma, You guys make some serious gear. I'll definitely post some action shots.

So I converted a chest freezer into a fridge for mushroom storage. While I was cleaning the thing out I thought, why can't this  be used as a pasteurizer? It's all metal inside and looks pretty water tight.



Has anyone on here successfully converted a chest freezer into a hot water pasteurizer?




I've turned one into a steam pasteurizer. At a local scrap metal yard, I can buy old broken deep freezers for $20 each, freon already bled out of them. We put it on stilts, and piped steam into it from a metal garbage can as our boiler. Works well!

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