logosol VT5 Sauno kiln vs Nyle L53

I have not seen this kiln. I read the info at the link and there must be an error as it states that softwoods can be dried from 17% to furniture dry is a week. That seems very long indeed. I cannot figure if this is a steam kiln or DH. Maybe it is both. Does this unit have to be outside the kiln and then ducts and pipes run into the kiln? Does it come with controls?

I do not,know what the Swedish drying method referenced in the link is. I will try and find out.

The following facts might help your evaluation.

To evaporate the water and to have energy for heat losses from a building means that we need about 4-5 million Btus from green to 7% MC per MBF. That means that at 100% efficiency and a drying time of 20 days, we need 250,000 Btus a day or 10,000 Btu per hour. That is about 3 kW per hour. So, at 100% efficiency (no boiler loss, etc.), we would find that 3000 watts will dry 1000 bf of green lumber in 20 days. actual kiln time might be longer due to heating up, equalization or conditioning. Of course, heat flow is actually not even throughout the run, so it might take a bit longer than 20 days. If it is a DH kiln, then 3o000 watts per hour energy use would be less so it might dry 1700 bf or so in 20 days or so.

Steaming before drying with green lumber is well known and there is an active patent owned by Danny Elder that likely covers this...I would be concerned enough that for any kiln steaming wet
Lumber i would get a statement that if Elder sues for infringement that someone else will cover legal expenses, fines, etc. if it does not infringe, then no problem.

Steaming of fairly dry lumber to remove stresses is well known and called conditioning. Such steaming would not speed drying however.

So, it will be interesting to see what this is all about and what the energy use is, etc.

Dennis Hale

Thanks for your response. It's interesting that you haven't heard of it, must not be very popular...

From what little i could find on other internet forums it seemed like people are being asked to air dry their hardwoods, especially oak before putting them in the sauno kiln. This does seem overly long to me.. Apparently Logosol hasn't even published drying schedules for their unit.

I'm currently air drying my wood before taking it to a large facility for drying, but this seems mostly due to the fact they are loading it in with whatever else they are drying.

With the Nyle kiln I've been led to believe I should be putting most hardwoods in the kiln directly, and expect it to dry according to their published schedules.

It seems like the Nyle kilns, even their smallest the L53 are far quicker units.

Am I wrong here?

GeneWengert-WoodDoc

NYLE kilns or just about any kiln can accept air dried lumber. Air drying may have more quality loss, however, due to unfavorable weather...too dry, too wet, too windy.

GeneWengert-WoodDoc

Incidentally, the comments I gave about the "facts" of drying apply to all drying, except vacuum, and not just to one type of kiln or manufacturer.

Dennis Hale

Ok, thanks for your advice Gene,

Interesting to look at the 'facts' as you say, independent of the

I'm going to go with the Nyle kiln. An L200 came up used locally, Its more expensive, seems more tried and true and has a better capacity anyways.

Alex n Woodbury

I purchased one of these kilns from Logosol's retailer. It doesn't work on US 120/240V and is designed for european 2x 220v. The retailer lacks the technical expertise to advise or correct the issue, never even considered it before bringing the devices into the country, and logosol has the units actually manufactured 3rd party by PLANO Systems AB. So getting any assistance has been a nightmare. I'm having to buy a voltage reducing transformer to operate the kiln, its not UL listed and I don't think I'd recommend it. The concept is solid, the unit would work flawlessly in the EU, but not so much out here in the states, and so far they don't seem to have a US/240V spec unit.