No DramaBuyer guide · Agriculture & feed
A grain dryer is sold by the tonnes it holds, but what you pay for is water removed per hour at harvest moisture, and two dryers of the same size can differ by a whole shift on a wet day.
01
Batch recirculating dryers hold a fixed load, dry it and empty it, which suits farms and mixed crops. Continuous mixed-flow or column towers dry grain as it moves, which suits a steady intake at a store. Mobile dryers are small batch units on wheels.
Capacity means nothing without the moisture in, the moisture out and the air temperature it assumes. Ask for tonnes per hour at your harvest moisture, for each crop, and for the fuel used per tonne of water removed.
Diesel, gas, biomass, heat pump or electric. Ask whether heat is direct fired into the grain air or indirect through an exchanger, which matters for food grain. Ask which standard the burner is certified to.
An online moisture meter that stops the dryer at target avoids over-drying, which wastes fuel and weight you sell. Ask how the sensor is calibrated and whether temperatures are logged.
Dryers need an intake pit, elevators, a pre-cleaner and wet and dry bins. Grain dust and chaff are fire and explosion risks, so ask what ATEX 2014/34/EU paperwork comes with elevators and motors.
02
Send these with the enquiry. Without them, any number a factory gives you is a guess dressed as a quotation.
03
| Require this | A pass looks like |
|---|---|
| Dry a full batch of wet grain, measuring moisture before and after with a calibrated meter. | Moisture removed and time recorded, and the rate matches the offer for that crop and moisture. |
| Meter fuel used over the same batch. | Fuel per tonne of water removed recorded against the seller's figure. |
| Sample grain from several points of the discharge. | Moisture spread between samples inside the limit agreed in the contract, with no scorched kernels. |
04
05
Aeration fans on the store. A dryer is fuel spent for water you do not have.
A rotary drum dryer built for sticky material. Grain towers need free-flowing kernels.
06
We name the kind of source, how many and when, and never the factory. Listed prices are asking prices, not landed cost. Where we do not hold a fact we say so: that is a GAP, not an estimate.
07
Every machine we source in this area is on the Agriculture & feed page. How a project runs, stage by stage, is on how it works, and what it costs is on pricing.
Straight answers
Usually a batch recirculating dryer sized to your peak day of harvest at wet-year moisture, with an online moisture meter.
In burner certification, fuel use per tonne of water and service in harvest. Ask both for fuel figures at your moisture and for the response time of a technician in harvest week.
Machinery declaration, electrical safety and EMC, the burner's own certification, and ATEX paperwork where dust zones exist. Food-contact declarations under Regulation (EC) 1935/2004 apply where the grain is food.
That the declaration and technical file exist for the dryer and burner, and that its name and address are on the machine or papers.
Contact
Send a machine, a quotation you want checked, or a question. We reply with what we would look at first.
Sent
A person reads every message. You will hear back within one working day.
Not sent
Please email info@nodramachina.com directly and we will pick it up from there.