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Ohio | I would like to know what you guys with the 30', 11 ring, and two burner GSI Top Drys are getting for cooled bushels an hour removing 10 points. We recently found out these Top Dry units are not as much money as tower dryers and for the most part do pretty much the same thing. They obviously also can act as a storage bin when they are not drying. I have some concerns though regarding them. How do you clean the screens in a top dry ( if you have to)? I personally don't know if I would like being that committed to a dryer and not really ever being able to expand to a bigger one once you commit to a certain size Top Dry. With the towers you can always put another one in that is a little taller with a bigger blower to get more capacity if you need it. The towers for the most part are fairly easy to clean and maintain if you ask me and it seems they dry the corn very evenly. What we love about them is they only take up about a 15ft. in diameter circle with their footprint. They cost more and offer absolutely no storage, which are the huge downfalls of a tower. I guess what I am looking for is some info from folks with experience with the newer GSI Top Dry units and maybe even some info from folks who have ran both side by side. Looking at Meyer 1400S Tower and 30' 11 ring double burner Top Dry. Thank you all for your time! |
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Flora IL | check out the mc tower dryers too.. we had a 750 bushel continuous flow and went to a mc tower that does 1500 bushel and uses about the same amount of gas.. love it |
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Ohio | I have respect for all of the Towers, I personally like the Meyer because of the blowers and their motors being located right on the ground just inside the lower access doors. Yeah they are a little tight for space in the bottom of them, but everything is located closer to the ground. Just thought that would be nice if you were having problems. Like the Meyer's unload system too. "circular drag conveyor" They are quite spendy, but that seems to be the case with most towers. Would like to be able to ACTUALLY dry 700-750 bushel/hr. removing 10 points and cooling. Of course I would like to leave room for expanding too. |
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| If you end up with an 11 ring you will want an elevator to get to the top after you turn the ripe age of 40
A very simple set up not many moving parts
you will only likely have to clean screens when FM gets over 10 to 15 % and 30 % moisture |
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Eastern Shore of MD | We put in a similar top dry set up last spring & have run it for 1 corn year - I don't have the literature in front of me but I think ours is a 36' 9 ring w/ 2 burners. We found it met or exceeded our expectations - in terms of the fact that it dried right about at the same BPH that it was rated at on their literature, usually for us it seems w/ our other dryer set ups (2 GSI batch dryers & 1 continuous flow) we could not meet the BPH that they were rated at. I just cleaned the dryer floor this past week - we did not have to clean it during corn harvest - & all that was in it was a small amount of dust and some corn hanging on ledges near the release chutes - no big deal. Biggest issue would seem to be the time to transfer the corn when the top dry is full but this is not a big deal for us since we have other dryer set ups that can run while we transfer the corn out of the top dry. We have no experience w/ tower dryers. |
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Ohio | Thanks for the info! I wouldn't think you would need to clean the screens often or at all on one of those. But it seems with most all dryers if it has screens they will need cleaning. 11 rings is a long haul, but hopefully I won't need to be running up and down the stairs to often. Thanks again! |
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| The Meyer's motors being close to ground is an advantage but will collect a lot of dirt. Chain in a circle sure sounds like trouble at some point in time. |
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South of Springfield IL | I have a 36' 11 ring top dry with one 40 hp heater and fan. I also have gsi tower 1010 I think is model. Tower is a lot easier to clean and operate. Moisture control is great and it uses less lp. If you have to work on something tower will be easier. Cleaning a top dry is the most miserable job we have on the farm. My 2 cents buy the tower |
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Ohio | Well you arent the first person to say that about GSI Top Dry units that I have talked to in regards to them actually doing what they are advertised to do.All of the tower boys I have talked to have said you can expect to be close to advertised but not at or above. Not having to clean screens often is another good thing. Thanks for your input! |
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Ohio | Their drag in a circle isnt a chain unit. Here is a photo of it.
 (meyer.jpg)
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 meyer.jpg (26KB - 439 downloads)
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Ohio | One for the tower dryer! Thank you for your input. I would agree that it would seem just by looking at them that the tower would be easier to clean. Do you get close to advertised with your bushels per hour on that unit? The GSI 1010 would be similar in size to the Meyer we like. Maybe a size smaller. Any trouble with inverters plugging on that unit? |
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Ripley, Ontario Canada | Don't know about the new, bigger top dry's but I work on a neighbour's and we are trying to dry wet corn (ok really wet for a lot of you guys) corn that is 30-40% and we have real trouble getting it all dry enough in a top dry. We get 12% corn and 20 % corn and can't get it to blend, have had storage issues. The top dry is a simple system, but we have had some trouble, and it is a lot of climbing, and if you dump corn too wet into a couple batches of dry, it is a real pain to deal with. I personally have a bin that is going to get a stirrer, but for high volume I would by a continuous dryer. |
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Flora IL | looked at meyer tower.. two fans and motors also there packed in there tight... looks like its a toss.. i bet getting one of those out would be a blast... ours u take off the top amd pulll out with crane.. shruggs.. either way might take same amount of time but i like one fan/motor over 2. good luck.. sounds like u really like the idea of the storage.. good luck u got plenty of time till harvest :) |
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Ohio | We looked at a Meyer this fall. The guys that own it really like it. I am still not sure whether I want two motors or one. The Meyer is tight in the very bottom, but lots of room in the top 2/3. I would think if you had two 30 hp motors and you start them one at a time that wouldnt be such a strain on electricity like starting one big motor. We will be running AC Drive units to power everything since we are on single phase. We have a GSI and Sukup dealer very close and the Meyer dealer isn't to far away either and they offer yearly inspections on your dryer to. It seems to me that a dryer is no more than a conveinence. They are expensive and offer no storage. Top Drys offer storage on top of being able to dry. Which means they can make you money even when your not drying. But a Top Dry takes up tons of room, are big commitments that offer no room for expansion if you max yours out, and seem to have their own quirks just like towers. |
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South Western Ontario | We have 2 27 foot top dry bins. First one put up in late 70's and the second one came with the purchased farm in 91.
You have to drop the final batch so that it blends otherwise sticks to the wall and will be a mess come spring.
Although you can block the big fan and remove center cap and fill it up for the winter which can give additional storage. With the new digital controls you can dry by time or temp but it is a bit of learning curve because the top of the batch won't feel ready and the bottom(closest to the perforated floor) will be overdry but when you drop the batch it all blends together and you would never now the difference.
Usually drop around 16 to 17 % and then with all the heat in the bottom it will average 14.5 to 15.5 %.
I'm not saying that they are the best, but it is what we've always had and I'm used to running these sytems and they do work well for us.
If one batch is not dry enough just overdry the next one or visa versa. They do take a bit more baby sitting probably than the tower and continuous flow dryers.
Just ask alot of questions and go and visit guys with both sytems.
Good Luck!!
If you have anymore questions just ask. |
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South of Springfield IL | Both of the dryers will do what there rated at |
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Central Minnesota | We had a stor-mor ezee dry. Basically the same thing. Put up new in 1978... Basically it was a simple unit. Changed the controls on it over the years. But always had pretty good luck with it. Problem was, like you said, you can't expand on it. Once you have it, it's there. But i know north of me, there's alot of the GSI top drys that go up. Some guys have went away from a continuous flow dryer for them. I went away from the top dry this year for a double stack continous flow dryer from GSI. The Vision control is very nice from GSI. No experience with the towers though. But the top dry's are pretty consistent. |
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Centre county Pennsylvania, USA | We put up a storemore top dry in 2011, it worked great on 18-20% corn, 2 hours to dry 1500 bu batch. Here is android phone picture of that storemore top dry.
 (storemore topdry.jpg)
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storemore topdry.jpg (86KB - 512 downloads)
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Findlay, Ohio | We were thinking of going with a Meyer tower and we are sure glad we didn't get a tower dryer. We have talked to people that have them and it seems they are cleaning them all the time, I guess that is why they put cat walks around tower dryers. We had to put new fans and heaters on our 1977 built Store-More top dry and couldn't believe the capacity it had after the new fans and heaters were installed. As far as cleaning our top dry we have never had to clean the screens in thirty four yeas, when we are done we just shut the roof vents and we are done. Like I said we just about replaced our Top Dry with a Tower, but we are sure glad we saved our money. |
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Central Minnesota | We were in the same boat... Never worried about cleaning the screens on ours. There were a few of them over the years that started on fire in the area. But if i remember correctly it was the "full storage" switch that wouldn't work properly, or was mounted to high up in the bin, and the corn would actually flow into the fan and burner unit, and that's what was causing it. One of the nice things about those top dry's was they didn't need cleaning like any tower or screen dryer. A couple of years ago, i believe it was 2009, we had some pretty wet corn around here, and it was late. I remember alot of people complaining abuot towers and screen dryers always having to be cleaned. And it seemed once you had them set, they were very consistent. |
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NW Iowa | I've had a 30' 9 1/2 ring StorMor top dry since 1976. Simple, hardly any moving parts. Put in a few start capacitators over the years, but haven't had any other problems. I've never cleaned the top drying floor but do clean the walls of the drying chamber with a stiff wash brush once a year. Takes about 30 minutes. Agree with other posters that once you get the controls set, they are very consistent. Pretty much set it and forget it, even from year to year. The more corn you have under the drying chamber, the more efficient it dries. Less exposed bin wall to radiate the heat off. I have always batch dried, but plan on converting to continous flow this fall. |
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Flora IL | vw if ur single phase like we are it will cost u 8 large to convert to three phase and run that large motor on ours.. ya if u can start the two in order that will help.. u could use a simple phase convertor and save money.
u will be happy either direction u go.. its a great way to spend money and make money.. |
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North Central Illinois | have you considered a duct style dryer? we have a Grain Handler 32-12 and love it and if we need a bigger one in a few years just buy more sections to stack on top and increase the motor size on the 8 fans. These dryers take around 50-60% the amount of amps as a tower of equal size. |
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South Western Ontario | Just want to add that we have both top dry bins sprayed inside with that spray on insulation top and bottom and that will eliminate any condensation on the walls and save on drying as well.
With the new systems and the fan on the ground that seems like a good idea.
Also drying corn over 25% can be a bit of a challenge, but usually that only happens 1 out of 10 years.
23% or less is ideal, I think that would apply to any type of dryer. |
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GSI Top Dry vs. Tower Dryer (I know this has been discussed alot already.)
