We have a 30' Top Dry erected in '11 with AutoFlow right from the start. It was erected by a GSI franchise that has installed well over 120 TopDry's, and they know their stuff. They have done a few modifications to the chutes so they dump quickly without plugging (corn batch dumps in 4 seconds) but requires changes to the winch motor from 24V DC to a 120V AC system.

We couldn't be happier. Low capital cost upfront for a dryer that does ~1000/hr at 10 points, closer to 1500 at 5. You need good infrastructure feeding it or you'll be dumping so often you may have to turn your temperature down. Our fed by a 4K/hr inclined drag that barely keeps up when moistures drop to 19 or less.

We have to tweak our target dump temps a little mainly based on input moistures, but we keep good notes from previous years now and that has helped with the initial set point.

We routinely leave our system at 9-10pm at night, return at 5-6am in morning to an empty wet tank and a cooled bottom chamber. Empty chamber down to inverted cone, and start dryer once we have wet corn coming in. System not manned during day, truck driver (usually me) has a look at panel while doing moistures and filling out scale ticket.

In 6 years, we have replaced 2 flame sensors. One of them was likely because we got a little careless 'adjusting' it...   Never cleaned a screen in-season - the big whoosh as the grain moves with the big chutes seems to scrub them.

Here's the crux of the situation. If you have a dealer that really wants these things to work, they will. If you have a dealer that really wanted to sell a tower dryer, but grudgingly put up a TopDry, kick them in the stones and get them to make it work. For the initial outlay, the drying performance they give, the lack of electrical energy consumed (1000/hr@ 10 pts on 37.5 HP for ours vs a tower that will need 60+ HP) plus full heat reclamation and being able to move cool grain into long term storage, they are a great value.

Edit:  I re-read your post. I've got to wonder if you have voltage issues or something on your incoming power with the problems you've had. Are you on the end of a line or a source that is stretched for capacity. I'm fortunate - we're on 3PH and a line that has relatively low use, so power 'quality' is consistent. Problem is, we're in Ontario, so we can't afford it @ about US$17 cents/kWh...

Ken

Don't know where you are in your career/family situation, but I'd seriously look at $25K to bring 3PH in. If you're bumping max on your 1PH service, you're going to have to upgrade it anyway, so put the upgrade $ towards the 3PH. Read the fine print and ask questions of your utility supplier first - min charges, demand charges, etc.

Having said that, I know of many, many TopDry's around me running on converters - some on rotary's, some on static/digital systems. I've never heard of the plethora of problems that you seem to have encountered. That's why I wondered about electricity 'quality', or voltage drop under load, yadda, yadda...

Mind sharing what state/province you're located in?

Ken

Not sure whether your electrician or your dealer would be able to put a meter / monitor on your incoming power to try to see if it was power 'quality' that was creating these issues. I think I'd want that answer before I invested a chunk and changed systems over, only to find that a new continuous flow started having similar issues. Reason I suggest this is all of these issues you mention - motors, boards, sensors are all electrical, and I wonder if low voltage or a voltage surge is the culprit.

Also, your dealer makes a lot of difference. Have an acquaintance in your part of the world that asked his GSI dealer about an AutoFlow TopDry, based on our very good experience. His MN dealer only wanted to talk tower. My Ontario dealer www.horstsystems.com has erected a pile of TopDry's, and converted a bunch of the old ones to AutoFlow. I know of 2 fair sized commercial elevators here (~1M bu capacity) that have 2 TopDry AutoFlows for their drying system because they are inexpensive to build relative to capacity, easy on electrical consumption, full heat recovery, superior grain quality, and send cooled corn to storage.

In short, I guess I'd try to diagnose what the root issue is with yours before you spent money, altered infrastructure, create an inferior grain quality, and had electrically induced problems again.

The 3PH service might get you a long way there...?

Ken

email in profile is good.