Moisture Sensors
Lowell in Minnesota
Lowell has had his Dryer Master DM510 for three years. He uses it on his 4024 Grain Handler dryer, drying about 1 million bushels of corn per year.
How much training was required to operate the Dryer Master?
A couple hours.
How does the Dryer Master change the way you dry?
I can go do other work and not worry about the dryer adjustments.
Did anything surprise you about the Dryer Master?
The simplicity.
Compared to manual sampling how much difference does having real time moisture information make? Why?
Big difference. We have a large wet bin and if we get a wetter variety in there the real time knows when to adjust.
How often do you calibrate your sensors? What is your calibration procedure?
Daily just to confirm. We test incoming and outgoing grain and do the calibration on the DM.
Do you use DM Mobile? If so, when/how do you use it?
Yes we love to be able to see the dryer info remotely. We do make some adjustments from the mobile device.
Have you contacted the Dryer Master Support Centre? What was your experience?
Great service.
Kenton in Illinois
Kenton has had his Dryer Master DM510 for four years. He uses it on his Grain Handler dryer to dry about 250,000 bushels of corn a year.
What convinced you to buy a Dryer Master in the first place?
What I first liked about the Dryer Master was that it has an input sensor as well as an output sensor so it can anticipate changes.
How often do you calibrate your sensors?
I calibrate the input sensor twice a year and the output sensor about every 3 hours of drying time or when there is a bigger change of input moisture or a hybrid change. It seems like different hybrids do test differently.
Do you use DM Mobile? If so, when/how do you use it?
I used DM Mobile for the first full season this year and it gave me the confidence to be away from the dryer and do other things and still know what is going on. It also alerted me to a problem that had arisen one evening after I had gone home.
Have you contacted the Dryer Master Support Centre? What was your experience?
Everyone at the support center has always been extremely helpful with any situation that I have had come up.
Richard in South Dakota
Richard dries about 800,000 bushels a year of corn and beans in his 3,500 bu. capacity grain dryer, a dryer that he is looking to add more tiers to to get even more capacity. He has had his Dryer Master DM510 since 2011. For the 2017 season, he upgraded by adding DM Mobile, Dryer Master’s remote access application.
How does the Dryer Master change the way you dry? Using the Dryer Master changes the way we harvest, such as which fields we are going to harvest next. We are not as concerned about the moisture content in each field.
How often do you calibrate the outlet sensor, and what procedure do you use? We probably calibrate the outlet sensor twice a day. We take 4-5 samples during the calibration time, mix them together, and bench sample them to get an average moisture.
Do you use DM Mobile? We started using DM Mobile this year on my cell phone. I watch the outlet moisture from my phone as well as the drying rate and the drying temp. I like being able to change it from Auto to Local or Manual from my combine or my house. It is nice to be able to check things from the house at night without going to the bin site a mile away.
Mark in Indiana
Mark is relatively new to Dryer Master. He has had his DM510 for two years now. He uses it to dry about 500,000 bushels of corn and wheat in his Delux dryer.
Why did you buy a Dryer Master in the first place.
It was recommended by my dealer.
Have you found a financial difference in your drying performance using Dryer Master? In what way?
The Dryer Master is a management tool. It saves money by not over drying or under drying the grain. This saves in minimizing grain shrink and moisture dock and it gives gas savings.
Is there anything you would like to see changed in the Dryer Master (new fe
atures?)
I’d like to see “suggested rates” in manual mode to show on DM Mobile. (DM Comment: Excellent idea. This is something we will be adding.)
Do you use DM-Mobile? If so how do you use it (phone/PC/home/at night?), how often do you use it?
DM Mobile is my favorite feature. I use it all day while in the combine and it is on when I go to bed, so I can wake during the night and check the dryer in bed. It is great peace of mind!
Joe in Ohio
Joe has had a Dryer Master for 20 years. He started with a DM500 and recently updated to a DM510 model. His site dries about 500,000 bushels a year of corn and wheat and sometimes soybeans with their Zimmerman dryer. The first photo is of the outlet sensor installation.
Why did you buy a Dryer Master in the first place?
The Dryer Master allowed us to have an inlet sensor which helps with anticipating the speed of the dryer whether in automatic or manual. Before we were chasing and guessing but after it was installed it allowed us to be a lot more consistent in our drying.
How often do you typically calibrate your outlet moisture sensor? And what is your calibration procedure?
Depending on time, help and operator we usually calibrate it every hour to once or twice a day. The calibration process is so easy we have incorporated it into our dryer checks.
Do you use DM-Mobile? If so how do you use it (phone/PC/home/at night?), how often do you use it?
We do use the DM-Mobile, mostly though a PC but occasionally with a smartphone. Anytime we leave the dryer to go to another part of the plant it allows us to monitor the dryer. We found that the biggest help is it allows you to take your experienced guys and use them where they are needed but they can also work through and teach less experienced personnel and while still keeping an eye on the dryer.
Any other advice or comments you would like to pass on to someone ?
The Dryer Master team does a great job providing service and technical support to their customers. It is reassuring knowing that during the middle of harvest you can call and troubleshoot a problem with a person who knows the product and cares.
Jared in Illinois
Jared is a new Dryer Master user who added a Dryer Master to his Grain Handler dryer in 2016. He uses it to dry about 250,000 bushels of corn a year.
Did anything surprise you about how your Dryer Master worked when you first used it?
I was very pleased with the simplicity and how user friendly the DM510 was to learn and operate.
Do you use DM-Mobile? If so how do you use it (phone/PC/home/at night?), how often do you use it?
Since I’m in the field and not at our dryer, I use DM Mobile all day every day to continually monitor the dryer. I also check DM-Mobile just before I go to bed and get text alerts if something goes wrong. This feature is near real time with only a few seconds of latency. It gives me peace of mind knowing the dryer is working properly when I’m away from our bin site.
Any other advice or comments you would like to pass on to someone?
Don’t let the price of the DM 510 scare you away. It’s definitely worth the investment because over or under dried grain can be very costly. Also, Dryer Master’s customer support has exceeded my expectations! They have been great to work with.
Chris in Illinois
Chris has a Grain Handler 2416 dryer that he uses to dry about 500,000 bushels of White and Yellow Food Grade Corn. He has had his DM510 for 2 years now. His DM510 is conveniently located right next to where he does his manual moisture tests.
Why did you buy a Dryer Master in the first place?
We bought the DM510 to automate and remotely control our Grain Handler 2416.
How often do you typically calibrate your outlet moisture sensor? And what is your calibration procedure?
During harvest we sample and calibrate every 1 to 1.5 hours. We press the sample button, run it through our Perten tester three times, average the results, and enter the moisture into the DM510.
Do you use DM-Mobile? If so how do you use it (phone/PC/home/at night?), how often do you use it?
Yes, I monitor the dryer via an IPad while in the combine during the day and use my IPhone at home after work. It is used all the time the dryer is running.
Trevor in North Dakota
Trevor dries less than 250,000 bushels annually of corn and wheat with his Grain Handler dryer. He has had his Dryer Master DM510 for three seasons now.
What had you heard about Dryer Master before you purchased one?
Advanced Grain Handling suggested a Dryer Master because that is what they had and really liked it. We wanted something that was smart phone capable and we are glad we got the Dryer Master.
Why did you buy a Dryer Master in the first place?
To be more productive… We couldn’t run 24 hours a day before the Dryer Master because we didn’t want to under dry or over dry.. with the Dryer Master we can run 24 hours a day which is huge to getting our crop off before the weather changes in North Dakota… Every day is crucial and we have to be able to get the crop off and dry it down!
How does the Dryer Master change the way that you dry, or alter your drying operations from
an operational perspective?
We decreased paying a guy to baby sit the dryer all day. With Dryer Master we can look at our phones when we are not by it. Semi drivers and always monitoring it when dumping their trucks. We dialed in our set point for our dryer and it comes out consistent throughout our desired moisture for storage.
Did anything surprise you about how your Dryer Master worked when you first used it?
It took awhile to get used to it and a lot of phone calls just to get everything set but now we are familiar with everything.
Have you found a financial difference in your drying performance using Dryer Master? In what
way?
Any kind of product that can give you a return on your investment is crucial in this business. This monitoring system pays for itself yearly in our eyes with the elevators being so aggressive on drying and shrink charges.
Brian in Indiana
Brian is a long time Dryer Master user, having used Dryer Master systems for over 25 years now. He dries over a million bushels a year of Non-GMO waxy corn and has a wealth of experience to share.
Brian recently updated his two DM500 systems to two new DM510 systems to go on his two Zimmerman grain dryers, one a AP4500 and the other a Zimmerman VT3026.
Why did you buy Dryer Masters in the first place?
We were looking for a way to take the guesswork out of drying. Because we are a long term storage facility with minimal outbound blending capabilities, we needed consistent moisture and quality going into storage. The Dryer Master has been able to take the peaks and valleys out of our moisture content.
How does the Dryer Master change the way that you dry, or alter your drying operations from an operational perspective?
We had to learn to let the Dryer Master do it’s job. I tell my operators that every adjustment they make when drying, is probably undermining what the Dryer Master has “planned”. We had to learn not to react to what was happening with outbound samples (unless it’s a long term trend)…for instance, if the outbound sample isn’t correct, that adjustment should’ve been made 2-3 hrs ago. We watch the hourly trend and trust that the DM knows what’s going in and what’s coming out and will adjust dryer speed accordingly to hit the average target moisture. Operators have to understand that the DM is always trying to average to the target…if corn is coming out a little dry for an hour, expect the dryer to speed up and you might see a little bit of wetter corn for an hour. My main advice to operators…”don’t over-react, let the DM d
o it’s job”.
What drying tips (if any) would you like to pass on to other dryer owners about how to get the most out of their dryer and/or their Dryer Master?
During harvest, we often can see a 5-10% spread in the moisture of inbound grain. While the Dryer Master can handle those ranges of moisture, we try to “help” it by making the inbound wet grain stream more consistent. We have 3 wet hopper tanks and will divide those into 3 moisture ranges. We then blend those grain streams to the dryer to get a more consistent moisture content on the inbound side of the dryer. This helps the Dryer Master by not making it “react” to those big swings. It also helps us narrow the range that it takes to get to our average outbound target moisture.
Have you fo
und a financial difference in your drying performance using Dryer Master? In what way?
Yes. Anytime we overdry corn or underdry corn and have to recirculate, we are not getting efficient use of our utilities expense or our drying assets. The Dryer Master minimizes those situations and helps us stay within a very narrow +/- range of our target moisture.
How often do you typically calibrate your outlet moisture sensor? And what is your calibration procedure?
We sample every 30-45 minutes while the dryers are running. We keep a log sheet comparing DM sample to Moisture Meter (Dickey-John) sample. If we have 3 samples in a row that are off more than .5% in the same direction…then we calibrate.
Aaron in Illinois
Aaron has a smaller 1610 Grain Handler dryer that he uses to dry about 200,000 bushels of oats and corn. He has now had his DM510 for 2 seasons and uses the Dryer Master moisture sensor chute with a rotary feed which helps provide a consistent flow of product past the outlet moisture sensor.
Why did you buy a Dryer Master in the first place?
I had not heard anything about Dryer Master but my bin dealer and the Grain Handler folks recommended it.
How does the Dryer Master change the way that you dry, or help your drying operations from an
operational perspective?
It allows me to be a little freer to do ot
her tasks.
How often do you typically calibrate your outlet moisture sensor?
All throughout the first day, then if it is staying close to the bench tester, just once a day.
How much difference does it make to have real time moisture information versus having to go out and take a sample?
A lot. I’m able to check the moisture of the dryer discharge no matter where I am.
Do you use DM-Mobile for remote access.
Yes, I use it on my smartphone all the time, day and night.
Dryer Master 
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