 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi
I'm thinking of building a hot box this summer looked on the net and seems like I can make one for about £70-£80 has any one made a hot box and got some tips 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I think Spyderjon made one, try sending him a PM.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Thank you achilles
Sorry I should have put ski hot box
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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skimottaret,
I will let you now how I get on.
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Glen Charman, forget a light bulb solution as you can't stop getting hot spots etc.
The key to even temperatures is good insulation, a snug seal on the door & most importantly good air circulation. I was very close to using a tubular heater from http://www.tubeheat.co.uk were Karen will calculate the heater wattage required if you give her the internal dims of your hotbox.
After experimenting a bit the best solution was with a fabricated casing which houses a fan/blower which blows air over a heating element. Here's some information about my hot box pictured on the link above:
- Internal dims are L2000 x H450 x D350mm. I was limited by space so couldn't construct a W2200mm long box to take DH or SG skis.
- The box has a 50 x 20mm external timber frame with a 9mm plywood skin. It is lined with foil covered 12mm plaster/gypsum board. This gives a thin but very well insulated carcass. It's also heavy so the box is mounted on lockable castors. I orignally had a hinged door as I was going to wall mount the box but now the box is on the floor it's best to have a detatching door with a number of catches around it's perimeter. Both the door & the inside of the box & rebated & have foam strips attached to give a very good seal & no air loss.
- The box has two levels. The longer top shelf takes skis up to 195cm length & the lower shelf up to 170cm length.
- My cooking time is 4 hours at 140/150F. Every box runs at slightly different temperatures so do a few test runs starting at 120F to 30mins & check the skis to ensure the wax is fully melted along the full length of the skis. If not then up the temperature by 10F & re-test. There's no problem hot boxing skis with the bindings attached.
- With the initial design as the pic above I found that the heat rose too quickly up the centre of the box meaning that the middle third of the ski heated up too quickly & the tips/tails were noticably cooler as the air did not circulate correctly. I revised the design by extending the top of the heater casing by a metre (cardboard covered in tin foil) to ensure that air entered the box & rose at the right hand end of the box (by the thermostat probe). This has cured the problem & the skis are an even temperature down their full length meaning that the air is circulating well so I've now repalced the cardboard with a sheet of galvanised steel (not shown in the above pic).
- The fan & heater element is housed is an outer casing at the left hand end of the box. The fan motor protrudes through the base of both the casing & the box for cooling. The outer casing is made from sheet metal but it could be easliy fabricated from plywood or mdf.
- The power switch & thermostat/control unit are housed outside of the box with the thermostat probe mounted in the right hand top corner of the box.
- The control unit is wired so that when the required temperature is reached the heater element is turned off but the fan remains swithed on to keep the air circulating. The control unit has been set so that the heater kicks in again if the internal temp drops by 5C.
- The wires used to connect the heater element need to be heat resistant to at least 100C.
- The heater, fan & thermostat/control unit all came from Grainger US as the £ at the time was so strong against the $ then but you can buy from their Swedish distributor.
- Here's the heater element spec & price http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg/productIndex.shtml?from=Search&newSrch=yes&operator=keywordSearch&search_type=itemnum&action=Go%21&QueryString=2E925&submit.x=18&submit.y=8
- Here's the thermostat/control unit spec & price http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/items/3ZP77
- Here's the fan spec & price http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg/productIndex.shtml?from=Search&newSrch=yes&operator=keywordSearch&search_type=itemnum&action=Go%21&QueryString=1TDP7&submit.x=17&submit.y=6 Note that this is the 110v model. You want the exact same spec but in the 240v version but I couldn't find it on Grainger's US website.
Hope this helps.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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spyderjon,
Thanks a big help with all that info on your hot box and the web sites it's set me thinking somemore
CEM you may be wright the thermostat/control is the tuff one
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| Glen Charman wrote: |
spyderjon,
Thanks a big help with all that info on your hot box and the web sites it's set me thinking somemore
CEM you may be wright the thermostat/control is the tuff one |
Have a look at CPC - www.cpc.co.uk - for thermostat. 0-90C, accurate to about 4degC, runs 3KW+. Costs £14.50 delivered! Prod code HG00265, variety of othrs available.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Very impressed with the level of detail on this topic. However, this made me wonder, can't I just buy one with warranty for around £1000? I tried to find some online but no luck 
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There used to be an alpine skiing training camp down the road from me... ran by an English chap...
He used to get his trainers from accross Europe and was never really there to manage the base...
One season he had a massive heting bill as the trainers had been using the sauna as a hot-box!
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You know it makes sense.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Poster: A snowHead
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spyderjon, I love it that you do this so well. XX
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