GSI Dryer Upgrades

Upgrades. Upgrades. Come get your upgrades. No, you’re not at the ballpark hearing a man call for anyone who wants a hot dog. You are, however, reading about grain handling equipment and upgrades, two things you don’t hear together all that often. Even though equipment like grain dryers can feel stagnant compared to some of the other types of equipment we have, GSI has been chipping away at improvements to make life easier for growers.

GSI Connect

One of the most recent GSI dryer upgrades is their new remote monitoring platform, GSI Connect, for dryers with Vision controls. The new platform is meant to be more user-friendly than WatchDog, which was challenging to navigate at times and provided limited insight into what was happening with your dryer.

GSI Connect is available in two formats: web-based or cellular-based. The web-based option functions similarly to WatchDog where you will visit a website to view information about your dryer. What you see when you visit GSI Connect will look and feel different than WatchDog because there is an updated interface with new capabilities. The cellular-based option is accessible through a mobile app, allowing you to easily adjust temperature set points, fan and load settings, compare grain temperature and moisture stats, and stop the dryer if needed — all from the convenience of your phone.

Another perk to the app format is it can be set to send you text alerts and push notifications, making sure you’re alerted to what’s going on with your dryer when you’re not actively using the app. You can even customize what notifications you do and don’t receive. Before, growers were at risk of going to bed with a dryer running and waking up the next morning to find that their bin wasn’t empty, and the dryer shut off in the middle of the night. Now, this setback can be avoided with the ability to know what’s happening and address the issue in real time.

With this new system, there is also no longer a need for a static IP address from your internet provider. We can all collectively let out a sigh of relief because having to have internet hardwired to a dryer or finding a way to get it to transmit wirelessly was nothing short of a hassle. What was once a deterrent for some is now obsolete. Instead, all operations are managed via the cloud, an internet-based remote data storage service.

GSI Connect is a yearly subscription-based service with an annual fee of $399. A hardware kit is also required to retrofit current vision dryers. Moving forward, the necessary hardware will be available for customers to have installed in new dryers before they leave the factory.

WatchDog will be turned off in 2027, so for current WatchDog users it’s beneficial to get the switch made to GSI Connect now. By doing so, you will ensure there is no lapse in coverage, and you will be able to experience the improved usability sooner.

UV Flame Sensor

Another one of the beneficial GSI dryer upgrades launched in recent years is the UV flame sensor for dryers with Vision controls. GSI portable dryers have a flame probe designed to detect the energy a flame gives off as it burns. The probe sends that energy to the flame sensing board to show there is a flame present and therefore, the gas valves should remain open. What tends to happen is the flame probe fails or the flame isn’t touching the probe, and the flame will extinguish and not relight until the dryer is physically restarted. Luck always has it that this happens in the middle of the night or at a time when you aren’t nearby, slowing down the drying process and wasting precious time.

This issue can be one of the past with the UV flame sensor, designed to replace the flame probe. The sensor uses ultraviolet light to sense the light the flame produces to keep the dryer running. While the sensor is now a standard offering on new GSI grain dryers, older dryers with a flame probe can also be retrofitted.

We installed our first UV flame sensor in 2019 and since then, that dryer has not had a lighting issue or a problem staying lit as a result of a flame probe malfunction. The UV flame sensor is a handy upgrade that can save time when it matters most and keeps your dryer doing what it should — drying.

It’s not all the time that we see new options for dryers to help improve the drying experience. Both GSI Connect and the UV flame sensor are designed to keep your dryer operating smoothly, allowing you to spend more time farming and less time babysitting your dryer. Not to mention, you can go to that baseball game without having to worry about what’s happening back at your bin site.

If you’re interested in GSI dryer upgrades, give us a call .