Why Choose Drymatic Boost Bar?

Many water damage technicians use heaters on a daily basis; typically using them to raise the ambient temperatures in water damaged areas to support equipment such as air-movers and dehumidifiers. These heaters are typically oil-filled radiators, 3kW industrial fan heaters, halogen heaters, or propane based systems. Whilst these systems are all effective and deliver a lot of energy in to the drying chamber, they often lack the refined temperature control that is needed in a water damage restoration project. The problem with this type of technology is that the contractor is trying to make an off the shelf product fit a variety of problems, rather than developing a solution, or solutions, specifically for those problems. Products such as oil-filled radiators are great for heating localized areas in a room, but how do you use them to efficiently heat the materials that are wet?

The Drymatic Boost Bar has been designed by DBK Group specifically for the Water Damage Restoration market. The design and functionality of the device was based on the demands of our restoration customers around the world; we have developed a solution that aims to solve your problems on a day-to-day basis in the field.

So why choose the Boost Bar over other types of heaters?

The most important feature is SAFETY. During the development process DBK has put the product through extensive abuse testing, exposing the heater core to material materials that you would typically find on a building site i.e. plastic sheeting, paper, concrete/cement dust, plaster, etc. The product has been designed to be safe when the unexpected happens; What happens if a piece of paper blows on to the heater? What happens if a child in the property throws a towel on top of the device or turns off the airflow?

The Heater Technology - What is it?

The system uses DBK developed and manufactured Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) heating technology that is designed to be inherently safe; providing self-regulating characteristics that offer an adaptive, and reliable, heating solution despite the unpredictable environment. The use of a PTC heater means that the heating device is a constant temperature device rather than constant power. The benefit of this being that the heater solution, without any additional thermal controls, would self-regulate and prevent the risk of a thermal event. The same heating technology is used in Cash Machines (ATMs), Fuel Dispensers, Medical Devices, and Automotive applications.

Despite the PTC technology providing it's own form of safety protection, the Drymatic Boost Bar is governed by a DBK developed electronic control system that continually evaluates the incoming mains voltage, current draw of the heater, air temperatures, and airflow available from the air mover used. Based on all of these conditions, and the temperature and current limits defined by the technician, the control system will regulate heater power, or even switch off the heater altogether when needed; this could be due to an event such as the airflow being removed by a policy holder. The Boost Bar will then sit idle until the airflow returns. Even in a situation where the electronics freezes or fails, the system is designed to be safe.

The Body - What is it made of?

The system is also manufactured using a rotomoulded polyethylene that is durable and also flame retardant (V-0 Rated). These products are going in to peoples homes and only the highest quality materials have been used to ensure the product is safe and reliable.

The rotomoulded housing means that the system is incredibly robust; check out this link of us trying to kill a Drymatic II system that is made of the same plastic compound.

The custom designed plastic moulding has been developed with logistics in mind and we have included stacking features that allow the units to be interlocked for safe transportation in the back of a vehicle. Space is at a premium in your vehicles and with the Boost Bar you can minimise your logistics costs and maximise the amount of equipment you can deploy on-site.

Drying Performance - How can I use it in my business?

Heating the Ambient Air

Drymatic Boost Bar also provides a huge amount of flexibility for the water damage technician. It can be used as an auxiliary heater to boost room temperatures for condensing dehumidifiers. Quite often, technicians will install dehumidifiers and air movers and not really pay enough attention to the ambient temperature that those devices are operating in; far too many times I have seen a refrigerant unit sat in a 5C ambient, doing nothing but burn up energy as it tries to defrost itself. By simply introducing a Boost Bar into the drying chamber you can add up to 2.2kW of auxiliary heat and raise the temperatures to more appropriate levels (often between 25 and 30C).

Target Drying Surfaces

The Boost Bar has been designed to work with our Wall and Floor Systems; drying tools that deliver pre-conditioned air directly to the surface of the water damaged materials.

Applying the heat directly to the structure is a far more efficient process than simply heating the whole room and waiting for the materials to acclimate with their surrounds; it consumes less energy and takes less time for materials to reach the desired target temperature.

By targeting the materials in this way, you can also employ a Zonal drying process, where different materials, within the same room, are dried at different temperatures in accordance with the manufacturers recommendations. In a single construction you could have a mix of several different materials that all need to be managed in a different way i.e. wood will dry differently to concrete and different temperatures and humidity conditions could be used to maximise performance.

By increasing the surface temperature of the materials, you are adding energy to the structure and increase the vapour pressure of the materials; this results in an increase in Evaporation Potential. Rather than solely focusing on dropping the vapour pressure of the ambient air, technicians can now focus on increasing the vapour pressure of the materials and dropping the vapour pressure of the air.

Target Drying Cavities and Voids

The Drymatic Boost Bar can be used with a 4 x 100mm adaptor to channel pre-conditioned air into difficult to reach spaces, such as ceiling voids, cavity walls, subfloor spaces, and tented drying chambers.

The 4 Port connection can be used with PVC pipe (supplied with the kit) or layflat ducting, making it simple for technicians to set up multiple drying chambers that are heated from a single device.

The Drymatic Boost Bar can be connected to a 12-Port, 38mm adaptor that is great for targeting heat into more difficult to reach areas, such as behind kitchen cabinetry or inside a cavity wall.

The kit is supplied with 30m of wireflex hose and push-fit plastic cuffs that make for quick and easy installation on site, without the need for extra fittings such as jubilee clips or zip ties. Despite the increased back pressure on the heater, the Boost Bar will adjust the heater power and deliver air that has an air-off temperature within the limits defined by the technician.

Further flexibility can be achieved through the use of 38mm to 25mm reducers, these reduce the hole size required in the material and minimise the size of the refinishing task.

All of the above, with control...

Boost Bar provides the user with feedback on the performance of the system at all times.

The 'Home' screen provides useful feedback on 'Air In' and 'Air Out' temperatures, a live power readout, and kWh/Hrs Run.

In the background the user can view graphical displays relating to kWh usage over a rolling 7 day period and also temperature differential (Air In/Out) over the same range.

Within the 'Settings' screen the user can define the maximum air-off limits and also set a Max Current limit; this is particularly useful when you have power limitations on site and need to distribute equipment across different circuits.

Drymatic Boost Bar is one of the most versatile drying tools available in the water damage industry. For more information on the Drymatic Boost Bar, or any of the Drymatic products, please do not hesitate to contact me on:

Telephone: 01443 237 927 or 07970 953 845 (UK)

Email: [email protected]