A mobile hot-air cannon wheeled out to protect French vines from frost

ith budburst just around the corner, frost protection resources are being ramped up. The latest invention is a mobile hot-air cannon with a power of 1.8 million watts, designed by Michael Paetzold. “The idea came to me during the frosts of April 2021”, says the company’s namesake president. “While helping friends light candles or set up fans, I realised that most of the resources available today are not entirely effective”.

Based on this observation, the Bordeaux entrepreneur launched a research and development project. “The basic idea was that we needed power to combat frost, the intensity and nature of which we never know beforehand. And we wanted something mobile. For a fixed device to be totally effective, the vineyard would need to be a single, circular block, and there is no such thing. So we put as much as we could fit onto a trailer”.

The result is the new 1.8 million watt hot-air cannon, which can be hitched to a tractor and operated while driving. “It's a circulating air system, with the added benefit of generating heat. In terms of design, the fan and the heat source are very closely linked right from the start. It's a complex machine to design, and some people said it wasn't possible. We had to be very precise about the aeraulics” (the science of gas flow). The cannon runs on oil or biofuel, and uses “about 200 litres per hour at full power”.  It can be used “practically without any time limitation”.

Marketing of the equipment off-plan was launched at the beginning of 2022. “Our customers have put their faith in us. We will deliver the first 15 machines in two to three weeks' time”. The price tag is €130,000, “a price we hope to keep to”, says Paetzold.