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Wood stove fan

merc_man

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Wondering if the fans that bolt onto the back of stoves really help or not.

Also has anyone ever tried building a fan instead of buying one. There about 100 - 150 here. If so could ya post some pics.

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Magic_Man

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My stove came with one, it does help move heat, but is really noisy. We choose not to use it and turn the ceiling fan on in the room instead to help move the heat.
 

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Same for me too. I only pop it on when stove is in high burn for a short time. Maybe 15 or 20 minutes at a time periodically. Room gets to be over 90 degrees quickly. (16x25 foot family room.)
I have a LOPI stove insert. Burns really well.
 

Ryan Browne

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Is your stove an insert or free standing? We run a regular round electrical fan behind and above our free standing stove pointing into the living area. Makes a big difference. Cost $15, I think.
 

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Mine is a fireplace insert. Made to lay flat on the brick. Like a square box. Not much to look at but works really well. One can buy a leg kit and make it into a freestanding stove as well.
 

merc_man

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Is your stove an insert or free standing? We run a regular round electrical fan behind and above our free standing stove pointing into the living area. Makes a big difference. Cost $15, I think.
Mine is free standing. I usually put a small oscillating fan (not set to oscillate) in corner which blows by the stove. Also a ceiling fan.

Was just thinking I could eliminate that fan in corner but if stove fans are that noisy mabe I will not bother.

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Ryan Browne

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Mine is free standing. I usually put a small oscillating fan (not set to oscillate) in corner which blows by the stove. Also a ceiling fan.

Was just thinking I could eliminate that fan in corner but if stove fans are that noisy mabe I will not bother.

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I'm no expert, and my experience with the built in fans is limited to inserts, which pretty much require their use. The ones I have spent any time with are usually noisy. That's probably because they're in need of repair, which of course is difficult because they're part of an insert.

However, since your stove is freestanding, you could probably build something yourself for pretty cheap. If you wanted to go about it, I'd look at fans designed for cooling computer CPUs. I bet there's some pretty cheap options out there. You'd need to convert the power to DC, which would be pretty easy by hijacking a power supply from an old desktop computer. Maybe there's something there, maybe not, but that's where I'd start.
 

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The fans attached to the stove are close to the floor and attract dust and stuff, so they need to be kept clean. They are not much noisier than any other fans.
I just blow them out with air a few times a year. No issues. But they are not really needed if you have the right type of stove.
 

Wood Doctor

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My stove has a blower with two speeds and I generally only run it on the slower speed. It also has a thermostat switch so that the blower comes on only when the stove is hot and turns off when the stove cools down. Nice feature.

The stove is a Federal Airtight 288. The blower draws in air from the room at the bottom and sends it out through twin ports at the top. It seems to work OK.
 
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Wood Doctor

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The fans attached to the stove are close to the floor and attract dust and stuff, so they need to be kept clean. They are not much noisier than any other fans.
I just blow them out with air a few times a year. No issues. But they are not really needed if you have the right type of stove.
Agreed 100%. In addition, the bearings on these blower motors will "freeze" up due to lack of lubrication. Every two years I have to remove mine from the stove, take it to my shop, and add lightweight machine oil to the bearings. That works. Sometimes I do this while the chimney cleaner scrapes the chimney.

The motor never burns out when the bearings freeze up, so somehow the designers knew to use a motor that draws very little current at zero RPM.
 

Wood Doctor

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These fans run generate their own electricity to turn from the heat of the stove. You only need to sit the base or attach it to a hot surface.

http://woodfireliving.com/product/w...irculation-with-no-batteries-powered-by-heat/
I should never have shown this post to LOML. She ordered one for me for Valentines Day rather than a big box of candy or a bottle of expensive after shave lotion. I have it running and it works.

I give it an 8 on a 10. At about 500 RPM top end, it has very little convection power, but it demands none and makes practically no noise. It takes about 20 minutes for it to get going full blast from a fresh fire start, and it always shuts down to let me know when it's time to add more logs. I doubt it will save on logs, but time will tell. The stove's original blower is about three times as strong. I would say buy only if you have some spare cash lying around, need a conversation piece, and don't already have a blower.

Psssttt... Please don't let LOML read the above paragraph. Thanks.
 

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I should never have shown this post to LOML. She ordered one for me for Valentines Day rather than a big box of candy or a bottle of expensive after shave lotion. I have it running and it works.

I give it an 8 on a 10. At about 500 RPM top end, it has very little convection power, but it demands none and makes practically no noise. It takes about 20 minutes for it to get going full blast from a fresh fire start, and it always shuts down to let me know when it's time to add more logs. I doubt it will save on logs, but time will tell. The stove's original blower is about three times as strong. I would say buy only if you have some spare cash lying around, need a conversation piece, and don't already have a blower.

Psssttt... Please don't let LOML read the above paragraph. Thanks.

What do you expect out of one Peltier chip?

For fun you can create more of a temperature difference between hot and cold sides to see if you get more RPM. Like putting an ice cube on the cooling fins (top) or heating the bottom with a torch.
 

Wood Doctor

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What do you expect out of one Peltier chip?

For fun you can create more of a temperature difference between hot and cold sides to see if you get more RPM. Like putting an ice cube on the cooling fins (top) or heating the bottom with a torch.
I doubt that's worth trying because the top of this stove gets really hot. I can cook breakfast on it with a cast iron skillet. Water boils like mad in the tea pot. So, I conclude that this fan is maxed out on RPM.

It's a great conversation piece. Everybody who has seen it for the first time asks me where I plug it in. They can't find the power cord. And, of course, Lady, my dog of 14 years or so has accepted it. That's very important.
 
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Cigmaker

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I use a small fan to blow cold air into my stove room from the hall. Cold air being more dense is easier to move and creates a nice convection loop. As far as fans on the stove I can run my draft open more with the fans on. The fans strip heat off the stove so this allows me to run it hotter. One thing to mention my stove is a newer epa unit and I don't have to worry about it running away.
 

Wood Doctor

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Here are my latest calculations on the payback for these Ecofans that sit on the stove and rotate using only the stove's heat. My blower costs about 7 cents a day if it runs on electricity most of the day.

The Ecofan costs about $70. So, it has to run 1000 days to save enough electricity to pay for itself. That's about 5 years in my neck of the woods, 200 days of running per year. The motor is only warranted for two years, so if you are lucky, two motors will last seven years and that bumps the payback time to at least 1500 days of running.

Meanwhile, as the Ecofan is running, I usually turn off the blower completely. That's OK because the Ecofan works about as well as the blower. Nice little invention, but don't expect to save a bundle using it.
 

Bob95065

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We have an Avalon Rainier free standing stove that I installed in our living room. It has options for either a rear mounted or front mounted fan. I went with the rear mounted fan because I had the front mounted fan in our last house and it rattled like crazy.

I wouldn't have this stove without the fan. The heat output is significantly greater when the fan is on. We tried it both ways and it heats the house noticibly faster with the fan. We rarely run it at full speed because of the noise though.

I picked up a free Lopi Fredom that came with a fan a month ago. It needs lots of work. It's going in the fireplace that's in our family room at the back of the house.
 
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