Blower vs. fan?

mattmania · Dec 3, 2015

So, I have a question to pose. I am thinking about putting a blower on my Englander/Summer's Heat 13 wood stove. The thing is that a neighbor with a similiar stove told me that instead of putting a blower, he placed a small mini fan (5 inch) in the upper corner of the door frame of a door entering the room he has the stove it, blowing outwards towards the other rooms. He said it worked well.

I am now leaning towards his idea, for the following reasons. If you have your stove located in a central location in the house, and positioning is perfect, I understand that a blower would certainly be a good choice. I have one story to heat, in a partitioned two story house. My situation is that I have the stove in the living room, which is located on one side of the house...certainly not in the center by any means. The living room is hot as heck...but the bathroom, for instance, is cold. I need to move heat not simply outward from the stove in all directions (like I would imagine the blower would do), but through the exit of the living room, into the kitchen, other rooms, etc... I also have a door which faces all these other rooms for the most part. So my question is, in this case, what do you guys think is the best setup?

Ashful · Dec 3, 2015

There are as many possible solutions to this problem as there are owners of woodstoves, but the most oft-cited solution is to place a small fan on the floor in the coldest area(s), pointed toward the stove or toward doorway into the stove room. Simply put, it's much easier to move dense cool air along an uninterrupted floor, than to force less dense warm air along a ceiling plane interrupted by multiple door transoms. The cool air pushed into the stove room will displace warm air back out, and set up a nice convective loop. More folks here have found this solution to work best, than any other method.

Squisher · Dec 3, 2015

I have read this many times here, push the cold air towards the heat. For myself I've never done this and feel that in my drafty shack that if I put a fan off in the end of the coldest hallway that in just bringing more cold air into the house. For me I use a small fan near my stove pointing upwards to the ceiling above the stove set on low. I find that this bit of movement is enough to encourage that hot air to get moving around. Then if it's really cold I'll put another small fan at the bottom of the basement stairs pointing up. The fans definetly make a huge difference in how much heat makes it upstairs and I can use them to regulate my living room temp a bit (which is at the top of the basement stairs). Stove is in the basement.

This is just what works for me. I too am considering getting the optional blower kit for my stove as my old stove had one and I found it effective for pumping out heat. When I bought the new stove the retailer wouldn't sell me the fan kit with the stove, he insisted I try it without first and then if I still wanted it he'd sell it to me then. He straight up told me to use a small fan first if I thought I needed it instead of the relatively expensive in comparison blower kit.

realstihl · Dec 3, 2015

I'd try a fan blowing toward the stove on slow speed. Most blowers are noisy and tend to vibrate after a while. Fans move more air and are usually much quieter.

Huntindog1 · Dec 3, 2015

Blow the cooler air at floor level from the a far away cooler area of the house like a hall way , blow that cooler air towards warmer stove room on a low setting. Hot air will flow up at ceiling height back to replace the cooler floor level air . A small fan at floor level will move only the cooler floor level air.
Tape a piece of toilet paper at the top of a door way in case you need it , no just joking ;lol

, but you will see the light weight toliet paper move showing the warm air coming back.

mattmania · Dec 3, 2015

Huntindog1 said:
Blow the cooler air at floor level from the a far away cooler area of the house like a hall way , blow that cooler air towards warmer stove room on a low setting. Hot air will flow up at ceiling height back to replace the cooler floor level air . A small fan at floor level will move only the cooler floor level air.
Tape a piece of toilet paper at the top of a door way in case you need it , no just joking , but you will see the light weight toliet paper move showing the warm air coming back.

I am guessing that a small fan would work...like a 6 inch fan or something like that?

LocustBurner · Dec 4, 2015

We began using one of thee this year.
It works great.

http://www.amazon.com/EcoHeat-Fan-H...TF8&qid=1449219300&sr=8-2&keywords=ecofan+810

Many, many positive reviews on these fans.

Beer Belly · Dec 4, 2015

We have a Blower on our Insert which helps move the warm air.....yeah, it's noisy, but after a while, you get used to it. We also in the past used a small 6 inch fan on the floor, along with the Blower, really worked great.....our fan bit the dust, and we tried a 12 inch fan, it seemed not to work as well as the smaller fan so at this time, we are just using the Blower on the stove, and in our situation works fine.....Split Level Ranch (1,700 sq. ft) Woodstove opposite side of living room from 6 stairs leading to the bedrooms.....sitting on those stairs, you can feel the cold air hitting your back...BRRRR !!

firefighterjake · Dec 4, 2015

Desk-top fan placed on the floor in the room or space adjacent to the room with the stove and pointed towards the stove: cheaper than a blower, EcoFan or those doorway fans . . . and more importantly -- it works!

Haven · Dec 4, 2015

Huntindog1 said:
Tape a piece of toilet paper at the top of a door way in case you need it , no just joking , but you will see the light weight toliet paper move showing the warm air coming back.

That's how I found the best placement for my floor fan. Could not believe the difference in watching that TP flap around!

Huntindog1 · Dec 4, 2015

6" to 9" fan like this:

LocustBurner · Dec 4, 2015

firefighterjake said:
Its cheaper than a blower, EcoFan or those doorway fans . . . and more importantly -- it works!

Eco Fans are reliable and do not use any electricity at all.
They are the cheapest "to operate."

mattmania · Dec 5, 2015

I definitely want a fan that doesn't use too much power. I also am liking the idea of that fan which Locust brought up, although it is a little expensive. Does that fan just sit on top of the stove? Or is there a cable?

But I have another idea, which hadn't been brought up yet. I am thinking of getting a DC fan which I can run on a deep cycle battery, which I can power via two smaller solar panels I already own. The cheapest DC fan I can get would be a computer fan...under 20 bucks. Max size is between 4.5 and 6 inches, depending which model I get, which should be adequate.

Woody Stover · Dec 5, 2015

mattmania said:
cheapest DC fan I can get would be a computer fan

That idea occurred to me; They are small, quiet, and some of them can move quite a bit of air. Just have to figure out a way to mount it out of the way...

firefighterjake · Dec 5, 2015

LocustBurner said:
Eco Fans are reliable and do not use any electricity at all.
They are the cheapest "to operate."

True . . . but not the cheapest to purchase and folks here report mixed results with them. Some folks love 'em and say they can move some heat around, others say it is more of a unique novelty that doesn't move a whole lot of heat, but does have one good benefit of letting them know how the fire is doing based on the speed of the fan. Experiences vary.

vanubee · Dec 5, 2015

Good question. What about a ceiling fan in the same room as the stove? ...or is that a faux pas?

Mr4btTahoe · Dec 6, 2015

I use both.... Blower on the stove which is speed controlled via thermostat... Typically with the stove cruising, the blower runs on low. I then have a box fan in the doorway blowing toward the stove which made a huge difference in spreading the heat to the rest of the house. The blower did a good job by itself with the stove room and kitchen... But the box fan at the doorway warmed all the other rooms.

I have a ceiling fan in the stove room and it doesn't help compared to the box fan.

Ashful · Dec 6, 2015

I've never seen a box fan that isn't noisy, too fast, and too ugly for this application.

Mr4btTahoe · Dec 6, 2015

Ashful said:
I've never seen a box fan that isn't noisy, too fast, and too ugly for this application.

It is exactly that... Lol

I just got it because I needed something and its what the store had on hand... That and I didn't feel like driving into town.

With the fan on low on one side of the doorway (which is 6' wide), I can stand on the other side of the doorway and feel a warm breeze coming out of the stove room.

I really wouldn't mind going with a smaller fan but I was worried that it would be too small as the stove room is my living room which is appropriately 30x30. If smaller will work better, I'll find a smaller quieter, less ugly fan asap. Lol

Blower vs. fan?

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