replace the fan assembly on Earthstove BV4000C

I recently bought a cabin with this stove. It fires up beautifully and gets incredibly hot. The fan was quite noisy so I just unplugged it and used it without the fan for a few weekends, but now when I plug it in, the fan motor just quietly hums and doesnt work any more.

I'd like to fix it. should I buy the entire blower assembly for about $200+ or would it be just one part.

I've only been able to find one place that sells parts: woodheatstoves.com (sorry not trying to advertise for anyone)
they seem to sell individual parts or the entire assembly as a unit.

any advice for a pretty handy guy? I'm not affraid to take this thing apart as long as I dont require any special tools?

thanks!
Mike.

I have the same manual. it said that Grainger sells metal fan blades which seems like a better idea. the grainger blades say they are 200 cfm vs 125 cfm that the manual says each fan moves. not sure if that would make them more or less noisy. I will likely replace the blades with metal regardless because I dont want to always have to run the fan going forward.

yes Dave, I have the parts list. I'm going to try to take it apart this weekend, and hopefully have a better idea of what parts I need. I'll try your suggestion and connect it to the power source to see if it needs a new motor.
I'll be in touch when I figure that stuff out.

ok, I took it apart this weekend and sure enough the plastic fan blades were melted and restricting the blades from spinning. Once I took the blades off, the motors worked like a charm, as did the rocker switch and the speed dial. The Fan Disc had started to dissintegrate and broke apart when I pulled on the wires a little to take the fan assemply off. It looks like it should be pretty easy to replace just that part.

I've ordered the metal replacement blades from Grainger (hopefully they will fit).

I was thinking about trying to dampen the vibration from the fan assembly with some heat resistant silicone o-rings where the fan assembly attaches to the stove.
The silicone material I found is good to 400 degrees. I can't imagine it gets that hot in the area where the motor, wiring harness, switches etc are housed?
I've read a lot of people complain about the sound level of the blower fans on all stoves. I'll let you know if this helps.

This is the stuff. I'm going to cut out small rubber gaskets/washers out of it.
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg/productIndex.shtml?from=Search&newSrch=yes&operator=keywordSearch&search_type=keyword&action=Go!&QueryString=1mwy8&submit;.x=25&submit;.y=10

Do you think this is a bad idea?

Absolutely! I think the metal fan might produce a little more wirrring sound than the plastic did. it has many small fins vs. the fewer larger plastic fins, but I think it is crazy to have plastic fins on a wood stove! if I keep the fan at about 50% I can barely hear it.
I didnt end up using that silicone sheet material for the gaskets. Instead I just got a tube of RTV silicone per Dave Gault suggestion and applied it as a rubber gasket where the fan is attached to the metal housing bracket and again where the bracket attaches to the stove itself.

I get absolutely no noise except from the air movement. Keep it at 50% and it moves a lot of air with no noise.

I'm not used to that much heat coming out of the stove. It heated up the handle to the catalytic damper so much I nearly singed my hand the first time I tried to add wood.

I used to hate the fan, but now I love it! it probably doubled or tripled the heat I feel in the room.

Here it is right out of the history of my Grainger account.
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/items/2C953

good luck.

p.s. my BV4000C is pre 1990. I think some parts might be different for stoves mfr'd post 1990.