Heatwave versus Ecofan? Who has one?

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carpniels

carpniels

Minister of Fire
Dec 6, 2005
540
Rome, NY, USA
Hi guys,

To cut my electric bill, I am looking to buy one of those stovetop fans that run on the heat from the stove. I have found one at my local stove shop. It is the Ecofan which seems to work on a bimetalic principle.

I also heard some guys here on this forum talk about a heatwave fan, that is based on a sterling engine principle. www.thermalengines.com

Both cost $150. Before I buy one, I want some input from people that have one.

Please post your positive and negative experiences, so I can make an informed choice.

Carpniels

PS. My wife allowed me to buy the one or the other so I do not want to mess this up.
 
The eco fans can fail if overheated, not shure if the same it true for heatwave. As far as build quality the eco fan looks top notch.
Ryan
 
How will moving a little air a few feet away from the stove save your electric bill? You can stand a few feet away from my stove and feet the heat rolling off - no fan needed. I don't think a rationale argument can be made about saving $150 on your electric bill with this fan. Your better off with a ceiling fan for less than half the cost, or a small floor fan for 1/5 the cost and move cold air into the area being heated by the stove.

I find those fans interesting and worth having if you have the cash to get one. Looks like a fun little curiosity. Maybe it will help blow some hot air on you sitting in a nearby reading chair or something.
 
Don't have onebut...

Ecofan pushes less air, shorter warranty vs. lifetime for heatwave, heatwave stands up to high heat better. etc. If I were to buy one on specs alone it would be the heatwave.
 
We've had an ecofan for a couple years. It did a brief stint on our Jotul 602 which can get prettly hot on top. No problems so far. The 3CB top has gotten as high as 800 with no fan problems. I would say the best features of the ecofan are silence and simplicity. It moves a modest amount of air, we still supplement it with a small muffin fan when the temps get cold outside. It's great in a power failure. The heatwave requires a little maintenance (cleaning and oiling) and I'm not sure how quiet it is. But I love stirling technology and hope you get one, so that we can compare operation notes.

(PS: I doubt you will see a dramatic electrical savings here, unless you are currently using a big room fan.)
 
wahoowad said:
How will moving a little air a few feet away from the stove save your electric bill? You can stand a few feet away from my stove and feet the heat rolling off - no fan needed. I don't think a rationale argument can be made about saving $150 on your electric bill with this fan. Your better off with a ceiling fan for less than half the cost, or a small floor fan for 1/5 the cost and move cold air into the area being heated by the stove.

I find those fans interesting and worth having if you have the cash to get one. Looks like a fun little curiosity. Maybe it will help blow some hot air on you sitting in a nearby reading chair or something.
Click to expand...

You'd be suprised what a steady 150 cfm fan can do for circulation of heat. We've seen this a couple times during power failures. Our Jotul is in the entryway off the kitchen. Before we had the ecofan, the opposite side of the house would be freezing. With the ecofan it is only a couple degrees cooler. Likewise, when the power is on. The pellet stove comes on much more frequently without the ecofan because it's thermostat is in the opposite end of the house. But I agree, we don't have it for the electrical savings, it's for the silent comfort.
 
Just to set the record strait for all you eco fan users, i pulled a box of the shelf and the directions state that there could be damage above 650 degrees. If the bi-metal strip sets the unit 2mm above the stove surface, your in good shape. If its 5mm its to hot. Im shure it will work with hotter temps but why risk ruining a 150 dollar fan. And these specs are for the larger 802 unit, im not shure if its the same on the smaller one.
 
Before I had central heating installed ( off a coal/wood cooker) I bought a Freebreeze fan , I live in the Uk and had this fan delivered from canada , I still use it today more as a novelty than a neccessaty, off my woodburner and it really does work and very well and will often use it " off season" to move the heated air around the house , it looks great too especially when its running on my stanley errigal 50 cooker , most people think I have some sort of steam engine sitting in my kitchen.....


http://www2.cyg.net/~freebreeze/

I remember when I bought mine , the company were fantastic , we dont often get great service and great products in the uk , so to get this shipped from Canada in 3 days from receipt of payment was great( OK it cost me loads in UK Tax but hey lets not talk politics !!) , I looked into eco fan and found a local company stocked them but to be honest even they told me it was not the best thing in the world , but even though the shipping and tax effectively doubled the price of my Freebreeze fan , it will go down in the history of my life as one of the best things I ever bought !!

Regards

Jeff
 
By the way , I got mine direct from the makers of free breeze , and dont know if the site I gave was that and also the free breeze fan, I think, runs at 300 cfm
 
MountainStoveGuy said:
Just to set the record strait for all you eco fan users, i pulled a box of the shelf and the directions state that there could be damage above 650 degrees. If the bi-metal strip sets the unit 2mm above the stove surface, your in good shape. If its 5mm its to hot. Im shure it will work with hotter temps but why risk ruining a 150 dollar fan. And these specs are for the larger 802 unit, im not shure if its the same on the smaller one.
Click to expand...

You're right. Our normal operating temp is about 550 max, but every once and awhile it does get higher. If I notice it, I pull the fan, but sometimes one gets distracted and comes back to see the temp needle starting heading north. Fortunately, in spite of me, Caframo seems to have built a pretty robust little fan.
 
I'v been wondering about these fans myself. The eco fan are a good size for the top of my little stove.
Where most of you are probably wondering if your stoves will get too hot for this fan, I am wondering if my stove gets hot enough for the fan to be effective.
I usually burn my stove between 400 and 500 degrees . But sometimes in the 300 - 350 . I seem to remember reading something about an optimum temp. where the fan function kicks in.
Does anyone know what that temp. is?

The Stirling fan looks cool too, but it looks so big. Would take up my whole stove top.
 
MountainStoveGuy said:
The book says best operation temp is 300-600 degrees
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info.
That's certainly manageable. Now all I need is some money.

I have ceiling fans , and they help.
But it would be great to have something that did not depend on electricty to help distribute the heat.

Maybe off season or next year...
 
I got mine (802) new for 105 on eBay in the summer.
 
Hi guys,

Thanks for all the info. I will also look into the freebreeze.

About the electric bill; I am currently using a Vornado fan to get the heat from my addition (where the stove is) into my dining room. This is connected to the hallway, then living room, then kitchen and then back to the diningroom. I. e. I have a full circle and with this one fan I can get all of them heater fairly well. If I do not run a fan, the heat stays in the addition because the header above the entryway keeps the hot air at the ceiling from going into the dining room.

In my situation, the vornado helps a lot, it keeps the heat in the addition down and heats the rest of the house nicely. The problem is that it is a large fan that eats electricity. I figure I can save 112W for 5 months of the year if I buy a heatwave or similar fan. That saves me (0.112*24*30*5=403.2 Kw @ 15ct is $60 a year). Electricity is REALLY expensive in upstate NY with National Grid running the show.

Thanks

Carpniels

PS. Ideally, I will add a wood fired fireplace insert in the mason chimney in my centrally located livingroom. The fan from the insert will move the air and the whole house will be heated from the center of the house, not an addition. But I have to work with what I have for now and maybe convince my wife we need the extra insert for real whole house comfort.
 
Does the Vornado use full current on low speed? It might be interesting to try that with your multimeter as a check. I would expect it to use much less.
 
Hi Begreen.

that is an interesting questions since I almost always have the vornado on 25% of max capacity. Max is so much air it will blow the paintings of the wall!!!!

I have never tested it. How would you measure that? I do not have a clamp currect meter so that does not work. Do I use my multimeter as part of the circuit and measure the current that way? How do I do that?

Thanks

Carpniels
 
Probably a dumb question, but if you have a stove with battery backup for the blower, and a charger to charge the battery, can you run a 12VDC fan off the battery? I think (operative word THINK) that 12VDC fans use a LOT less electricity than an AC fan. Yes you're still burning electricity to charge the battery, but a lot less.

Just a thought.

Joshua
 
carpniels said:
Hi Begreen.

that is an interesting questions since I almost always have the vornado on 25% of max capacity. Max is so much air it will blow the paintings of the wall!!!!

I have never tested it. How would you measure that? I do not have a clamp currect meter so that does not work. Do I use my multimeter as part of the circuit and measure the current that way? How do I do that?

Thanks

Carpniels
Click to expand...

Yes, you'll need to jerry rig a temporary (but safe - you're not allowed to hurt yourself here) hookup. I keep a plugset that has a plug on one end, prewired and raw stripped wires on the other end. Connect one side of the wire from the plugset to the fan plug by looping the stripped wire through the hole a the plug prong. Tape this up with some electrical tape. Then clip one lead of the meter to the other plugset wire and the other lead gets clipped to the fan's untaped plug prong. That puts the meter in a series loop with the fan. Set the range to amps/ac and the meter must be in series with the fan. If the meter has amperage range settings you'll want to set it to something in a range of the expected current draw. Try 0-5amp range. Make sure everything is secure, not touching any metal and in a totally dry location. Then turn on the meter, plugin the cord and turn on the fan. Run it through it's speeds and record the results.
 

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We have an EcoFan that my parents gave us after we installed our Lopi Freedom. We are very pleased with it. It starts up slowly at about 150 degrees and builds in intensity as your temps go up. The fan will not be damaged by temps up to 700, but go over that and what happens is the fan starts up over 150 afterwards. Yes, personal experience, hubby ran the stove hot one day when I asked him to watch it so I could take a shower.

Love the fact that it is totally silent and really love the fact that it uses no electricity! May not blow you away, but it does move a nice amount of air.
 
HI Begreen,

I see what you mean with your test setup.

That should not be too difficult to do. An old cord from an old electical machine will do fine for this rigging.

I will let you know what I find out.

Carpniels
 
carpniels said:
I am currently using a Vornado fan to get the heat from my addition (where the stove is) into my dining room. This is connected to the hallway, then living room, then kitchen and then back to the diningroom. I. e. I have a full circle and with this one fan I can get all of them heater fairly well. If I do not run a fan, the heat stays in the addition because the header above the entryway keeps the hot air at the ceiling from going into the dining room.
Click to expand...
I have an Ecofan 802 and while it certainly helps move some heated air, I don't think it will move enough to heat all the rooms adjacent to your stove room.

Also I beg to differ on "silent" operation. When it's cranking (stovetop at 500+F) the fan blades will "purr" like the sound of an airplane propeller. Not loud at all mind you but not silent either.

We bought ours for power outages and also use it to save electricity during the warmer months but when it gets cold the steam kettle takes its place and the blower is used.
 
I have had an Eco fan on my intrepid for 4 years now, and I also have had temps over 650*
with-out any damage to the fan --- It doesn't move alot of air, but I thinks it does ok.
$100.00 bucks from ebay (NEW)
 

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