adjustment of insert fan?

[stockdoct]

I had a "Great Grate" ( a heat blowing heating grate that fits inside the fireplace) in my old fireplace, so I'm familiar with temperature-adjusted fans.

My Great Grate fan would kick on at about 300 degrees in the fireplace, and would continue moving air as the fire died down until it reached almost room temperature ..... about 100 degrees.

My new fireplace insert, the Lopi Freedom, has a fan that kicks on variably anywhere from 350 degrees up to 400 degrees (you burn a lot of wood getting your fire up to 400 degrees), I run the stove around 500-600, and when the temp drops to 300 the fan goes off, which I feel wastes a lot of heat going up the chimney that I could use to heat the house. The coaling stage may last hours of heat from 100-300 degrees

Is there anyway to adjust the thermostat to kick on earlier and continue blowing until later in the cycle? (I'd love to ask this to a Lopi rep, but there's no "ask the Lopi rep" on their website"

Any ideas?

 

[begreen]

The negative of running the fan when the firebox is cooler is that the fan will cool the firebox even more. That said, often this is a matter of adjusting the proximity of the heat snap switch (thermodisk) a little closer to the heat, aka stove body.

 

[North of 60]

300F is the top edge of maintaining a clean burn. Below that you should be saving that heat for the stove. Unless your running a CAT. My angle and 2 cents.

 

[TKeller]

I have just gotten the freedom insert. I think it will be a great stove. What I can say after 3 fires is it will put out more heat for the same amount of wood as did my old 1983 country flame. Anyway, my fan comes on pretty quick. From a cold start it is about 15 or twenty minutes. The dealer said about 110 on and 90 off. The snap disk is located on the backside of the fan assemble just above the air control lever. The dealer said when you mount the fan with the two screws push the fan all the way up under the bottom lip. And make sure it is screwed all the way in so the disk is making contact, I assume, with the actual steel of the stove. I guess that means the steel has to get hot before it comes on and not a measure of the air itself.

 

[stockdoct]

That certainly could be why my fan starts slowly and cuts off soon, too. Do you have a stove thermometer on your Freedom? Have you checked what temperature it kicks on and off? Mine is variable --- I've made about 4 fires so far, and the fan start temp is whn the top steel is 330 - 410 degrees, which occurs about 25-35 minutes after lighting. The fan is always off in the morning since my crap-wood will never make it through a full night burn, but the one time I was able to hear the fan go off, the steel was at 300 degrees. If you truly have lower temps than that, I'll call the installer and ask about how tightly the fan was installed against the steel.
Thanks!

P.S. On the topic of "cleaner burn" ...... I'm new to this game, but I can't believe that coals glowing at 300 degrees with the fan off and slowly decreasing to room temperature over 4 hours, really is a cleaner burn than coals glowing at 300 degrees with the fan on and the temp quickly decreasing over 1 hour (because the fan is pulling heat from the stove) to room temperature. All I know is for that for those 1-3 hours with the fan off, my insert isn't giving much heat to the house. Unlike a stove, the insert is so much more dependent on the fan to deliver heat. Does that make sense?

 

[TKeller]

I can only generalize at this point. Everything seems normal. I do not have a thermometer nor have I been around the couple of times the stove has gone out. This stove seems comparable to the other stove as far as when the fan comes on. Yes mine is a variable speed also and I keep it at about 3/4 open. This stove really puts out some heat. I am using cherry and locust right now and it hasn't been too cold outside but man it can get the house warm in a hurry. I am working the controls alot trying to extend my burntimes and run the stove with less air but not to the point of creating soot on the glass etc. The firebox is smaller than my old stove and I have learned you better put on a leather glove as I have burned myself twice already. You don't have as much room to place the logs etc. Definitely, a learning process. I put in a six inch insulated liner which hopefully will help on the creosote problems I had before as the flue I assume will stay hotter. Overall, I am real excited and glad I made the change even though it was an expensive one. Tony

 

[stockdoct]

Interesting

Early this morning I started my Freedom aggressively with lots of kindling, getting the temp up quickly --- but the stove hit over 500 degrees before the fan came on, it was the same 25 minutes after starting the fire as when I burned more slowly. But on cooling I did the opposite, keeping the fan on low (about 25%) and it stayed on long after I expected; the fan only clicked off after the insert had cooled to 220 degrees, more than an hour after where it shut off when I had the blower set higher.

If you want to avoid wasting wood-heat up the chimney, it may make sense to "easy does it" on starting and finishing a fire; i.e, don't waste kindling by trying to get the temp up too quickly cuz it doesn't help turn on the blower any quicker, and keep the blower low when you plan on shutting the fire down to get the most heat possible from the insert.



40 degrees with the sun shining in Illinois, no need for wood burning today.....