How often do you clean the fan on your insert?

[NewtownPA]

Just wondering how often you folks with inserts clean the fan. Also, how do you clean it? I'm thinking of buying a can of compressed air and spraying the "dust-bunnies" out.

 

[tkirk22]

My opinion: The fine dust that sticks to fans should not be blown in a house ever. Vacuum it out with a hepa vac and/or blow it outside but be upwind.

 

[jadm]

My first insert was a Napoleon 1101. I knew nothing about inserts. I was told that the blowers never broke down and, that if it did it was easy to replace because it was located on the side of the insert. WRONG
(Less than a year later blower began having problems......store didn't respond. Blower finally broke altogether and I had to hire someone else to come out and replace it. It was not located on the side of the unit. It was located onthe back and whole insert had to be removed to get to it.)

I am having a new insert installed tomorrow and one of the primary features I looked for when I went out shopping was a unit with the blowers mounted on front so I can clean them out as often as I want to. Don't know how often I will do that because I haven't burned yet so don't know how much gunk will accumulate. I'll be curious to see how others answer your question.

What's wrong with using a regular vacuum to clean it out with?

 

[budman]

Once in december than at end of burn season.Takes about 30 min to take out both
fan motors and blow them out with compreser.

 

[realstihl]

I have a blower setup on my wood stove with filters so I don't circulate dust. Works really good and keeps motors from getting so dirty. I clean filter two times per year.

 

[WarmGuy]

I clean the squirrel cage fan with toothbrush and vacuum about once per year.

 

[RedRanger]

I clean mine every other week. It is front mounted on the bottom of my insert. Just unplug and lift off and take it outside and shake it out sometimes using the cordless leaf blower to give it a more thorough cleaning.

This one seems to get actual little chunks of crap in it. Anyone else with front-bottom mounted blower get debris in there that rattles around to let you know it`s time for a cleaning? One thing for sure is that when I replace my insert,the access to get at the blower and ease of cleaning is going to be a major factor in determining my purchase.

 

[granpajohn]

The Quad 4100i fan is front mounted and very easy to remove. I use a shop-vac around it whenever there seems to be wood chips or bark, or anything that could get sucked in and damage a fan. I'm over cautious because my old tube heater fans were not easy to repair, and I think this is the sort of thing that broke them. (That's a long story for another day though.)

 

[jadm]

Did the filters come with the blower or is this something you created? Please give more detail. I would love to cut down on the dust that gets circulated too but my new insert doesn't have filters.

I have a blower setup on my wood stove with filters so I don't circulate dust. Works really good and keeps motors from getting so dirty. I clean filter two times per year.

 

[NewtownPA]

I like the leaf blower idea.

Actually I saw some Mexicans blowing snow with leaf blowers the other day. I think that's a good idea too.

Geesh I gotta start thinking about the equipment that I DO have more often!