My dad e-mailed me yesterday and told me he had purchased a blower for our Endeavor. He said if it performed well, he would probably add one to his mother's Liberty for the next heating season (if not this one). I keep telling him he'd be closer to retirement if he'd just get his two kids off his payroll, but he always does stuff like this for his family. :lol: I installed it yesterday afternoon, as the stove had cooled during the day due to our January warm up!
In any event, I have to say I'm surprised at how much the blower improves the movement of the convection air, even on the low setting. I know that these "jacketed" stoves of today are primarily convection heaters, so it's nice to be able to move that heat a little more effectively. I will say that I find it a bit frustrating that you "need" a rather expensive and glorified fan added to the stove to get the most out of its natural convection design, but that's life. If you want more radiant heat, you have to give up those close CTCs that are often a big selling point today. 4.25" rear CTC on the Endeavor with double wall is a far cry from, for example, 36" on an older, non-UL listed beast.
With that said, I loaded her up last night around 9PM with my usual overnight load: about 9-10 small to medium sized red oak and white oak splits loaded N/S. The blower did keep the cruising range around 600F rather than the initial 650-675F I would normally get with a full, fresh load. I woke up at 5am as usual, and when I raked the coals forward I had my typical 2"-3" bed. I was concerned that the lower surface temp and the additional air movement would combine to reduce the burn time and my coal bed. Last night was in the lower 20s, so it was definitely milder than we've been having (lower to mid teens). So I can't say for sure if the blower would have made any difference in the coal bed/burn time at, say, 14F overnight.
Noise: you know it is running. If you have nothing else on in the room, you definitely know it's there. It is louder than I expected on the low setting, but I don't mind a little "white noise" in a room. In fact, I have to sleep with a small fan on or I wake up for every little pop and creak. The kids had the TV on most of the night, and the TV easily drowned out the blower, but the TV didn't have to be ramped up to be heard so that was a plus.
I will have to wait for another cold snap to make a better "apples to apples" comparison to how effectively it works during a real cold snap, but I'm in no hurry to have another one. When we do, however, I will report back.
One final thought for those with a Lopi blower: in the pics on Lopi's site and in the pics on the diagram, the 3 blower fans are clearly on the front of the unit. Mine are on the bottom. Have they changed the design? Are the pics wrong? Or is mine just some freak that was assembled bassackwards somehow?
In any event, I have to say I'm surprised at how much the blower improves the movement of the convection air, even on the low setting. I know that these "jacketed" stoves of today are primarily convection heaters, so it's nice to be able to move that heat a little more effectively. I will say that I find it a bit frustrating that you "need" a rather expensive and glorified fan added to the stove to get the most out of its natural convection design, but that's life. If you want more radiant heat, you have to give up those close CTCs that are often a big selling point today. 4.25" rear CTC on the Endeavor with double wall is a far cry from, for example, 36" on an older, non-UL listed beast.
With that said, I loaded her up last night around 9PM with my usual overnight load: about 9-10 small to medium sized red oak and white oak splits loaded N/S. The blower did keep the cruising range around 600F rather than the initial 650-675F I would normally get with a full, fresh load. I woke up at 5am as usual, and when I raked the coals forward I had my typical 2"-3" bed. I was concerned that the lower surface temp and the additional air movement would combine to reduce the burn time and my coal bed. Last night was in the lower 20s, so it was definitely milder than we've been having (lower to mid teens). So I can't say for sure if the blower would have made any difference in the coal bed/burn time at, say, 14F overnight.
Noise: you know it is running. If you have nothing else on in the room, you definitely know it's there. It is louder than I expected on the low setting, but I don't mind a little "white noise" in a room. In fact, I have to sleep with a small fan on or I wake up for every little pop and creak. The kids had the TV on most of the night, and the TV easily drowned out the blower, but the TV didn't have to be ramped up to be heard so that was a plus.
I will have to wait for another cold snap to make a better "apples to apples" comparison to how effectively it works during a real cold snap, but I'm in no hurry to have another one. When we do, however, I will report back.
One final thought for those with a Lopi blower: in the pics on Lopi's site and in the pics on the diagram, the 3 blower fans are clearly on the front of the unit. Mine are on the bottom. Have they changed the design? Are the pics wrong? Or is mine just some freak that was assembled bassackwards somehow?
