Running blowers on stove or not?

[Battleaxe]

My stove came with a blower but I didn't install it. I needed it to fit further back into a fireplace opening than it could've with the fan installed. I blow a table fan towards one side and it blows hot air out the other side of the fireplace. I usually get the stove to at least 500 before I kick the fan on. It seems once the fan is running the stove doesn't get much hotter. Once the stove it hot it definitely puts more heat into the house with the fan running.

 

[HotCoals]

I can understand how it would benefit a insert greatly.

 

[WoodpileOCD]

I always run my blowers at night because I want as much heat as possible coming off the stove and being forced out of the stove room. When I'm around the stove and in and out, it depends on the temps in the house. I can definitely heat the room/house up more with the blowers on but sometimes the noise gets a bit much. Most of the time, its like white noise that I don't even hear after awhile but other times it is annoying.

As far as the burn goes, I can't tell any difference in times at all. I enjoy the stove more without it when I'm in the room but it is not as efficient I'm convinced.

Yep..
Some guys claim they have better luck when wanting to move hot air around by putting fans in the bottom of a doorway and blowing cooler air into the stove room..and just leave their stove fans off.
If you really want to look goofy hang 2ft. strips of toilet paper all over the house (mostly in doorways)and watch how much they move with fans on or off and by using ceiling fans,box fans.

I have a fan in the hallway blowing into the stove room AND toilet paper strips (just a couple inches long not 2') hanging from the doorways.. Pretty goofy is right.

After I posted this evening on this topic, I had to turn my stove fan on because my CAT probe kept wanting to bump into the 1800-2000 range which isn't good for it according to Condar. This was with everything shut completely down so other than opening the damper and bypassing the CAT, it is the only way to keep the CAT temps down. This has happened a couple of times but it usually runs up to the 1500 area and holds there. Not sure why it went so high tonight but thats for another thread I guess.

 

[SolarAndWood]

Last night was the first time running the blowers on my stove all night.Don't like paying utility companies anymore than I have to.My observation was this,I ran the blowers on low about 12 hours with a 90% full load couldn't get 100% due to the odd sized pieces I was burning.My house was 76 when I turned them on and 75 about 12 hours later,stovetop was in low 300's and the cat was just inside the active zone.What are the advantages or disadvantages to running or not running the blowers and how does it affect the stoves burning performance. I have only run the blower previously for quick warmups ,no more than an hour.

I find that with the blowers on with the tstat at any given setting, I go through the load in about 2/3 the time as at that same setting without the blowers on. If you want more heat out of your King, use the blowers especially as you turn the tstat up as described in the manual. My guess is that if you don't turn the blowers on with the tstat on a higher setting, there isn't enough steel on the top of the stove to adequately transfer the heat and you are likely heating the great outdoors.