adding blower fan to my quadrafire 3100?

[Shaggyant]

I bought a house with a beautiful 1992 model Quadrafire 3100 stove in the living room.

It works great but right now the living room hits 90* plus and the bedrooms barely hit 70*.
That's fine for now but when it gets really cold the difference may get a lot more drastic.

I see that Quadrafire makes a blower attachment for the 3100 by the part # BK-ACC. It looks to bolt onto the back somewhere using three 1/4" existing bolt holes. Well, I've thoroughly looked over the back and bottom of the stove for holes and there are none. Is this something I need to drill? It doesn't mention that online and I don't want to spend $300 on a blower that won't fit my stove.

Anyone have this issue or maybe even a picture of your blower equipped Quadrafire 3100?

 

[begreen]

Moved to the main forum, this is a modern stove. I don't have this stove but hope you will soon connect with someone that does.

What is the floor layout like? Is this a ranch home? If it is often the heat can be evened out by blowing air from the cooler part of the house with a fan placed on the floor in that area or the hallway and pointed toward the stove room. It will blow cool air down low which will be replaced with warm air from the stove room. This can lower the stove room temps and raise the hallway temps nicely.

 

[matt1@]

If it's like the freestanding units there are three screws in the bottom rear that hold the bottom of the rear heat shield on. You remove these screws and the holes in the blower line up using the existing screws. Again, that is how the freestanding units are, I'd imagine those are similar.

 

[matt1@]

Part no. 831-1101

 

[stovelark]

Sounds like this is a fs stove. The blower kit for that vintage 3100 fs is 832-1701. The BK-ACC is the blower kit for the advanced combustion control presently made fs stoves. Matt above is right 831-1101 for the 3100 insert of that period I believe.

 

[Shaggyant]

If it's like the freestanding units there are three screws in the bottom rear that hold the bottom of the rear heat shield on. You remove these screws and the holes in the blower line up using the existing screws. Again, that is how the freestanding units are, I'd imagine those are similar.

Sorry guys, it is indeed a freestanding unit. I just don't see any screw holes in the bottom rear.
The only difference I see between the 832-1701 and the BK-ACC units is that the BK-ACC is the complete kit with the temp switch and the 832-1701 is just the replacement fan part.

I'll see if I can take some photos of the rear of the stove tomorrow to show what I'm talking about.
If someone just had a photo of their blower unit in place I would know if my screw holes are missing or not.

 

[Shaggyant]

Ok here's as good as it gets for a photo in that cramped corner behind the stove. See no holes.

 

[Shaggyant]

Here's a pic of the front if that helps??

 

[matt1@]

Mine has 3 screws just below the label on the rear. Maybe yours is different. Here is a pic the best i could do it's tight back there

 

[Shaggyant]

Mine has 3 screws just below the label on the rear. Maybe yours is different. Here is a pic the best i could do it's tight back there
View attachment 164605

Perfect! Is there a removed section to install the blower? Like this?


If so I don't have a seperate plate that can be removed so I'm out of luck.
If it's only three holes that need drilled I can do that no problem.

 

[matt1@]

Mine i just removed the three screws that were already there and bolted the blower on. You have an early model stove there. I can tell because of the logo on the glass and wood trim on the pedestal, they stopped doing that on the newer models. I do see though that on the top of the stove in the rear it has the curved heat shield which blows the air across the top out in the room. Unfortunately I'm not sure if a blower would work. I can't tell you to modify the stove in any way, that's just bad advise.

 

[begreen]

What is the floor plan like in the house? Open or closed off rooms? 1 or two story?

 

[Shaggyant]

Mine i just removed the three screws that were already there and bolted the blower on. You have an early model stove there. I can tell because of the logo on the glass and wood trim on the pedestal, they stopped doing that on the newer models. I do see though that on the top of the stove in the rear it has the curved heat shield which blows the air across the top out in the room. Unfortunately I'm not sure if a blower would work. I can't tell you to modify the stove in any way, that's just bad advise.

Meh, I'm not scared to drill a couple holes in a heat shield if that's what it takes. It would be nice to see the back of a stove with the holes in it before I start.

 

[Shaggyant]

What is the floor plan like in the house? Open or closed off rooms? 1 or two story?

I haven't figured out the multi-quote from my phone sorry.

It's a 1500 sqft single level rancher with the 3 bedrooms on one end, the living room with the stove in the middle and the kitchen, dining, and laundry rooms on the other end.
Kind of a long rectangle with the stove in the center and a hallway with rooms off of it on one end.

 

[begreen]

We get a lot of folks in ranches complaining about it being cold at the far end down the hallway. Several folks have tried this trick. It's inexpensive and works. Give it a try.
For more even heat in the house put a table or box fan at the far end of the hallway, placed on the floor, pointing toward the woodstove. Run it on low speed. It will blow the cooler air down low, toward the woodstove. The denser cool air will be replaced with lighter warm air from the stove room. Running this way you should notice at least a 5F increase in the hallway temp after about 30 minutes running.

 

[Shaggyant]

We get a lot of folks in ranches complaining about it being cold at the far end down the hallway. Several folks have tried this trick. It's inexpensive and works. Give it a try.
For more even heat in the house put a table or box fan at the far end of the hallway, placed on the floor, pointing toward the woodstove. Run it on low speed. It will blow the cooler air down low, toward the woodstove. The denser cool air will be replaced with lighter warm air from the stove room. Running this way you should notice at least a 5F increase in the hallway temp after about 30 minutes running.

Hmm.... That's a good idea. I'll try it.

I already tried running the circulation fan from the central heat and the results were marginal.

 

[begreen]

If that sort of works but you want more heat in the bedrooms specifically another option is a bit more complicated. It involves running an insulated duct under the floor with the intakes in the far bedroom floor, tied to a duct that blows out into the stove room. A quiet inline remote bath fan works well for this. The cool air will be replaced with warm air from the stove room. This will require that the bedroom doors be normally open or at least have a 1" gap under the door or a grille in the door to allow for air circulation.