Blower for Morso 2110

[evan]

Hi Folks,

I've been reading this forum for a little while trying learning a bunch on heating with a wood stove. This week we had Morso 2110 installed into our fireplace. Couldn't do an insert because of the fireplace itself. We are getting okay heat but I think that is because we are heating the entire chimney. The company that installed it is coming back next week to install a plate to block off the chimney at the stove end (except the new liner) so that should help divert the heat into the house.

One question that I have is if anyone has a recommendation for a blower we could put in the fireplace or attach to the stove to move air. The fireplace box itself is very warm and we'd like to move air out of it into the room. I've found this website:

http://www.electricmotorwarehouse.com/fireplace.htm

That has a few blowers that look like they might attach to the bottom of the stove or maybe free standing. However, I'm looking for something that really is a freestanding blower to help move the air. BTW, we cannot put anything on top of the stove because of lack of space.

Thanks in advance as well as thanks for all the posts I've read to help us learn about how to deal with a wood stove.

Evan

 

[Gooserider]

The blockoff plate will really help. If you can, shove some rock wool insulation on top of it when you put it in (If you had any left over liner insulation this is a good use for it)

As to the blower, pretty much anything that fits is OK in a situation like you have. Probably worth trying to get one with an adjustable speed so that you can experiment and find the best balance between extracting heat and not generating a cooling breeze or making to much noise.

Gooserider

 

[evan]

Well...the company finally came back out today and installed the blockoff plate on the stove end with a different installer. While the guy was here, I asked him to check the liner and chimney cap since it looked like the liner went too high above the chimney and almost touching the cap. He checked it out alright and told me that there was no plate at the top and the liner was too close to the cap which restricted air flow. He had to rework the entire top part of the job. In other words...we had no plates which resulted in a full draft through the chimney and restricted airflow because the liner was too close to the cap. No wonder we were getting little heat.

I've started a fire this evening and and we'll see how we do. Thanks again to this website I had the knowledge to ask certain questions and require specific things for the install.

Evan

 

[BrotherBart]

Darn glad they sent a different guy this time. Hit us with some pictures of the stove and fireplace and maybe we can come up with some fan suggestions.

 

[evan]

Here is a picture of the stove. We've removed the mantle because it was wood. We are looking at replacing it with a non-combustible material (maybe blue stone). But at least the stove is in and I'm happy to say the stove raised the temperature by at least 10 deg. in the family room. We've got a pellet stove in the living room at the other end of the house and now I'm feeling good with being able to count on these two stoves for the majority of our heating.

What would make this even better is if anyone can help with a suggestion on a blower or fan for this stove. I've found a place that sells replacement fans for pellet/wood stoves. It wouldn't take much to find a sheet metal shop and have them fabricate a case for the fan but I'd rather get something that is already a finished product.

I was hoping for a fan that would sit in the back of the fireplace box and pull air into the box from under the stove and then blow the air up behind the stove. The air would then circulate and come out over and around the stove. I don't have a thermometer yet but a gentle air flow as described should work. Maybe there is a product that really doesn't exist but might have a market..."necessity is the mother of invention".

Thanks for any and all suggestions!

Evan

 

[begreen]

With the stove entirely in the fireplace, I don't think you have to worry about the mantle. You have a full brick heat shield in place.

The fan is a bit trickier. Wish you had a stove with a built in blower system, that would have been easy.

 

[precaud]

Are you using the top or rear flue outlet on the 2110? In the photo it looks like the top. If you used the rear outlet, the stove would come forward and you would get a LOT more radiation into the room. Plus, the rear outlet gives a more balanced burn on that stove (from experience...). The 2110 is a radiator - it's only jacketed on the rear... so it's dumping alot of its heat into that brick mass.

 

[Gooserider]

Are you using the top or rear flue outlet on the 2110? In the photo it looks like the top. If you used the rear outlet, the stove would come forward and you would get a LOT more radiation into the room. Plus, the rear outlet gives a more balanced burn on that stove (from experience...). The 2110 is a radiator - it's only jacketed on the rear... so it's dumping alot of its heat into that brick mass.

Trouble is PC is that it looks to me like if they pull the stove forward, they would run into clearance issues with the front of the hearth. I would agree on the radiator part, but the OP's idea of pulling the air through the fireplace would help with that part a great deal. If it were my setup, I'd be inclined to fold a sheet metal "box" that would be open at the back but surround the legs on the front and sides, and mount a couple small "muffin fans" (like are used in computer cooling) on the front so that they'd blow air under the stove then allow it to flow out of the FP around the back, top and sides of the stove. Paint it black and it would look pretty decent, and it wouldn't be all that loud or a pain to listen to, and the juice draw would be minimal.

Gooserider

 

[precaud]

Trouble is PC is that it looks to me like if they pull the stove forward, they would run into clearance issues with the front of the hearth.

Yes, but that would be solved by putting something noncombustible on the floor in front of it.
I gamma-corrected the photo and can now clearly see, it is being top vented.

I would agree on the radiator part, but the OP's idea of pulling the air through the fireplace would help with that part a great deal. If it were my setup, I'd be inclined to fold a sheet metal "box" that would be open at the back but surround the legs on the front and sides, and mount a couple small "muffin fans" (like are used in computer cooling) on the front so that they'd blow air under the stove then allow it to flow out of the FP around the back, top and sides of the stove. Paint it black and it would look pretty decent, and it wouldn't be all that loud or a pain to listen to, and the juice draw would be minimal.

Interesting idea, but I question whether the results would be worth the effort. Getting the 2110 our of that cave is going to do more than anything else, especially if that is an outside wall...

 

[evan]

We are venting out the top. We cannot pull the stove out any further because of the hearth. If we vented out the back we would have to build out the hearth for just for the stove to have something to sit on not even considering non-combustible clearances. Right now that is not an option because of the logistics of the family room and how we use it. We have 3 children so the stove needs to be a bit protected. At least we don't have toddlers or younger to have to worry about touching it.

In reality the stove doesn't look that far back in the fire box. It is flush with the brick border of the fire box. You cannot tell in the picture, but there is a brick border that sticks out that frames the semi-circle opening. That is 1/2 a brick out from the face of the fireplace. This is what has made this project so difficult because I would have thought of an insert but it would have been a lot of custom metal work. Add to it that we are greatly limited to the stove dimensions because of space (as well as the our imposed limit on aesthetics - we really like the morso look).

I experimented a bit last night with a fan on a very low setting. I placed it on the hearth blowing in the firebox on one side. It really did make a difference and I believe the theory of pulling air into the fire box will work. The question is how to do it so that it doesn't look bad, is fairly economical, and is not loud (I hate the blower on our pellet stove because it is so loud).

Laslty, I'm going to order the shorter legs. Right now the stove sits a bit high in the firebox. The lower legs will center the stove more as well as provide for even better airflow above the stove.

I am determined to get this working as best as we can. Oil prices going through the roof, I have a furnace that needs to be replaced which will be very expensive, and I will have upwards of 10 cords of hardwood and who knows how much hemlock after we clear some of our property.

What do folks think about the blowers from the website below? If I can get sheetmetal work done they should act as standalone blowers. Thoughts....?

http://www.electricmotorwarehouse.com/fireplace.htm

What stove manufacturers have very quiet blowers/fans? The website above have a cross-reference list of the blowers and manufacturers/models.

Thanks!

Evan