Do I really need a blower/fan?!

[MagdalenaP]

Hey All!

So I purchased my new to me regency f2400. The fan is loud, cleaning it didn't help. I could order a new one, around $100 or so, but do I really need it? Do they really help? Issue is my stove is going to be pointed towards my backdoor (best location for my home layout), so all that heat is going to be blowing that way (goes through the back heat shield and over the top of the stove).

Also, once the stove is installed with the minimum clearance to a back wall, is it very hard to add a blower (if I find that I do need one) ?

Meaning, I'm guessing the stove will need to be moved forward to access the back...does the single wall pipe disconnect easily?

Thank you in advance!

 

[Seasoned Oak]

It seems to be a lot more effective to just use a small fan to blow across the top of the stove. All my stoves have blower fans but they are not that effective and almost all are noisy at high speed
IMO.

 

[moresnow]

They are necessary at my place. I wouldn't install without it. Just my opinion in relation to the 2 stoves I've used at this place. You can always turn it off

 

[Woody Stover]

My brother has that stove, he fabbed his own fan setup for cheaper (I thought the original was more than 100.) I don't know he had the original fan in at one point. I just texted him, asking if his aftermarket setup is pretty quiet..

 

[Woody Stover]

OK, he never had the original. He said his aftermarket is quiet on low, a little noisier on high.

 

[Ludlow]

All those fans are noisy. I have a OEM blower in the bottom of my DV gas fireplace and it is terrible. I run it on low only. I replaced it and it sounds the same.

 

[wooduser]

Personally, I use a three speed box fan I bought at a thrift shop for $5.

This was cheap to buy, cheap to use, quiet except on the high speed, easy to clean of dust and dirt and is easily adjusted between the low, medium and high speed.

In my view as a furnace and gas fireplace repairman, the main thing you want a fan for is to break up the convection layers of warm air at the ceiling and cold air near the floor. A box fan located almost anyplace does thuis well.

A second good use for a fan is to heat remote parts of a house. To do that with a degree of effectiveness, I locate the box fan in the hall way blowing cold air near the floor out into the room where the wood stove is located. That means that warm air near the ceiling is drawn into the remote parts of the house, and also breaks up those convection layers of cold air near the floor. The down side of a fan in the hallway is tripping over it in the middle of the night!

Fans in stoves tend to be 1) expensive 2) inflexible in that they can't be moved around 3) noisy 4) hard to clean. So I'm agin 'em.

Give a box fan a try is my recommendation!

 

[Woody Stover]

All those fans are noisy. I have a OEM blower in the bottom of my DV gas fireplace and it is terrible. I run it on low only. I replaced it and it sounds the same.

They have a Lopi Liberty running in a shop near here. That fan is whisper-quiet, although I didn't jack it up to high..

 

[wooduser]

I didn't jack it up to high..

I would definitely turn it up to high. Also, if the fan that was in the stove originally was noisy, sure as shoot'n it was changed out.

As a GAS stove and fireplace repairman, noisy fans were a fairly common complaint, and not one I could usually do much about. Most people just left their noisy fan turned off unless there was a real need to use it and put up with the noise.

Personally, I favor using a box fan which is typically cheaper, can be located more flexibly, is easy to clean.

 

[bholler]

Personally, I use a three speed box fan I bought at a thrift shop for $5.

This was cheap to buy, cheap to use, quiet except on the high speed, easy to clean of dust and dirt and is easily adjusted between the low, medium and high speed.

In my view as a furnace and gas fireplace repairman, the main thing you want a fan for is to break up the convection layers of warm air at the ceiling and cold air near the floor. A box fan located almost anyplace does thuis well.

A second good use for a fan is to heat remote parts of a house. To do that with a degree of effectiveness, I locate the box fan in the hall way blowing cold air near the floor out into the room where the wood stove is located. That means that warm air near the ceiling is drawn into the remote parts of the house, and also breaks up those convection layers of cold air near the floor. The down side of a fan in the hallway is tripping over it in the middle of the night!

Fans in stoves tend to be 1) expensive 2) inflexible in that they can't be moved around 3) noisy 4) hard to clean. So I'm agin 'em.

Give a box fan a try is my recommendation!

So the furnaces you work on dont have fans designed to work with the system to pull heat off of the combustion chamber and help distribute that heated air?

That is exactly what the fans mounted on stoves do. You assumtions about fans are simply unfounded.

 

[bholler]

I would definitely turn it up to high. Also, if the fan that was in the stove originally was noisy, sure as shoot'n it was changed out.

As a GAS stove and fireplace repairman, noisy fans were a fairly common complaint, and not one I could usually do much about. Most people just left their noisy fan turned off unless there was a real need to use it and put up with the noise.

Personally, I favor using a box fan which is typically cheaper, can be located more flexibly, is easy to clean.

Yes but again a box fan isnt nearly as effective at helping to pull extra heat off the stove.

 

[ratsrepus]

The fans on my BK's are quiet and effective. I run them on low in the morning to pull the cold air off the floor and bring the temps up quickly, which they do. I could do with out them, but I like them and they work great

 

[ratsrepus]

Besides having box fans all over looks like low rent

 

[bholler]

The fans on my BK's are quiet and effective. I run them on low in the morning to pull the cold air off the floor and bring the temps up quickly, which they do. I could do with out them, but I like them and they work great

Yes bk fans and many others are fairly quiet.