Efficiency concerns with the blower kit on my Ashford 30; I think a basic pedestal fan behind the stove works better.

[Propane_Poor]

Anyone else stopped using their stove's blower fan kit? I'm pretty sure the blower fans on my Ashford 30 significantly reduce its efficiency or at least its ability to keep a slow burn going.

It seems like the blower fools the thermostat into opening for a faster burn, regardless of the dial setting.

I have a large pedestal fan from Walmart set up behind the stove now, and that seems to work much better overall-- meaning I can still move a lot of air through the house without waking up to an inactive catalyst.

 

[bholler]

Anyone else stopped using their stove's blower fan kit? I'm pretty sure the blower fans on my Ashford 30 significantly reduce its efficiency or at least its ability to keep a slow burn going.

It seems like the blower fools the thermostat into opening for a faster burn, regardless of the dial setting.

I have a large pedestal fan from Walmart set up behind the stove now, and that seems to work much better overall-- meaning I can still move a lot of air through the house without waking up to an inactive catalyst.

The factory blowers are far better at pulling heat off of the stove. That means using them will lower the firebox temp making the thermostat open more. That doesn't mean the stove is less efficient nessecarily. Just that it's running a bit harder because it's putting more heat into the home

 

[Propane_Poor]

The factory blowers are far better at pulling heat off of the stove. That means using them will lower the firebox temp making the thermostat open more. That doesn't mean the stove is less efficient nessecarily. Just that it's running a bit harder because it's putting more heat into the home

I think the problem is not just volume, but air velocity, which feels like it has a big impact on heating the house overall. I can tell the blowers pull a large amount of hotter air from closer to the firebox, but its not moving very fast and doesn't make it very far into the house.

I also wonder about the efficiency of it not moving air *above* the cast top plate except via negative pressure maybe. It seems like the hot air sits around the stovetop and stovepipe more compared to the pedestal fan.

 

[bholler]

I think the problem is not just volume, but air velocity, which feels like it has a big impact on heating the house overall. I can tell the blowers pull a large amount of hotter air from closer to the firebox, but its not moving very fast and doesn't make it very far into the house.

I also wonder about the efficiency of it not moving air *above* the cast top plate except via negative pressure maybe. It seems like the hot air sits around the stovetop and stovepipe more compared to the pedestal fan.

Well yes the pedestal fan will absolutely move air around the home better. And both may help more. What I find works the best is pushing cool air towards the stove.

 

[bholler]

I think the problem is not just volume, but air velocity, which feels like it has a big impact on heating the house overall. I can tell the blowers pull a large amount of hotter air from closer to the firebox, but its not moving very fast and doesn't make it very far into the house.

I also wonder about the efficiency of it not moving air *above* the cast top plate except via negative pressure maybe. It seems like the hot air sits around the stovetop and stovepipe more compared to the pedestal fan.

Well yes the pedestal fan will absolutely move air around the home better. And both may help more. What I find works the best is pushing cool air towards the stove.

 

[stoveliker]

I think the fans are best used when running the stove hard (high, hot). When running slow, you seem to want to use the fans to spread the heat. Indeed another air movement fan is better for that. The stove fan is meant to extract more heat from the stove, it is not optimized to move that heat farther away from the stove into the (other) room.

 

[Poindexter]

Agree with all of the above. The factory fans will pull heat off the stove faster, resulting in more BTUs out of the stove in a shorter time and faster burns; but moving the heat around the house is a different challenge that the factory deck fans cannot do. Every install is different. If a pedestal fan works for you, use it.