Fireplace wood burning insert. Need to add a blower is it Possible?

[stallonepanerai]

I have a Penn Royal wood buring insert in my fireplace for 30 years now. I would like to add a blower to this unit. It has about a 3"-4" air venting on 3 sides. This unit gets super hot. When I use my infrared temp gauge the insert is around 800 degrees. I would like to add a blower but im afraid of the heat melting the motor and wires. Am I just being paranoid? Also is it possible to add a universal blower unit in my set up?

Thank you in advance
Corey

 

[weatherguy]

I think your best bet would be to point a fan at the insert to move the heat around.

 

[stallonepanerai]

I bought 2 mini metal fans at home depot and set them on the floor in front of the fireplace but the plastic on it melted. I did what you are talking about but the air was blowing away from the fireplace. I would really like to use a blower to have the air blow out the vents

 

[stallonepanerai]

I was looking at blowers on the internet but not sure what do get?

 

[valley ranch]

You should be able to install a fan. Is your stove attached to a stove pipe that goes up the chimney a ways? I think I'd set a fan behind the wood rack or the coal bucket and run a 3" or 4" metal duct into the expanded metal to start. Paint it black. You wouldn't have to cut the expanded metal at first, until you figured out how you wanted to do it for keeps.

Richard

If just a fan is used I'd do as weatherguy said: point it at the stove.

 

[stallonepanerai]

Hi Valley ranch

Thanks for your reply! My stove is not attached to a pipe that goes up the chimney. i was thinking about pulling the insert out out of the fireplace, install the blower fan in the fireplace on the floor and run a duct from the blower to the grills on the insert than push the insert back into the fireplace? How does that sound?

 

[stallonepanerai]

????

 

[bcarton]

I'm certainly not an expert here. But before I started reading these forums, I discovered that my old wood stove was able to accommodate a fan, and spent $100 on a very good fan for the stove. It made a difference. But I was also given the advice from several people here to simple blow cold air from the adjacent room into the room with the stove. I ordered a $16 fan from Amazon, put it on the floor and pointed the cold air toward the very hot room. That $16 fan had at least as much impact as the much more expensive, powerful, and noisy fan that I put on the stove. Give it a try.

http://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-HT-..._1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414297951&sr=8-1&keywords=fan

 

[coaly]

I don't know if your Insert is made with a double wall with airspace around it like a Fisher. Yours might be a single wall like a radiant stove using the airspace created around the insert to convect the air out of the vent. (A stove built as an insert should become a convection heater instead of radiant in all directions) Raising the insert on bricks would give you an air intake slot at the bottom to blow into, forcing the air out sides and bottom. Most of the heat comes from around the flue outlet pipe, so this is the area to move air across and out the front (top).
Here's a thread in the Fisher Forum with some good pictures. Keep in mind the fisher Insert has an outer wall around the entire rear of firebox that is open across the bottom and top. There are side openings that the hearth faceplate covers and has three slotted holes to allow placement of blowers on one or both sides. An opening across the bottom of yours would allow much better natural air flow since the heated rising air allows the lowest part of opening for a natural intake.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/made-a-blower-for-my-fisher-insert.117672/#post-1682390

The Insert Manual shows a cutaway of airflow that would help if you can recreate that type of flow under your unit.
https://www.hearth.com/images/uploads/fishinsertmanual.pdf

Woodman's has a good selection of double wheel blowers that are good for blowing into the slot across bottom. Adding a variable speed switch decreases noise and I've found about half the full RPM moves enough air during all but full BTU output.

Fisher Insert bottom air intake;
Outer shell.

 

[stallonepanerai]

Thank you guys! I appreciate it. Im starting to get the picture. I never thought of putting the insert on bricks for cold air intake. So if i raise the insert about 2-3" can I use a fan like in the link below? I was thinking of using that fan behind the insert on the floor in the empty space cavity between fireplace and insert. So with the insert raised the fan will draw in cold air in from bottom and force hot out the top insert grate. Using the fan in that space will it be to hot there and melt the fan???

(broken link removed to http://galleryplus.ebayimg.com/ws/web/280891484111_1_0_1/1000x1000.jpg)


Thank you

 

[coaly]

Electric motor needs to be in cool air flow. (in front and below Insert) Most motors are type A/O that stands for Air Over for cooling purposes. Notice all of them in the Fisher thread link above stay cold.