How much difference does a blower make?

[Rob_Red]

Hey everyone, my stove has an option for a blower and when purchasing I opted out for simplicity. I do rely on the stove to heat my home 90% of the time. Am I missing out?

How big of an effect does a blower have on a little stove like a Green Mountain 40? I assume the purpose it to pull hot air off the stove and blow it into the room?

Thanks guys!

 

[begreen]

This depends a lot on the stove location and house. If the stove is in a place where natural convection suffices then a blower may not be necessary. If the stove needs some help with heat circulation then a blower can be a nice asset. A blower can also be helpful in cooling down a stove that has gotten too hot and for heating up the house faster.
We ran our stove without a blower for a couple years and it did well, but on the coldest days the far reaches of the kitchen were on the cooler side. Adding a blower helped reduce this. We still normally run the stove with the blower off, but when it's very cold or when I want to heat up the house more quickly I will run the blower.

 

[Gearhead660]

I have been asking myself the same question. My stove has a blower but I seldom use it. I have turned it on a couple times to see if there was a noticeable difference. Didn't really see a difference, but the natural convection in my house works surprisingly well.

 

[GENECOP]

I had a stove with a blower for awhile, with the sound of the fan I was expecting to be standing in front of a blow drier, but it seemed to be mostly just loud..

 

[moresnow]

Night and day difference in my home. Especially in 15F or colder weather. They circulate heat about the house much quicker than natural convection.

 

[begreen]

Night and day difference in my home. Especially in 15F or colder weather. They circulate heat about the house much quicker than natural convection.

Yes, in some homes it's a necessity to improve convection. Even in our house, the warming effect in the farther corners is noticeable within about 30 minutes if it's very cold out.

 

[Tar12]

It can make a huge difference! Before I invested in a make over for this house we had record low temps that first winter and the fan made a huge difference vs not running it! Glad I didnt opt out!

 

[mar13]

Wouldn't a blower increase the air flow over the surface of the stove, thus increase the rate at which the indoor air exchanges heat with the stove? If there is no blower, where would that stove heat go instead? Does it radiate outward instead and/or go up the chimney?

Also, for whole-house air circulation, wouldn't an ordinary floor fan or a ceiling fan do more than a blower on the stove? Plus you could more strategically place the fans to move the warmer air around the house?

I have no personal experience with a blower, but I have wondered (and asked here)about stove blowers.

 

[electrathon]

Wouldn't a blower increase the air flow over the surface of the stove, thus increase the rate at which the indoor air exchanges heat with the stove? If there is no blower, where would that stove heat go instead? Does it radiate outward instead and/or go up the chimney?

Also, for whole-house air circulation, wouldn't an ordinary floor fan or a ceiling fan do more than a blower on the stove? Plus you could more strategically place the fans to move the warmer air around the house?

I have no personal experience with a blower, but I have wondered (and asked here)about stove blowers.

The faster you move hot air away from the hot stove and replace it with cooler air the faster the heat can be drawn out of the metal and into the room air. Look up delta T

 

[savageactor7]

Those blower fans make heating with wood well worth all the effort we put into it...

...the industry should just make them standard equipment.

 

[NickW]

I get lots more usable heat from my NC30 running the blower... It's basically always running.

 

[Grizzerbear]

I use my blower nearly always. To me it seems counter intuitive to have a convective stove and not use the blower. The only time I don't use it is when the house is beginning to get too warm or when it's in the 40s-50s out. It takes more time and wood to heat the same size space in my house without the blower.....and my house is open concept with just a bathroom that is what would normally be considered hard to heat by it's layout from the stove room. To me that is making my stove less efficient. I say get one. If you find you dont need it for full time heating you still have it for cooling the stove down like begreen said. Just another tool in the bag.

 

[Caw]

Echoing what's been said above im almost always using mine too unless its too hot in the house. One thing I'll point out is that I almost always just run it on low. Its quieter and gets a lot of heat off the stove without cooling the box down too much allowing me to maintain an efficient burn. The only times I'll run it on high are if the stove is too hot on a mega load or its really cold in the house and I want max heat fast. My particular blower is intrusively loud on high but on low I barely notice it.

 

[buc74]

I pretty much always have the blower on low -medium unless I need to cool it down a bit. Then I'll go to high. For a insert I feel its a must, free standing not so much but a good option to have.

 

[begreen]

Looks like we will seeing the edge of the arctic blast that is sinking down over the country this week. It will be time for burning hardwood and running the blower in the morning to warm up the house until the sun assists.

 

[marty319]

Looks like we will seeing the edge of the arctic blast that is sinking down over the country this week. It will be time for burning hardwood and running the blower in the morning to warm up the house until the sun assists.

What kind of temps are you expecting? -36 here this morning.filled the stove up at 8:30pm and up at 6am tons of hot coals but only 66 in here.

 

[bigealta]

If you don’t get the blower, or for anyone else who does not have one this little fan on low works great to push cool floor level air around the back of the stove. Prob adds 5f to the indoor house temp and gets the room heated faster for sure.

 

[Caw]

What kind of temps are you expecting? -36 here this morning.filled the stove up at 8:30pm and up at 6am tons of hot coals but only 66 in here.

Poor Marty is never above 0 in winter!

8:30 pm to 6 am and still 66 in your drafty cabin is pretty good id say in -36. Good thing you have the big boy stove.

 

[logfarmer]

I’ve always had fans for my stoves but rarely use them. I get them just in case I might ever need one....probably be using mine towards the end of the wk when we get the single and negative digits.

 

[MoDoug]

My blower came with the stove, it's a little on the noisy side, but it really helps in cold spells like now. When the stove was installed I removed the switch from the blower so we wouldn't have to bend down and reach behind the stove to work the dial knob, and reinstalled it into the wall near the stove. This made it much easier and safer to use.

As far as moving air around, I also have a ceiling fan in the room that is almost always on, this room has a cathedral ceiling that traps heat,