Jotul insert fan maintenance

[danham]

The fan on our Jotul insert started getting noisier, so I took out the motor/blowers unit and gave everything a good vacuum cleaning. But I don't see any lube ports/wicks on the motor, so I assume any attempt to get oil in there where it would do any good is only going to attract more dirt. Any suggestions about prolonging blower life? Considering what the insert cost, the blower -- especially the impellers -- looks really cheap and flimsy.

 

[begreen]

If the blower has sealed ball bearings there is no maintenance other than cleaning them well.

 

[danham]

Thanks (and thanks for the move to the Jotul section). I don't see anything that suggests nice ball bearings. Looks like plain bushings to me, but it's hard to see. About to do first fire since cleaning, so we'll see if that quieted things down at all (I was too lazy to bypass the snap switch to test).

-dan

 

[begreen]

If the motor has sleeve bearings then sometimes it's possible to drill a small oil hole in the felt surrounding the bushing. It depends on the motor design.

This reminded me of a thread where the poster said they had oil ports on the motor which would imply sleeve bearings. This thread has pictures which may help.

Stove blower maintainance for the Jotul C450

We are into the third year with our Jotul Kennebec C450 and have tried to keep a close eye on keeping it in good shape. The last two years I have diligently removed the ash lip and vacuumed out any stray ashes that have found their way into the fan area and used a brush to keep this area clean...

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