New Fans/Improve Airflow of Blower

[FPnewbie]

Hi,

(Hopefully this is the right forum. Our fireplace was a woodburning but we recently converted it to gas but the question I have is about the original equipment so please excuse me if I'm posting in the wrong place.)

New guy here with little to no knowledge of fireplaces. The house we bought had this wordburning fireplace.



I had someone tell me that the fans on the floor that lead to the blower above is called a Heatilator. I'm not sure if that is true or not. Anyway the problem is that there is very little airflow from this device. The airflow is really a trickle. Is there a way to improve the airflow? Can I replace the fans? If so, where would I get fans for this system? The current fans are about 4.5 inches square. I've asked at a local fireplace store but they said that they did not carry anything for this type of fireplace. There has to be something, right? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks

 

[begreen]

That looks like a homebrew fan setup. You can get more powerful 115vac, 4" or 5" axial fans from www.grainger.com. But I would also baffle the sides and bottom around each fan so the air must go through the ducting and not right back out past the fan. Try this first.

Looks like Grainger sells a 7" one too. At 355 cfm though it might be a bit noisy.
https://www.grainger.com/category/a...hvac-and-refrigeration/ecatalog/N-rl8Z1yzi4bb

 

[FPnewbie]

begreen: Thank you SO much for the quick reply. I've been looking at the grainger page that you sent me and I have also been working with a friend that is an electrician. The problem that I am running into is that the fan on the other side of the fireplace (not pictured) takes 120 and somehow steps it down to 12v for the other fan (pictured). We cannot find any fans on grainger (or otherwise) that step down the voltage like that. Do you have any suggestions?

 

[begreen]

Sounds dubious. Could be that the previous owner mistakenly ordered a 12vdc fan. A quick check with a voltmeter would determine if it is 120vac all the way.

 

[mooselake]

That's a 12V computer case fan, an obvious jury-rig. Think maybe $5, and worth less than that in your fireplace.

Kirk