PE & Alderlea owners -- blower kit worth it?

[bcrtops]

I am considering adding a blower kit to our stove -- wondering what your thoughts are.

After 8 years w/o a blower in a LR ~20' x 30' w/ceiling fan, is it worth the upgrade? The stove is in a corner installation, near an exterior door. The ceiling fan does not seem to do a whole lot to distribute the air -- perhaps a blower on the stove would move some of the heat to center of room?

I need to shut the stove down & do some work on the door/hinge/glass/gasket pretty soon, so thought it might be a good time to do the upgrade if I'm ever going to. (PE Alderlea T5) $300 seems like a lot of money for a fan kit!

Right now, when in the 20'sF w/3" of snow on the ground the stove barely keeps up with heating our house. However, even though we do get a few weeks of below freezing weather every year, it is not the norm. Usually, the stove gives us more heat than we need in all above freezing weather.

Thanks for your input.

 

[mol1jb]

What height are you ceilings in the LR?

 

[bcrtops]

What height are you ceilings in the LR?

Only 8' -- which means the ceiling fan is real close to the ceiling, consequently not the most ideal, but does help for summer cooling & air movement. (No AC -- only couple weeks a yr. we would ever use it).

 

[mol1jb]

Have you tried using a floor fan blowing toward the stove from the opposite side of the room?

 

[bcrtops]

Have you tried using a floor fan blowing toward the stove from the opposite side of the room?

Not exactly as described, no.
We have tried a floor fan near the stove, both aimed towards center of room & aimed at the ceiling. Both of those methods work fairly well at distributing the heat in the room. We, also, have an old fashioned (though replaced in 2000) oil floor furnace that I ran cold air returns to from the back of house. The "summer" fan will get the back Bedrooms within 5 degrees of the LR, but the darn thing is awfully noisy, so we don't normally turn it on unless the LR gets to 80F. It does work well though.

 

[mol1jb]

So if I understand you correctly, you are trying to get a little more heat out of the stove on those colder days? If this is what you are after I think the stove blower would work well for this. But if you are trying to get better distribution of heat I would stick with the floor fan and use it to push the cold air toward the stove to be warmed up. That method is the best way to even out the heat in a house.

 

[begreen]

It will help get the heat more evenly spread throughout the house. Do you need it? Temporarily try setting up a table or stand fan to blow at low speed across the top of the stove and see if that helps. Expect to stoke the stove more frequently if you want more heat.

 

[bcrtops]

It will help get the heat more evenly spread throughout the house. Do you need it? Temporarily try setting up a table or stand fan to blow at low speed across the top of the stove and see if that helps. Expect to stoke the stove more frequently if you want more heat.

Do we need/need it? No. We've gotten by fine w/o it for 8 yrs.
Yes, the table top fan distributes the heat better.
More heat is not really the issue, just better distribution.

25F outside temp, LR is a comfortable 75F, DR & kit. @ 70F & back of house is 66 w/o the "summer" fan running. On the rare occasion when the outside temp gets down to 0F, we run the oil floor furnace to assist -- not trying to heat the house at those lowest temps, as rarely happens here (but we can, when w/o power by closing drapes & bedroom doors & be quite comfortable in the main areas).

Almost had an over-fire this am -- just opened up the "wings" put a fan on the floor aimed at 45degrees towards back of stove & she came right down to safe stove-top temps. Thinking that the fan kit might help alleviate the occasional extremes, as well as distribute heat a bit better. Just have a hard time justifying the price, I guess.

 

[begreen]

I held off for a few years before finally putting a blower on the T6. We don't use it during our normally mild winter days (40F) but when it gets cold I turn it on low or medium speed. It helps even out temps in the farther corners of the house. And you're right, it's also handy for rapidly cooling down the stove in case one lets it get a bit too hot.

 

[MaintenanceMan]

I put the blower on my 27 Heritage when I installed it. I really only have to use it when it's really cold. below 20 degrees or so. Most of the time I don't need it, but it does spread the heat throughout the house a bit better. I have it all the way on low though. Glad I got it, but most of the time I don't need it. Usually just turning it on for that overnight burn when the temps dip down low.

 

[Sprinter]

Normally, I'd say skip the blower, but perhaps with your corner installation, it would help with the distribution. Honestly, though, the floor fans properly placed are probably more effective in the long run.You'll have to experiment a bit with that. The goal would be a circulation pattern from the stove to the other side. Being in the corner adds a little challenge.

I sometimes put a small table fan blowing across the stove top, and I think that is just about as effective as a blower. Usually, though, I prefer no fan at all except the ceiling fan.

Almost had an over-fire this am -- just opened up the "wings" put a fan on the floor aimed at 45degrees towards back of stove & she came right down to safe stove-top temps

I've done that a couple of times when the stove got too hot. You're right, it cools things down pretty well. I don't know the CFM specs on the blower kit, but I'd bet that a modest table fan would be it's equal.

I also use the table fan to dry clothes on a rack on the opposite side. It works better than our dryer.

 

[bcrtops]

I held off for a few years before finally putting a blower on the T6. We don't use it during our normally mild winter days (40F) but when it gets cold I turn it on low or medium speed. It helps even out temps in the farther corners of the house. And you're right, it's also handy for rapidly cooling down the stove in case one lets it get a bit too hot.

I'm thinking you may have talked me into it.
We have such a good draft that we have to be careful about over-fire. We never fully fill the fire-box for overnight burns for this reason & I usually just load it with 3 logs, rather than splits for the overnight. This am we had 3 logs in it, w/ one of them seasoned, but weather-wet & it still nearly over-fired. Typically, actually close the air down even before the secondaries take off, otherwise it gets too hot too fast when having a good bed of coals to start with -- the secondaries will start 15-20 minutes later with just a nice rolling burn then.

 

[begreen]

Do you have a flue damper?

 

[madison]

Went the first year without a blower, then added it and for most of the season it is on - not typically on high speed. I am glad I added it as it made the world of difference in our home. Our house is 3300 sq feet with very high cathedral ceilings and with six sliding glass doors, and a bunch of other glass throughout. We get a lot of wind and when, like today it is in the teens with 20-40 mph winds - the fan is on moderately high.

A couple of phillips head screws and an outlet within ~ 6 feet is the install. I take mine off at the end of each season and attempt to brush, blow, vacuum all the fine dust that plugs the squirrel cage fan louvers.

 

[bcrtops]

Do you have a flue damper?

No flue damper -- not recommended at time of install. Double stovepipe suggested & installed -- should have used single, but recommended by stove shop as I have min. ht. stack. (15' from base of stove).

 

[begreen]

You should be able to fully load the stove. It's hobbled at just 3 splits at a time. I would add the damper so that you get the full benefit of the stove.

 

[bcrtops]

You should be able to fully load the stove. It's hobbled at just 3 splits at a time. I would add the damper so that you get the full benefit of the stove.

Well...........we, being retired, don't mind feeding the fire every 4-5 hrs. during the day.

Right now, we're burning a lot of logs, tree tops left over from a logging. For an all night burn I use 3 5-8" rounds & they will keep the fire going overnight, so that enough coals left to get the fire going quickly in the AM. Most of my splits are a bit smaller & primarily for shoulder season & getting the fire going in the AM.

We have learned to control the fire by turning it down sooner than a lot of you (all) probably would -- just as soon as the secondaries take off, or maybe a little before. It runs well with just a little bit open on the air control & for overnight closed as much as possible. Fir & fir mix & maple are pretty easy to control. Alder -- we have to be careful with -- even large logs, if fully seasoned can get going too hot.

Installing a flue damper is a bit of a hassle on a dbl. wall stove pipe or requires one of those special & expensive adapted sections. I have thought about going back to a single wall stovepipe w/damper, as we have the clearance to do so.

 

[begreen]

Burning alder and fir I turn down the air the same way, often right as secondary burning kicks in. If I let it go for too long (sometimes just 5 minutes longer) the flue temps head up past 800F. I don't have a flue damper on our double-wall pipe, but did bend the air control stop a little so that the air can be turned down a bit further. Normally we don't close the air down all the way to the stop now, but that extra choke is there if needed.

 

[bcrtops]

Burning alder and fir I turn down the air the same way, often right as secondary burning kicks in. If I let it go for too long (sometimes just 5 minutes longer) the flue temps head up past 800F. I don't have a flue damper on our double-wall pipe, but did bend the air control stop a little so that the air can be turned down a bit further. Normally we don't close the air down all the way to the stop now, but that extra choke is there if needed.

Don't think I'll change the control stop -- wife would always be closing it too far over.
Last night loaded a 6" & a 8" log on a good bed of coals & shut 'er down. This morning, 8 hrs. later, had a really nice bed of coals & just threw on 3 splits to get her going strong again. House had dropped to 64F though, 20F outside, so kicked on the furnace to get the house back up to temp.

 

[begreen]

My wife had no problem with the change. She takes it to the stop, then back open about 1/2".

 

[bcrtops]

I got to looking at the corner install & the clearances, etc. A small desktop or table top fan will fit on the floor behind the stove & still be safe. Thinking about it, I decided to cut a pc. of snap type stove-pipe, straighten out the two ends/sides of it & roll it up into the back of stove behind the surround. (Basically a pc. of sheet metal with a big radius). A good deal of air from the fan pushes up & out over the top, both cooling the stove top & creating a good bit of air movement out the front of the stove. No stat of course, and probably not as efficient as squirrel cage fans, but definitely gets the air a moving!