Rangeley fan question

[Heather]

I am installing a Rangeley stove soon, and have not ordered the optional fan. I am wondering if anyone has had experience with the fan. I have a room that is not directly heated by the stove, and would like to channel some of the heat into it. I do have a ceiling fan (and high ceilings), but I wonder whether a fan on the stove would help spread the heat more.

 

[Pallet Pete]

Hello and welcome Heather to the forums.

I use a Rangeley and have no use for a fan at all it heats our home very well without the fan. How big is your house and where do you live ? Those would help answer a lot of questions based on climate. Set your fans so they suck air up to the ceilings and that will help a great deal. Cold air settles down the walls so this forces air to move in a natural pattern and moves heat much more efficiently through the house. I have some 10 foot ceilings and have no issue with moving heat. The room that has cold air all you rally need to do is put a small fan blowing towards the stove room and it will heat up quickly. The reason for this is because you want to heat the cold air not push hot air into cold it will take much longer to heat up. I know all this sounds crazy but believe me it works well. I do not use a fan on our Rangeley at all and have no need to as the stove throws a ton of heat.

You really need good dry firewood 2 years if possible for any EPA wood stove to run properly as well as get the most heat. This means split stacked in the wind to dry.

Good luck
Pete

 

[Heather]

I live in the Northwest where the climate is mild (mostly) in an unusual house (1500 SF) with a 22' clerestory ceiling. Have been heating with wood for 33 years. The old Frontier stove is wearing out, so I am upgrading to the Rangeley, which will be much larger than the Frontier. Perhaps the new stove will reach the far corners better. Your idea of using a fan to blow the cold air towards the stove is a novel idea!

 

[Pallet Pete]

I live in the Northwest where the climate is mild (mostly) in an unusual house (1500 SF) with a 22' clerestory ceiling. Have been heating with wood for 33 years. The old Frontier stove is wearing out, so I am upgrading to the Rangeley, which will be much larger than the Frontier. Perhaps the new stove will reach the far corners better. Your idea of using a fan to blow the cold air towards the stove is a novel idea!

Heather I am glad to here you know what your doing you will fit right in here ! We have a 1500 Square foot house in Michigan and the Rangeley can cook us right out in the winter. It is a beauty of a stove . I would say try it without the fan and see how it does. Dennis ( BackwoodsSavage ) showed me that trick and boy it works good !

Pete

 

[Heather]

I am glad to hear that you like the stove so well. It's kind of sad to say goodbye to a stove that has worked hard for so many years...I feel a little like I am abandoning it! I must admit I was sold on the Rangeley when I walked into the local Jotul dealer because I liked the idea of being able to grill inside it. Have you done any grilling in yours? I'm excited about baking a mini pizza!

 

[Pallet Pete]

I have not used the winter grill before however a few users have here I am sure they will chime in soon. We cook on the cook top all the time and love as well as use the coal bed to cook inside it like an oven. Push the coals to the sides so you can set a cast iron skillet in the middle and you have a wood fired pizza oven. I must admit when we where looking I could not make my mind up on a replacement stove and drove everybody here nuts . My wife said pick one of these two models or else your driving me nuts it was between a Oslo & Rangeley both fantastic. The rangeley had heat shields so it one and we love it. The are a few things we learned from Jotul too you may want to know. Put you stove top temp guage on the right or left side center top not on the steel cook top. It will be more accurate that way. The other was the gaskets where not properly dried all the way at the factory and even after we used it for a while. It wanted to over fire and I could not figure out why so Jotul sent the regional sales rep out ( Fantastic customer service ) and he talked to the factory. They said change the gaskets it has run like a dream since !


Pete

 

[Heather]

My Frontier doesn't have gaskets (it is THAT old). How does a stove perform if the gaskets are not dried properly? Do you use a damper in your stovepipe to control the air?

 

[Pallet Pete]

No EPA stoves don't really need dampers although I have one installed. It gets used maybe once or twice a year on high wind days and that's about all mainly because we live in a high elevation for our area. EPA stoves have a secondary air inlet that is uncontrolled which sounds insane but actually works very well with good gaskets. The secondary is the tubes in the top of the stove which burn the gases from the wood instead of the wood. I can load the box up to the grills and come home 13 hours later with a good bed of coals left. I will say the rangeley loves larger splits for sure. With a bad gasket you lose control of the secondary so it looks like your looking through a window at the inferno of hell. With good gaskets it is easy to control and to be honest it is easier than our old smoke dragon was.

Pete

 

[Heather]

The old stove has a damper. I have known no other method for controlling the draft (beyond dialing down the draft on the stove). I have seasonal (winter) winds in my area. It has been suggested by the stove installer to put a cap on the chimney. I have found that there is a downdraft problem on high wind days. I am thinking this might be a good idea, though expensive. I am curious whether the new stove will need a damper to keep it from burning too hot. I am also wondering whether the new stove will have a problem with downdrafts on windy days.

 

[Pallet Pete]

We too have a downdraft issue I purchased an anti downdraft cap best investment ever. I will look it up for you tomorrow and shoot you message or pm with the website info for the cap. It fixed the downdraft and we can control the stove very well now.
You will find EPA stoves are a different animal all together than your old stove. They are technically air tight which makes an enormous difference in air control. I would try it with a cap if you know there is a downdraft issue but leave out the damper at worst you can add it later. Also I strongly urge you if you have not already look into stainless double wall pipe for your stove the Rangeley likes to run hot on the flu. Condor makes a good insert flue prob for the flue above the stove.

Pete

 

[Heather]

Thank you...this has been enlightening. I have a masonry chimney with terra cotta liners. The installer has suggested lining the chimney with stainless pipe and a cap ($$$). He thinks the liner has warped near the base of the chimney (though we won't know until it is cleaned). I would appreciate any input or suggestions you have on the situation. I would not be adverse to adding a damper at a later date, if needed. I appreciate your advice, Pete--thanks again.

 

[Pallet Pete]

No problem Heather. Can you put a picture up of where it is going to be installed and the current chimney ? That would help a lot. Is your old stove a 8" flu or 6" flue ? The Rangeley is 6" flue and though you can go to 8" I really would not recommend doing that as It was made for a 6" setup.

Pete

 

[Pallet Pete]

http://www.woodlanddirect.com/Chimn...Wind-Resistant-Cap-for-Air-Insulated-Chimneys


Here is the cap I purchased and it works very well. The way it works is by breaking up the wind so that it flows through the cap and not down the chimney. This is a very good company as well I use woodland a lot for my needs they are very professional on the phone as well.

Pete

 

[Pallet Pete]

It would be worth it to try the stove without the cap as you may not need it. The way the stove works is different because of the gaskets and the fact that you may run a liner as well. These things will change how it rafts and it may improve and not be an issue anymore.

Pete

 

[waltdog]

Hi Heather welcome to the forum. I recently purchased and installed the optional fan kit so I can offer my opinions. The fan kit is expensive ( $280 at my dealer) however the quality is very nice, the brackets, electronics and hardware are very heavy duty. The fan has the ability to run in auto mode so when the stove reaches the right temp it will turn on and when it has cooled it will turn itself off. It is also very quiet. The power supply cord is very long so I shortened mine as the plug is directly behind the stove.

I ran the stove for a year without the fan and it worked well however the layout of my house it seems to work better with.

 

[Heather]

The flue is 8", so an adapter will have to be used. The stove guy is coming tomorrow to install the Rangeley, so I will have a lot of questions to ask him. It may be a work in progress getting everything right. I will post a photo of the finished product. Thanks, waltdog for the info about the fan. I probably will wait to buy one as well, to see how the stove performs.

 

[waltdog]

How did the install go?

 

[jotulguy]

Heather did your dealer get you the free Winter grill?

 

[Sprinter]

It sounds like you want to get some heat into an adjacent room. One way often suggested here is to to place a portable fan on the floor at the door of that room and point it out. That forces the cool air out and warm air will replace it above from the heated room. Many people have success with that. The fan can be on a low speed.

 

[Heather]

The install went great! We are doing the break-in fires, and it is a little stinky. Tomorrow morning (before the Thanksgiving guests arrive) we will do the first hot fire, and hopefully that will clear the air. This stove is definitely a different animal from the previous one, but I like it so far. It's great to be able to see the flames. The dealer did give us a free Wintergrill. I may try to experiment with the fan idea, it is intriguing. Looking forward to really firing this stove up, and seeing what it can do!

 

[Pallet Pete]

The install went great! We are doing the break-in fires, and it is a little stinky. Tomorrow morning (before the Thanksgiving guests arrive) we will do the first hot fire, and hopefully that will clear the air. This stove is definitely a different animal from the previous one, but I like it so far. It's great to be able to see the flames. The dealer did give us a free Wintergrill. I may try to experiment with the fan idea, it is intriguing. Looking forward to really firing this stove up, and seeing what it can do!

That is good to hear Heather I am glad it went well. Be sure to watch it when you fire it up the full load don't let it run off. On our stove we let the flue hit 400 then turn it down to about 3/4 air it will go up to 500-600 range then we set it at half. With EPA stove once you have a good coal bed you can set it at about1/4 air and the stove will put out more heat that way then wide open. This is due to the tubes doing all the work. Good luck and Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours !

Pete

 

[Heather]

The stove is doing a nice job keeping the house warm. Now I have a question about the glass door. We mainly burn softwoods here in Washington, and most of the wood we're using is fir. I have noticed right away that creosote is collecting at the lower corners of the glass. Any suggestions about cleaning the glass in general, or removing creosote? The manual said to use "a glass cleaner specific to this purpose" and that creosote would burn off in a hot fire. Once the stove has been used, is it impractical to hope for the glass to stay relatively clear?

 

[Pallet Pete]

The stove is doing a nice job keeping the house warm. Now I have a question about the glass door. We mainly burn softwoods here in Washington, and most of the wood we're using is fir. I have noticed right away that creosote is collecting at the lower corners of the glass. Any suggestions about cleaning the glass in general, or removing creosote? The manual said to use "a glass cleaner specific to this purpose" and that creosote would burn off in a hot fire. Once the stove has been used, is it impractical to hope for the glass to stay relatively clear?

Heather first Happy Thanksgiving ! With our stove we don't have an issue keeping the glass clean no matter what tree species we burn as long as the front door and ash pan gasket are good. Jotul had an issue with the Rangeley gaskets and once we figured that out we have not had an issue since. Long story short the rep came out from Jotul and ended up finding via the factory call the gasket was the issue. The other issue with EPA stoves is that they really do like and need very dry wood ! I try hard to dry 2 years and that also is a big factor in clean glass. Here we burn a lot of soft maple and pine as well as this year box elder ( which reaks ) and the glass stays very clean. It will turn some what black over night however on the reload it will clean off again roughly 20 minutes after a good coal bed is achieved. Which is close to an hour after reload it will be clean again.

( Edit )I figured out the video thing finally

This was at 6:23 am this morning roughly 38 minutes after reload you can see the corners are dark however they are actually cleaning themselves off right now. Overnght the glass will turn darker from the fact that I set it low at night. If you look close at the lower corners you can see where it is lighter on top of the corners then gets darker as it goes down this is normal. It is the air wash cleaning the glass off soon it will be cleaned off again. If you have wet wood it will take a longer to do that or not come clean at all. The main culprit I have found for dirty corners is the ash pan door though. If you dont get ash out from behind the pan it wont shut all the way and it is just enough to mess up the air wash. The popping is the box elder I mixed in for a light show .

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[Pallet Pete]

Another cause I had not thought about if you do still have a downdraft problem then the air wash will not work properly either !
Pete

 

[begreen]

Heather, before buying the stove fan, try this:

Put a table or box fan in the area outside of the stove room, placed on the floor, pointing toward the woodstove. Run it on low speed. It will blow the cooler air down low, toward the woodstove. The denser cool air will be replaced with lighter warm air from the stove room. Running this way you should notice at least a 5F increase in the adjacent area after about 30 minutes running.