I hope the below to be helpful to someone:
I have a fireplace extraordinaire (with a different face it is sold as a lopi declaration). And it was time to service the blowers. for those unfamiliar this is a flush mount stove with a pair of blowers under it. I bought the stove new in 2006, and by 2013 they were making lots of noise (estimate 20-25 cords of wood). I was able to get a new pair then. These are Part: 171-01010 (actually that seems to be an old part number, the new one is 228-10069). When I replaced the blowers in 2013 they were $60-$120 each. I bought $60 ones and they were identical to the originals. I was amazed how quiet the new ones were, they probably should have been replaced a long time ago.
However, it bothered me spending so much for the blowers, and I was concerned how much longer I could get replacement parts. Now, in 2016, the new ones are occasionally making bearing noises. but since they are working fine, I figured it was worth tearing into the old motors. Below is a picture of one of the the "old" and "new" motors.
![[Hearth.com] replacing blower bearings](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/176/176841-0d14820155ebaea526f169985c1b528a.jpg?hash=Mgvb1IEPOI "[Hearth.com] replacing blower bearings")
the motor and squirrel cage is held onto the bracket (piece with rubber grommets) by 6 pop rivets. I drilled out these rivets.
Then the motor can be twisted about 20 degrees to separate from the squirrel cage unit. The motor shaft is just friction fit to a rubber piece on the blower (left side). The right side of the squirrel cage has a metal stud going into a metal bushing.
Fixing it:
I used spray lithium grease for the metal bushing.
The motor required more work. There were 2 screws in the c frame motor that hold the two bearings on either side. Unscrewing that lets you remove the bearings and the motor shaft. The motor shaft is a shaft, motor rotor with a bearing on either side of it. I was able to pull the bearings off the shaft. This was hard as the bearings were very close to the armature. I tried tapping it out, and found the shaft could move in the armature. This was annoying as I had to re-tap the shaft back to the right location. Next time I will be more careful with the bearings.
Once the bearings were off the shaft, I chucked the shaft into the drill and used a greenie pad to scrub the rust and whatnot off of the shaft.
The bearings turned out to be 608 bearings, these are generic roller skate bearings. Super available and cheap! I ordered many replacements.
(broken link removed to http://www.ebay.com/itm/191034440705?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT)
(broken link removed to http://www.ebay.com/itm/391385140321?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT)
(broken link removed to http://www.ebay.com/itm/161807909080?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT)
Of those I was only pleased with these:
![[Hearth.com] replacing blower bearings](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/176/176842-9c7d5905c1d328c147030070814b73b2.jpg?hash=TwQU2DDw_p "[Hearth.com] replacing blower bearings")
four bearings for $5. The others were a mess. They were very heavily greased. I put them in one of the motors and the motor could barely spin there was so much friction. These green ones work perfect and are very quiet.
There was a tiny gap between the bearing and the rotor. Not enough of a gap to feel any movement, but enough that it would spin relative to the shaft. A drop of blue locktite fixed that when I replaced them.
Bearings:
Bearings are rated by their ABEC rating. The higher the number, the better the tolerances and less slop in the system there is. So in this case a higher number is probably better. Keeping the unit quiet. Bearings can be rated as 608RS or 608ZZ The RS is for a removable seal. The ZZ is for a removable shield. The shield is not going to seal the bearing. Since I wanted to keep the ash dust out I went with RS. One set of bearings was stainless steel. This would be better, the originals had some corrosion in them, clearly what caused the failure. This was probably just humid air. The stainless steel ones also had too much friction and I am not using them.
BUT
the 2 of the lots of bearings had very high friction, with the grease. These might be fine for more powerful units, but not for this. You can pop the seals off, soak the bearings in a solvent to get rid of the grease, and replace with a better lube. I have done that but am not thrilled with the results yet. The green ones worked great out of the box, didn't mess with them.
Putting it bath together was simple, reassemble the motor, connect the squirrel cage to the motor, put bolts/nuts with locktite where the pop rivets were, and back in it goes.
lessons learned.
don't tap out the bearing when it is still in the bearing housing, the housing is cast material and easily cracks. JB weld fixed that just fine.
don't try to tap out the bearings bracing the rotor, the shaft will move relative to the rotor and it will be out of alignment. be more careful to press the bearing against the shaft.
Use locktite to hold the bearing to the shaft if there is a nominal clearance, a press fit is better of course.
The rating of the bearing might not be of much value, if they are made in china it could be a lie. And even with good tolerance the grease could make it nonusable. These are cheap enough I suggest ordering a few different lots so you can test them out, and plan to be able to regrease.
have a spare set of blowers on hand. I can now swap them out in a matter of just a few minutes. Beats having to do all the work during heating season.
Even though the blowers work "fine" replacing the bearings can really quiet them down, they seem to slowly make more and more noise you might not see them getting bad.
There might be a more elegant way to do this, but for $2 of bearings, its way cheaper than buying new motors.
I have a fireplace extraordinaire (with a different face it is sold as a lopi declaration). And it was time to service the blowers. for those unfamiliar this is a flush mount stove with a pair of blowers under it. I bought the stove new in 2006, and by 2013 they were making lots of noise (estimate 20-25 cords of wood). I was able to get a new pair then. These are Part: 171-01010 (actually that seems to be an old part number, the new one is 228-10069). When I replaced the blowers in 2013 they were $60-$120 each. I bought $60 ones and they were identical to the originals. I was amazed how quiet the new ones were, they probably should have been replaced a long time ago.
However, it bothered me spending so much for the blowers, and I was concerned how much longer I could get replacement parts. Now, in 2016, the new ones are occasionally making bearing noises. but since they are working fine, I figured it was worth tearing into the old motors. Below is a picture of one of the the "old" and "new" motors.
the motor and squirrel cage is held onto the bracket (piece with rubber grommets) by 6 pop rivets. I drilled out these rivets.
Then the motor can be twisted about 20 degrees to separate from the squirrel cage unit. The motor shaft is just friction fit to a rubber piece on the blower (left side). The right side of the squirrel cage has a metal stud going into a metal bushing.
Fixing it:
I used spray lithium grease for the metal bushing.
The motor required more work. There were 2 screws in the c frame motor that hold the two bearings on either side. Unscrewing that lets you remove the bearings and the motor shaft. The motor shaft is a shaft, motor rotor with a bearing on either side of it. I was able to pull the bearings off the shaft. This was hard as the bearings were very close to the armature. I tried tapping it out, and found the shaft could move in the armature. This was annoying as I had to re-tap the shaft back to the right location. Next time I will be more careful with the bearings.
Once the bearings were off the shaft, I chucked the shaft into the drill and used a greenie pad to scrub the rust and whatnot off of the shaft.
The bearings turned out to be 608 bearings, these are generic roller skate bearings. Super available and cheap! I ordered many replacements.
(broken link removed to http://www.ebay.com/itm/191034440705?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT)
(broken link removed to http://www.ebay.com/itm/391385140321?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT)
(broken link removed to http://www.ebay.com/itm/161807909080?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT)
Of those I was only pleased with these:
four bearings for $5. The others were a mess. They were very heavily greased. I put them in one of the motors and the motor could barely spin there was so much friction. These green ones work perfect and are very quiet.
There was a tiny gap between the bearing and the rotor. Not enough of a gap to feel any movement, but enough that it would spin relative to the shaft. A drop of blue locktite fixed that when I replaced them.
Bearings:
Bearings are rated by their ABEC rating. The higher the number, the better the tolerances and less slop in the system there is. So in this case a higher number is probably better. Keeping the unit quiet. Bearings can be rated as 608RS or 608ZZ The RS is for a removable seal. The ZZ is for a removable shield. The shield is not going to seal the bearing. Since I wanted to keep the ash dust out I went with RS. One set of bearings was stainless steel. This would be better, the originals had some corrosion in them, clearly what caused the failure. This was probably just humid air. The stainless steel ones also had too much friction and I am not using them.
BUT
the 2 of the lots of bearings had very high friction, with the grease. These might be fine for more powerful units, but not for this. You can pop the seals off, soak the bearings in a solvent to get rid of the grease, and replace with a better lube. I have done that but am not thrilled with the results yet. The green ones worked great out of the box, didn't mess with them.
Putting it bath together was simple, reassemble the motor, connect the squirrel cage to the motor, put bolts/nuts with locktite where the pop rivets were, and back in it goes.
lessons learned.
don't tap out the bearing when it is still in the bearing housing, the housing is cast material and easily cracks. JB weld fixed that just fine.
don't try to tap out the bearings bracing the rotor, the shaft will move relative to the rotor and it will be out of alignment. be more careful to press the bearing against the shaft.
Use locktite to hold the bearing to the shaft if there is a nominal clearance, a press fit is better of course.
The rating of the bearing might not be of much value, if they are made in china it could be a lie. And even with good tolerance the grease could make it nonusable. These are cheap enough I suggest ordering a few different lots so you can test them out, and plan to be able to regrease.
have a spare set of blowers on hand. I can now swap them out in a matter of just a few minutes. Beats having to do all the work during heating season.
Even though the blowers work "fine" replacing the bearings can really quiet them down, they seem to slowly make more and more noise you might not see them getting bad.
There might be a more elegant way to do this, but for $2 of bearings, its way cheaper than buying new motors.
!!![[Hearth.com] replacing blower bearings](/talk/data/attachments/192/192250-2d180bbc7c1b1bc26940f472bf99b76d.jpg?hash=fCSN6-tAE9)
![[Hearth.com] replacing blower bearings](/talk/data/attachments/192/192521-2a5b8081648fa65917f4a1b45658737f.jpg?hash=fCSN6-tAE9)
