Stovetop fans on soapstone

[pippinchip]

We have a Hearthstone Mansfield, but the heat mostly stays in the room the stove is in and I'm trying to figure out ways to help move heat out into the next room. We do have an electric fan, which if we can figure out the most strategic placement will probably be more effective than a stovetop fan, but it often gets turned off when people are hanging out in the living room because it's noisy.

Can anyone weigh in with experience using a stovetop fan on a soapstone stove? I'm hesitant to buy one as they are pricey (and most are designed for iron stoves with hotter surface temps), but at least it would actually be consistently used while the wood stove is in use... I dunno, is it worth it? Does anyone have a specific fan model that you'd recommend for a Hearthstone?

 

[bigealta]

You can get them for $20 on temu.
That said they push very little air.
A small 8" or 10" electric fan, even on low, pushes so much more air it's not even close.
If you can get the electric fan on the floor to pull cold air in and push it toward either under the stove or around the sides it should help get more usable heat.
Keep the speed on low though, You want to gently guide the cold air to the stove and not mix it all up.
Cold floor air gets heated by stove and flows up, around, and away from the stove. Keeping The stratification helps this.

If your current fan is to noisy get a different one that is not as loud. Noisy fans bother me too. I'm still looking for a whisper quite one.

 

[bigealta]

Post a pic of your stove in the room and adjacent doorways if you can. We can tell u where to put it for best results.

Here is my set up Air filter fan sucks cold air from adjacent room and blows it on slow under the woodstove. Hot air flows thru this room and out to the rest of the house to replace the cold floor air it is drawing in.

 

[bigealta]

This air filter is noisy even on low but this room is dusty with the dogs so i sometimes put up with it. A small fan works just as well and i do use that often instead of the air filter. In this set up it greatly increases the heat in both this room and the rest of the house.

 

[stoveliker]

I second the blowing cold air on low speed towards the stove. It'll be replaced by warmer air flowing back. Blow too hard and cold and warm air mix, and it won't move much.
Even a small (4"x4") computer fan (they are notoriously quiet!) on the ground in a door opening works. You need a consistent small flow, then in a few hours you'll see a difference in temperature.
So not a "cold there, switch on the fan"-approach, but a consistent blowing.

I have one of those stove top fans (as in the pic above) and they're a toy. They don't really do much - for me. But then again I have a convection deck ("double wall stove top"), so the top temp where the fan is, is lower.