Temp won't rise with fan on medium or higher

[joefrompa]

Hi all,

I just wanted to check to see if this is a common experience among owners of inserts OR, more specifically, Lopi insert owners.

I've noticed and really now confirmed a phenomena I've been observing: my fan usually doesn't turn on till the stove hits at least 400 (or, more accurately, it's over 300 for about 5-10 minutes). Which is fine, takes about 10-20 minutes for the fan to kick on and at that point I'm usually around 400-450 degrees.

What I've noticed is that if the fan kicks on and I've got it set on medium or higher fan speed, the temperatures basically stop rising. I might be able to eek out 475 or 500, but it'll never rise higher than that. Last night I had a hardcore coal bed going, two engulfed pieces of semi-seasoned ash, and I put a really nice pine log on top when the temp was 475. Woosh! My firebox was filled with flames and secondaries which continued for a solid 15 minutes straight. Fan on like 6/10. Temp never rose above 500 (and I actually think my rutland stove top thermometer reads high).

So I decided to experiment: without changing any stove settings, I reduced the fan to its lowest setting. Slowly, over the next 30 minutes or so, the stove rose to about 650-700.

Is this normal or simply a byproduct of a hard-core Lopi blower?

Since the insert puts out only minimal heat without the blower, i feel like I should use it ASAP and continuously at a good setting.

Should I instead leave it on low and let the stove get up to 650 or so before cranking the blower? If so, then I can sustain a much higher level of heat output but I let more heat go before I start using it...

Thanks all,

Joe

 

[oldspark]

On my summit the fan has a big part in the stove top temp, I leave it off the the stove hits 5 to 6 hundred degrees, depending on the load it drags the temp down 100 to 150 degrees.

 

[weatherguy]

Thats typical of all stoves, inserts or freestanding, I dont have an automatic fan on my BK so I keep the fan low til I get it up to a temp I want, then I turn the fan on med or high depending on how much heat I need. If I kept it on high the temp would never get up to where I need it, or if it did it would take a long time.

 

[tickbitty]

Joe, I have noticed the same thing. I try to leave the fan off or on low only till the temp gets up where I want it.

I did notice though that if the fan is on medium or whatever, that after the wood's gone and the temp is dropping the fan keeps on blowing out the hot air from the coals and embers for quite a while, it will keep it up till it gets way down, like below 300 stovetop I noticed!

 

[joefrompa]

Tickbitty - Yep. Last night I went to bed with the stove at 725 and the fan cranked to about 9/10 (to prevent it from over-firing if it suddenly drafted better or something).

I know that the fan would remain on high down to aobut 250-275. When I came down this morning (sadly, only after about 7 hours of burning), the fan was off and the temp was below 200, but I know that puppy was probably cranking on high for 4-5 hours. I know because my mouth was so dry from the lack of humidity....

 

[madison]

joe,

than fan is doing what you want it to do, removing heat from the stove and distributing it to your room, so the stove surface temp should decrease along with the blower rate. I observe ~ 150 or so drop in stove top temp with the fan on high with our PE T6.

Think of it in reverse and a difffernt application, if your water pump in your automobile were to suddenly freeze or stop, what happens to your coolant temp?

 

[thewoodlands]

Joe we have the blower from Lopi on the Liberty and even on high we can get temps 600-750, that was burning 7-8 splits of cherry from the coals from the overnight burn.

zap

 

[corey21]

I found out about the fan early today. i had on low and i reloaded 2 splits stove hit 350 in 3 mins but if i leave it on med it takes forever to get the stove hot.

 

[jjh3d]

Joe: I have a Lopi Declaration new in 2009. I get the same thing, and I agree with what Madison said: The fan is doing what it's supposed to do. If the stove is cooling off, it's because you're moving the cool air toward it and blowing hot air away. That's a good thing, so long as you don't let it get too cool.

I let my stove get up to about 400-500 before turning on the fan. In the morning (after 7-8 hours of overnight burning with the damper closed) I have hot coals, 200-300 degrees and fan still running on about 50% where I usually put it overnight.

I have a question for anyone out there: Does the fan use affect the burn time? I don't need the stove room to be quite as hot overnight and I'm wondering if I'll save wood by turning off the fan. Is it better to leave the fan off overnight? Will doing so keep it burning longer and hotter?

John