Unfortunate Discoveries About My Corn Stove

[Snerdguy]

I'm new to this forum but not without experience. I have a Glow Boy corn burning stove. I need only say that corn was $2.70 a bushel the first season I heated with it and you all know the rest. Since that first season, I have used it only with wood pellets off and on during the coldest weather. When I went to fire it up early this Winter, the thing made a terrible noise. I wanted to keep it in good running order if only to use with a generator during power outages.

I went over the stove trying to find the cause of the noise and found it was coming from the combustion blower. I tried cleaning the exhaust vent and finally I pulled the stove out and took it apart. The entire squirrel cage blower fan had rusted and fallen apart. The blades were all eaten up by rust and probably corrosion. There wasn't anything wrong with the blower motor or housing so I wanted to get a replacement blower to fix it only to find out my dealer was no longer in business. The service department at the factory says they only sell the entire blower for $200.00.

I would like to know why that happened. I know corn burns a little more corrosively than wood pellets. But that would be taken into consideration when the stove was designed, wouldn't it? Now, I have my corn stove in parts as I try to find a replacement blower fan and I wonder if it is even worth fixing the stove. Instead of saving money on heating, this has turned into a major expense. Has anyone here had a similar experience?

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Squirrel cage in a combustion blower ????

One should never turn off a stove at the end of a heating season without cleaning it out completely and coating any rust-able parts with a light oil or paint job, plugging both the vent and air intake, along with placing a desiccant in the firebox.

 

[smoke show]

Some corn burning folks end the season on pellets to rid the stove of corrosiveness.

Allegedly.

 

[Snerdguy]

"Squirrel cage in a combustion blower ????"

Yep.

I do clean it out completely at the end of the season. But, the combustion fan is hard to access. To really clean the fan good would require replacing the expensive gasket. I go over the stove in the spring and clean and vacuum it completely. My house is air conditioned and dehumidified.

Makes you wonder what the guy was smoking when he designed it. Its not like the fan couldn't have been made of a more corrosion resistant metal like stainless steel. If other members on the board have one of these stoves they might want to check their combustion blower. I see a potential for serious problems if the fan fails while the stove is fired up.

 

[nailed_nailer]

Snerdguy,

Not saying these are a replacement for your blower but perhaps you could make something work.

http://www.surpluscenter.com/sort.asp?catname=electric&byKeyword=yes&search=pellet

Poke around you might be able to do better elsewhere.
Grainger
McMaster Carr
etc.
---Nailer---

 

[Snerdguy]

Snerdguy,

Not saying these are a replacement for your blower but perhaps you could make something work.

http://www.surpluscenter.com/sort.asp?catname=electric&byKeyword=yes&search=pellet

Poke around you might be able to do better elsewhere.
Grainger
McMaster Carr
etc.
---Nailer---

Thank you for the information. Surpluscenter.com appears to have a fan that I could rig up to work if I can match up the CFMs. Grainger didn't have anything. I will also try McMaster Carr. I appreciate your help.

 

[DexterDay]

CSH incorporated has some good blowers you can cross reference.

This may not work for your stove, but this is the replacement I found for my 16 yr old Englander. A little digging and some # matching. You should be able to find one.

Just a reference for ya . . .

http://www.cshincorporated.com/product_info.php/products_id/3462

 

[Snerdguy]

Snerdguy,

Not saying these are a replacement for your blower but perhaps you could make something work.

http://www.surpluscenter.com/sort.asp?catname=electric&byKeyword=yes&search=pellet

Poke around you might be able to do better elsewhere.
Grainger
McMaster Carr
etc.
---Nailer---

Thank you for the information. Surpluscenter.com appears to have a fan that I could rig up to work if I can match up the CFMs. Grainger didn't have anything. I will also try McMaster Carr. I appreciate your help.

I wanted to follow up and say thank you for your help. The blower I purchased for under fifty dollars (including shipping) from surpluscenter.com fit without modification and works just fine. It even came with a new mounting gasket. The fan itself is a paddle rather than a squirrel cage so it should hold up much longer.

Snerdguy

 

[nailed_nailer]

Glad it worked out for you.

I have had good luck with Surplus Center over the years.
They don't always have the best prices and shipping usually is quite high.....But, they carry a good stock.

Usually when I buy from them I try to make the order a round number ~$100 or so.
So, I end up looking thru their misc stuff and pick up a bunch of small item I didn't know I needed.
Things like hard drive magnets, drawer slides, ammo boxes, stainless braided cable, pneumatic fittings, etc.

Sorta like shopping in a used tool shop.

At $50 each blower you could replace 4 of them and be ahead.

At end of year(season) do a thorough clean out and preserve the components for next season.
It should treat you good.

---Nailer---

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

+1 for the surplus center, I'm always watching their catalog for blowers, etc.

Just have to match things up.