Was there ever a convection only wood stove?

[Ancient_Warrior]

Hi all, new member. Great site!

Our house was built 1996 & assume the wood stove installed at that time. It's a Silent Flame with thermostatically controlled built in blower (hard to find much info on it).

We have used it exclusively to heat our 1250 sf house for 5 years now. It has been a good stove. When it gets to proper temp it kicks the blower on and increases blower speed as stove heat increases. I keep it a nice comfy 72 / 73 degrees without a lot of trouble. Have to reload it every 2 to 3 hours (mostly only oak).

Our blower went out on it and it seems more like a paper weight than a wood stove since. After the blower went out I thought the heck with it I'll just use it without a blower. Only way I seem to be able to get any heat out of it now is to spend hours building a 4 or 5 inch deep coal bed and having dry wood on top of that and it will finally get "hot". Never had a problem when the blower was working.

I can't imagine that any wood stove company would make a stove that's worthless without a blower..

So, my question is did anyone build pretty much convection only stoves 20 to 25 years ago?

 

[SpaceBus]

It should still convect naturally. How dry is your wood?

 

[Ashful]

A Google Images search of “Silent Flame wood stove” brings up a lot of photos of the same insert, with only one or two examples of it as a freestanding stove. If you have an insert, it’s not unusual that a blower would be required to achieve best performance.

 

[Ancient_Warrior]

It should still convect naturally. How dry is your wood?

It does a little once I get it extremely hot as mentioned.. It's the same wood I was using when the blower worked and it worked fine. Don't know actual moisture content though. Just that I went from works great (with blower) to paper weight without..

 

[Ancient_Warrior]

A Google Images search of “Silent Flame wood stove” brings up a lot of photos of the same insert, with only one or two examples of it as a freestanding stove. If you have an insert, it’s not unusual that a blower would be required to achieve best performance.

It's a free standing stove. Though I know they made inserts also.

 

[Ancient_Warrior]

At any rate I should add we're replacing it with a new Lopi Endeavor.. I'm just baffled (pun intended) by the difference in performance with & without the blower.. I can't imagine anyone ever building a stove like that.

 

[Ancient_Warrior]

It's a free standing stove. Though I know they made inserts also.

Here's a pic

 

[ShawnLiNY]

Here's a picView attachment 239461

I can see how it wouldn’t be an effective heater without the blower operating , same circumstance as a furnace ( without the blower ) not a very good heater

 

[Ancient_Warrior]

I can see how it wouldn’t be an effective heater without the blower operating , same circumstance as a furnace ( without the blower ) not a very good heater

Well, actually I've been fairly happy with it for 5 years now, until the blower quit.. It has an air space on both sides and I believe the top also where the air is heated and it does get hot (the air). But the stove itself stays relatively cool to the touch on the outside. That's what makes me think it is pretty much intended / designed to be used with a blower only. Though I have a hard time imagining such a design. Must not have been a very popular stove because it's very hard to find much info on it at all on google though I did manage to find a user's manual for it. But yeah, I agree, more like a furnace operates, super heat the air and then blow it out.

 

[SpaceBus]

It's a neat stove, but I think you will be happier all the way around with a modern stove.

 

[weatherguy]

You can still get parts for it

(broken link removed to http://www.fireplace-chimneystore.com/silentflame.html)

 

[Woody Stover]

Here's a pic

No window on the old stove? Man, you are gonna love the Endeavor; Having a window is a quantum leap in usability and control of the stove. It's even more important than a grated ash system, if you can believe that. You are in for a real treat. No blower option, but convective shields on the top and back, is that right?
On the old stove, are the side and bottom shields open to room air moving through, in case the blower isn't working? If not, there's no way for the heat to convect out into the room.
My Dutchwest is shielded only on the back and top, but has a couple vent holes on the bottom that you can open up if the blower isn't working. Still, there's much less heat output than I get with the blower.

 

[Ancient_Warrior]

You can still get parts for it

(broken link removed to http://www.fireplace-chimneystore.com/silentflame.html)

Ha, thanks for the link, appreciate it. I thought about trying to repair it but at nearly 25 years old and devoid of pretty much all new technology decided I'd be better off with a newer stove with better secondary burn and radiant heat. From what I have seen I think the Lopi Endeavor will do a good job for us. I was just amazed I couldn't get more heat out of it without the blower and wanted to see what some more knowledgeable stove people had to say about it. But it's such an off brand stove don't know that too many people are familiar with it at all..

 

[Ancient_Warrior]

It's a neat stove, but I think you will be happier all the way around with a modern stove.

I certainly think that's right. It may have a bit of nostalgic value, glad I didn't use it the whole 20+ years or it might have more lol

 

[Ancient_Warrior]

No window on the old stove? Man, you are gonna love the Endeavor; Having a window is a quantum leap in usability and control of the stove. It's even more important than a grated ash system, if you can believe that. You are in for a real treat. No blower option, but convective shields on the top and back, is that right?
On the old stove, are the side and bottom shields open to room air moving through, in case the blower isn't working? If not, there's no way for the heat to convect out into the room.
My Dutchwest is shielded only on the back and top, but has a couple vent holes on the bottom that you can open up if the blower isn't working. Still, there's much less heat output than I get with the blower.

Nope, no window on the old one. Endeavor is step top so yeah convective shields top and back. It does have an optional blower but not getting it. May play with one of those stove top fans

"On the old stove, are the side and bottom shields open to room air moving through, in case the blower isn't working? If not, there's no way for the heat to convect out into the room."

That makes perfect sense. I didn't think to check for any holes for air to enter from outside the stove so just checked and no, didn't see any at all. It has a small metal plate bottom right hand back side, took that off and it's just access to some motor wiring attached to it apparently.

 

[Woody Stover]

It does have an optional blower but not getting it. May play with one of those stove top fans

Different stove, but when my brother saw that the blower for his Regency F2400 was hundreds of dollars, he went online and found components to fab up his own blower. If your new stove isn't oversized, and has a harder time keeping up when it gets super-cold out, the blower will boost output substantially, as I mentioned was the case with my backup stove.

 

[Dakotas Dad]

Buddy has a Buck freestanding stove from that era.. It basically has a jacket around it, and the blower pushes air through that space, without power, the thing is almost useless.

 

[mellow]

Just as a side note, how seasoned is your wood? I can't tell really good from the picture but that wood looks freshly split.

The new stove is going to want low moisture wood, ie.. seasoned for at least a year, and oak for longer.

 

[Ancient_Warrior]

Different stove, but when my brother saw that the blower for his Regency F2400 was hundreds of dollars, he went online and found components to fab up his own blower. If your new stove isn't oversized, and has a harder time keeping up when it gets super-cold out, the blower will boost output substantially, as I mentioned was the case with my backup stove.

Lopi Endeavor was installed yesterday. I burned a couple very small fires last night to cure the paint some. It was 9 degrees here this morning so fired it up. Man.. I'm pretty amazed by this stove as compared to my last. Can already tell I'll be using far less wood to get far better longer lasting heat. Hardly have to feed this new one at all once she gets hot. I'm still running 75 degrees plus on nothing but some old coals! And it's only 19 outside right now (3 PM).

I thought about trying to fab one of those heat driven fans just for fun

 

[Ancient_Warrior]

Buddy has a Buck freestanding stove from that era.. It basically has a jacket around it, and the blower pushes air through that space, without power, the thing is almost useless.

Yep, that's our old one for sure! I was flabbergasted that anyone would build a stove like that..

 

[Ancient_Warrior]

Different stove, but when my brother saw that the blower for his Regency F2400 was hundreds of dollars, he went online and found components to fab up his own blower. If your new stove isn't oversized, and has a harder time keeping up when it gets super-cold out, the blower will boost output substantially, as I mentioned was the case with my backup stove.

Oh and I was gonna tell you I found a hole.. The old stove had a pedestal and when it came out there was a hole in the floor under it to feed in outside air. It was about 2 inches wide by 6 or 8 inches long. So now have to figure out what to do with the hole in the floor lol

 

[Ancient_Warrior]

Just as a side note, how seasoned is your wood? I can't tell really good from the picture but that wood looks freshly split.

The new stove is going to want low moisture wood, ie.. seasoned for at least a year, and oak for longer.

I tested a piece last night and it was showing 16% and is burning fine in the new stove so think I'm good there. Thanks.

 

[Woody Stover]

Can already tell I'll be using far less wood to get far better longer lasting heat. Hardly have to feed this new one at all once she gets hot. I'm still running 75 degrees plus on nothing but some old coals! And it's only 19 outside right now (3 PM).
I thought about trying to fab one of those heat driven fans just for fun

That's awesome. You'll no doubt be thrilled with the results, and will wonder why you didn't do it sooner. Lopi makes some quality stoves.
Sounds like you may be able to hold room temp while burning down coals. My stove does OK at that: I can open up the air on a load of coals and keep the stove top and sides 350-375. There's also a 1/4" hole in my ash pan housing, which admits air through the grate under, the coal bed. I can pull the coals forward, fun a poker under them to dump the ash through in that area so the coals get more air underneath, and burn the coals down to almost nothing. Ya, it's a fun stove.
If you make it through this stretch of cold, you may not even need a blower. This is about the coldest we see, in our neck of the woods. I agree though, it's always fun to tinker around with stove stuff, just for the heck of it. Blower would help if you need to move heated air to the far reaches of the house in extreme outside temps..

 

[weatherguy]

You should only be loading the new stove 2-3 times a day welcome to the 21st century, you're gonna love it.

 

[Woody Stover]

In the brochure, looks like there are a couple different options for the side shields? Does the one with the vertical slits tie in to the blower? (broken link removed to https://www.lopistoves.com/TravisDocs/98800729.pdf)