I received a PM with the following question. It might be useful to others, so maybe it's thread-worthy.
Q: "I just bought a used WinterWarm and the fan is obnoxiously loud...........I see your sig says yours is quiet? Question is how quiet, mine sounds like a jet airplane?"
You can fix this. If you bought a used unit, you may need to clean your fans and the cabinet, and maybe tighten up the sheetmetal screws here and there on the cabinet, and possibly also straighten the linkage on the speed control. There are two WinterWarm models, small and large. I have the small unit, which has two fans, and they are pretty quiet when on low speed, but they weren’t always that way. I made three improvements that quieted them down, and you might be able to improve yours. Here’s the story:
I bought the unit used. It is about 15 years old, and came to me full of ash, and the fans were loud. Not only that, when I blew compressed air into the cabinet (the sheet metal cabinet surrounding the unit) to dust it out, the dust and ash just kept coming out, so I decided to take the cabinet off and see what the heck was in there. Well, 15 years worth of ash, dust, pet hair, etc. had accumulated in practically every nook and cranny of the cabinet, drawn in by the fans over 15 winters. The fan blades themselves had dirt caked onto them, and, as you can imagine, that throws them out of balance. Simply cleaning the fans was the first big improvement—the fans run much smoother, like a tire in proper balance, and don’t vibrate the metal housing so much. That quieted everything down a lot. Compressed air, a soft brush, and a shop vac are really useful. It took me 40 minutes to fully disassemble the cabinet, and about the same to reassemble it.
The second improvement was tightening the screws on the sheetmetal cabinet—all of them (there are about 40 it seems). Go easy or they will strip. But snugging them up stops the rattles that the fans can cause.
Finally, the speed control linkage on the small model is on the bottom of the unit and prone to damage when the unit is moved. Mine was bent, and wouldn’t allow the full low speed setting until I removed and straightened the linkage. Easy job, like straightening a nail.
Now, the unit is quiet and clean. On low speed, I can sit next to the unit and read without distraction (well, after my children go to bed). TV volume does not have to be adjusted. When the house is very quiet, like in the middle of the night, I can hear the fans on low from another room, but it is not a distracting sound, more like a good refrigerator quietly humming.
On high speed, the fans really can move a lot of air, and make noise doing so, but it is fan noise, not cabinet rattle. I don’t like to read by the unit on high, the wind, heat and noise are distracting. I rarely use high speed anyway, so it doesn’t matter to me.
Now, if you are following my advice, and take the cabinet apart to clean and tighten, you will want to check some other things while it is open. Inspect your secondary air control. Make sure it works smoothly and the linkage is secure, and check the temperature probe. It should stick into the combustion chamber below the cat. These probes burn away when old. This is bad, and will let too much secondary air in. This lets the cat get too hot—not good! Replace this $60 part while the cabinet is apart.
With the castings exposed, look for cracks near the flue collar. If the unit has been overfired, this area can crack. Also, check the seams. Check the gasket around the removable panel at the rear bottom of the firebox. Air leaks here will frustrate your attempts to get long burns, as will leaks anywhere, but this one is easiest to evaluate and fix when the cabinet is apart. Check the neoprene fan mounting rings that lie between the vertical fan housing and the main cabinet body. These should be pliable and making a reasonably good seal.
Good luck!
Q: "I just bought a used WinterWarm and the fan is obnoxiously loud...........I see your sig says yours is quiet? Question is how quiet, mine sounds like a jet airplane?"
You can fix this. If you bought a used unit, you may need to clean your fans and the cabinet, and maybe tighten up the sheetmetal screws here and there on the cabinet, and possibly also straighten the linkage on the speed control. There are two WinterWarm models, small and large. I have the small unit, which has two fans, and they are pretty quiet when on low speed, but they weren’t always that way. I made three improvements that quieted them down, and you might be able to improve yours. Here’s the story:
I bought the unit used. It is about 15 years old, and came to me full of ash, and the fans were loud. Not only that, when I blew compressed air into the cabinet (the sheet metal cabinet surrounding the unit) to dust it out, the dust and ash just kept coming out, so I decided to take the cabinet off and see what the heck was in there. Well, 15 years worth of ash, dust, pet hair, etc. had accumulated in practically every nook and cranny of the cabinet, drawn in by the fans over 15 winters. The fan blades themselves had dirt caked onto them, and, as you can imagine, that throws them out of balance. Simply cleaning the fans was the first big improvement—the fans run much smoother, like a tire in proper balance, and don’t vibrate the metal housing so much. That quieted everything down a lot. Compressed air, a soft brush, and a shop vac are really useful. It took me 40 minutes to fully disassemble the cabinet, and about the same to reassemble it.
The second improvement was tightening the screws on the sheetmetal cabinet—all of them (there are about 40 it seems). Go easy or they will strip. But snugging them up stops the rattles that the fans can cause.
Finally, the speed control linkage on the small model is on the bottom of the unit and prone to damage when the unit is moved. Mine was bent, and wouldn’t allow the full low speed setting until I removed and straightened the linkage. Easy job, like straightening a nail.
Now, the unit is quiet and clean. On low speed, I can sit next to the unit and read without distraction (well, after my children go to bed). TV volume does not have to be adjusted. When the house is very quiet, like in the middle of the night, I can hear the fans on low from another room, but it is not a distracting sound, more like a good refrigerator quietly humming.
On high speed, the fans really can move a lot of air, and make noise doing so, but it is fan noise, not cabinet rattle. I don’t like to read by the unit on high, the wind, heat and noise are distracting. I rarely use high speed anyway, so it doesn’t matter to me.
Now, if you are following my advice, and take the cabinet apart to clean and tighten, you will want to check some other things while it is open. Inspect your secondary air control. Make sure it works smoothly and the linkage is secure, and check the temperature probe. It should stick into the combustion chamber below the cat. These probes burn away when old. This is bad, and will let too much secondary air in. This lets the cat get too hot—not good! Replace this $60 part while the cabinet is apart.
With the castings exposed, look for cracks near the flue collar. If the unit has been overfired, this area can crack. Also, check the seams. Check the gasket around the removable panel at the rear bottom of the firebox. Air leaks here will frustrate your attempts to get long burns, as will leaks anywhere, but this one is easiest to evaluate and fix when the cabinet is apart. Check the neoprene fan mounting rings that lie between the vertical fan housing and the main cabinet body. These should be pliable and making a reasonably good seal.
Good luck!
