Wood burning Fireplace Heater Blowers

[marygrze]

i want to get a fireplace heater/blower thing for my fireplace to increase the btu's my fireplace is putting out. has anyone here ever purchased a fireplace blower? if you have would you recommend buying one? and which one did you buy? and do you think it defintely works no blower vs a fireplace with. here is a link to the one i am thinking of buying: (broken link removed)

 

[fossil]

I've had a number of homes with traditional open fireplaces, and I've always been aware of the fact that they were very inefficient at actually providing heat vs. just ambience. When I lived in Virginia, in a house with two fireplaces, I considered one of these things that you're considering, but opted not to get one, because I had NG forced air central heat, and it was affordable. I've no doubt that it would work...meaning simply that it would tend to move a bit of the heat that would ordinarily just go up the chimney into the room...but I wouldn't expect some sort of heating miracle out of it. If you're serious about heating your living space with wood, I recommend you start researching the feasibility (physically and financially) of springing for a woodstove...be it free-standing, hearth, or insert. There just isn't much you can do to a traditional masonry fireplace to make it an effective heating "appliance", other than putting something in it or in front of it that really works and just using the chimney for exhaust flow. Rick

 

[Jerry_NJ]

I had one that came from Sears back in the timeframe 1978-1988, yes it held up for ten years, in fact it went with the house when I sold it. It was different than the one you show in that it had an air inlet/outlet that both operated under a set of glass doors. So, I could operate the fire behind closed glass doors, acting somewhat like a stove. I think that type is a good "poor man's insert". The inside was a grate with hollow steel tubes through which a fan pushed air into the fire's heat than out into the room. There's no question it was not putting out the heat of a stove or airtight insert, but it was lots better than an open fire. I ran about 1 cord per hear through the unit. I think it a vast improvement over an open fireplace and the unit you show/link is run with the fireplace open, not as good in my view.

 

[webbie]

The definitely work to some degree. I think one like this might be better -
(broken link removed)

Reason being is more heat exchange area and also the heat comes out the bottom - those units with the heat coming out the top have a danger of some of that heat being sucked back up the flue by the draft.

This one also works with glass doors...the combo, used correctly, will help a lot.

Keep in mind that although these will heat up the room nicely, they do not approach the efficiency of a fireplace insert. If you are going to burn a lot of wood (say over 1 cord), then you might want to consider upgrading to an insert....

One unit which is somewhat in-between......
(broken link removed to http://www.wilkeningfireplace.com/ultragreatclassic.htm)

better than blower - but not quite an insert.

 

[marygrze]

thanks one and all for the replies. i did check into the wood insert. never knew something like that existed. looks like a wood stove (but prettier) with the combo of the blower/heater thing that i am looking to buy. i did check the pricing on a few models for my fireplace and it would be something around $2000 plus someone to come in and put a new chimney lining in. it is more than i am looking to spend. hell even $500 for the blower is not really an amount i want to spend. all my wood is free so i guess this winter, will see how the blower works out. i also checked out other model heater/blowers and after some thinking, i am going to buy the model i originally chosen only b/c it "claims" to have a higher btu output then the rest. they have to had done some testng to be able to say that so I am going to dump that $500 in and see. i will report back with results.

in the meantime, i am going to read all the topics of this board. when my husband and i started collecting wood (and using the fireplace this last winter) we thought we were the only people who can get "wood obsessed". we find ourselves stacking, restacking, looking, and of course picking up wood everywhere we go. we are the weirdos in our area since we are among the few who burn wood period.

 

[fossil]

There's no question that a stove or insert represents a significant outlay of $$$. On the other hand, no matter what gadget you choose to use in your traditional open fireplace, it's never going to begin to approach the space heating effectiveness and wood burning efficiency of a modern stove or insert. The ad for your unit is interesting. I'm a bit puzzled by just how they go about assigning a BTU/hr rating to these things. They generate no heat, they just move air through tubes. The heat transfer's a function of how hot the fire is. Obviously, more tubes = more moving air, but where'd they come up with the maximum? Maybe they figured out that exceeding that would result in your convector becoming a puddle in your fireplace, dunno. Their use of the term "super heat" is pretty lame (purely marketing, I guess). The air in your room is already superheated, by quite a bit, actually. Superheat refers to the temperature of a vapor in excess of its boiling point. Anyway, give it a try, burn it for a season, and continue to explore the wide, wonderful world of woodburning...lots of possibilities for the future. Best, Rick

 

[Jerry_NJ]

Have to jump back in, I think a key to heat gain is controlling heat loss up the chimney. That's the reason I recommended the type of exchange I had, similar but cheaper than the unit Craig gave a link to.

I'm concerned that the open hearth unit you are looking (getting?) spells out the BTU value of the heat coming around the aggregate tube loops, but does nothing to account for the ton of warm room air that is going up your chimney, aided by the flow of hot gases from the fire. You also have not way to "throttle" down the fire by restricting air flow, glass doors are not great at this, but a good well fitted set of doors with glass that can take the heat (i.e., be closed when the fire is burning) will provide for some air flow control.

 

[fossil]

...looks like a wood stove (but prettier)

Aw, c'mon, what could be prettier? Rick

 

[Jerry_NJ]

Right, nice looking cat. Where's your dog(s)? :gulp:

 

[fossil]

Right, nice looking cat. Where's your dog(s)? :gulp:

Here she is. The other cat wasn't around for the stove pic, either. Sophie hopes that Mary finds a solution to improving the heating from her fireplace, too. Rick

 

[Jerry_NJ]

Arf, from the Golden in my Avatar, his name is Montana.

Have we succeeded in hijacking this thread?

 

[fossil]

...Have we succeeded in hijacking this thread?

Woof, woof. Sophie