Small stove top fan needed

Lurk · 7 November 2012 at 8:15PM

new_owner wrote: »

I am looking to get a small one to blow under and up the back of the stove. Currently looking at usb ones or clip-on one. Since the running cost of these is tiny and the stove is cool underneath and hot on top.

The way I see it;

Puts out way more air than a ecofan
Much... Much cheaper to buy
Should be more efficient.

Downside;

Need to wire it in
Uses a tiny amount of elec

Easy to test... take any small fan and point it under the stove.. you can feel the warm draft out the top.

You have to move air that is warm from the stove, blowing cool air from below will help to an extent, but unless the air has the chance to warm first whats the point ? There is a limit to how much air the stove can warm from its surface area... otherwise just point a desk fan at the stove and see how it works over an hour ?

rdover · 17 December 2013 at 4:05PM

Most wood/mutlifuel stove manufacturers claim ~85% efficiency where most new(ish) gas boilers are about 90% efficient, HOWEVER, gas/oil/lpg costs loads of money where wombled wood costs only your time, effort and a bit of fuel (ignoring the cost of a chainsaw etc).

In any case they warm you up 4 times:
1. collecting the wood
2. cutting, splitting and stacking
3. moving them into the house
4. burning them

IMO the efficiency of the stove is not so important as making best use of the heat you get and I have the same problem as my stove is inside an old fireplace and does not have much head room. I've looked at many options and the only one that will fit costs almost £200 once you add in shipping and you need to constantly fiddle with it to prevent it overheating and melting.

I bought a £3 usb desk fan and it did the job fantastically with a little noise which was not noticeable over the TV but after 2 evenings of it resting on top of the stove it melted - not a surprise but for £3 it was proof of concept. I'm now going to buy another one and this time mount it from the top of the fireplace so it is not getting heated directly by the metal to metal contact (stove to frame) and see how long that lasts.

At a cost of say £3 per fan until I get it right and 3w usage when it's on I reckon I've got to go through a huge number of fans before I get close to the cost of the Ecofan style which doesn't fit anyway!

ETA
To be effective the fan has to sit on top or immediately above the stove and aim the stream of air slightly down and into the room. anything else simply shift cool air around and does not help. I found this by placing my wee fan in different places until it worked, ie on top of or just above the stove.

In an ideal world I would move my stove forwards by about 12" and get an ecofan or similar but that would cost £250 for a new hearth, £150 for pipes and fittings and lose me 2' or more of floorspace to stop the direct heat ruining the sofa and I'd STILL have to buy a fan at £150! My room is long and narrow with the fireplace in the middle. I looked at raising the lintel on the fireplace but that would cost £1,000. Shame I didn't know about this when I had the damn thing fitted in the first place, I had free choice without extra cost to make the opening any size I wanted. 20:20 hindisght is a wonderful thing.

MarkBren · 27 October 2015 at 12:35AM

Just wondering if you had any joy finding a small fan for your wood burner. I am in a similar position with only 170mm clearance. Until now, the smallest I could find was the SmartFan Mini, but it is still 20mm too high (@190mm)

I found one today. Small enough, but quite pricy @ £165

MSE won't let me post a link, but they are called Fan-C

I was hoping to find a standard one, closer to £65!

Thanks

Greenfires · 27 October 2015 at 9:31AM

The Fan Ce and it's like are basically made from computer parts. Yes they look quite nice - but someone is adding a fair old mark up to the cost! You could knock one up yourself with a trip to any of the performance computer stores and the right TEG module off ebay for a couple of quid.

The other thing to bear in mind is that a pc cooling fan is designed to move a small volume of air quite quickly to cool a processor. An eco fan - or one of the multitude of cheap Chinese copies (that aren't nearly as well made or long lasting it has to be said) does quite the opposite and moves a large volume of air very gently. It's not supposed to be like sitting in front of a fan heater - the whole idea is that you're not really supposed to notice it - apart from the heat being much more evenly distributed that is.