Yes, blowers "cool" the stove top since they are always bringing in cooler air over the top of the stove to exchange heat. But, it does not alter the interior workings of the stove and it doesn't "keep it from working."
I was just thinking that since the secondary air travels up and across the back of the stove that the extra blower air might cool it down too much.
Only the first part of the secondary manifold passes up the relatively cold back of the stove. Then it turns onto the sides for preheat below the baffle then and distribution to the tubes. I have found that the blowers do not cool your stove top very much at all. An IR meter will tell you the story where a magnetic coil gauge will be effected by the wind current. Maybe with this larger blower I will see more stovetop cooling. The actual secondary combustion area is below the baffle so cooling the stove top is not directly cooling the "firebox". I am measuring flue temps and will make sure to keep them up. If I can't keep a warm flue then draft will suffer and creo could form. I will then use a rheostat. Remember, the furnaces use a much much larger blower. Like 800 CFM. With only a slightly larger firebox.
The noisy blower is the one thing I don't like about the 30. Luckily I don't use it very much and it's always on medium when I do. That thing would drive me crazy if I had to hear it all the time. I can see how the 30's blower would fall short in trying to heat a big open area.
I find the same thing regarding the coil thermo. This is with the blower on high. I burn in the basement, so noise is not an issue. The blower is always on high. If I turn the blower off the Rutland coil thermo will pretty much agree with the IR.
Since the firebox has to be hot to get the secondary burn if you had a large fan (too big?) I was just thinking it would remove enough heat to hinder the secondary burning.
While the theory is a good one... I still dougmdmbt it would hinder secondary combustion in this instance. For 2 reasons.. 1.) Whether you run a 100 CFM blower, or a 300 CFM blower, it will be blowing ambient air temperature up the back of the stove. Granted flow will be higher, but 3 sides of the secondary box is within the firebox on the back of the stove (aired as noted above, most of the channel runs along the inner sides, below the baffle where the heat is highest). 2.) Even an increased flow of air over the stove won't effect the firebox temp below the baffle. You are exchanging heat from the stove top. Secondary combustion happens a few inches below that (under the baffle). With my 30,I only have the AC-30 blower, but I have a sealed convection deck that forces 100% of the blower air directly across the stove top and I also have a fan the I use to blow across the side of the stove for even more convection heat. I burn small loads and have secondary action like crazy. Never had an issue getting this stove to light off the secondaries. Within a minute of load time they are firing on all cylinders.
Thank you as that is all it was, a theory, my Summit fan cooled the stove top a fair amount and everyone always said to not turn the fan on for start up to help get the stove hot and allow secondary combustion to start as soon as possible. I think in an extreme case (too big a fan) it could hinder the secondary combustion even more. I burnt the Summit as hot as I could get it (did not work correctly) and it had creosote on the back of the stove where the fan cooled the box.
My Summit fan dropped the temp 100 degrees right away, my Drolet does not affect it at all. The Summit is wrapped in tin which might help with the cooling.
I think the Drolet and Englander are similar in operation. I only shut the fan off to load. Then start the blower and the fan back up. Secondaries going by then. I normally loaf on a decent bed of coals though.
I don't even bother shutting off the blower on a reload. I'll turn it down to low, though, if it's higher than that. In my house, because it's comparatively small, running the fan on low is all I need most of the time. I cranked it up this morning after the stove got hot, and the house warmed faster than usual. Nice. I have yet to set the blower any higher than maybe 1/3 speed. YMMV
I think that there is a theoretical point where you can steal enough heat from the stove that you can cause problems. I suspect that the first problem will be low draft if you are cooling the flue gasses too much. I have been watching flue temps to be sure that they are above 250 on the surface to keep draft up and a pretty hot fire. I have been using the 160cfm fan at maximum output since it is quiet and I have no rheostat. I really quickly learned that the large flow of air across the stove top sucks smoke out of the loading door much stronger than the chimney can draft. Must turn the blower off with each door opening or face a smoke burst.
Well, I will be searching the aftermarket options and/or larger blower. As my AC-30 started making a terrible noise last night. I took it apart and cleaned and lubed the bearings, but it still sounds bad. So a hunting I will go tonight for a replacement.
Any updates can we get a pic and details of this convection deck/plate and the new more powerful blower? Sent you a pm too
How did I miss this? .... Great thread. Any pics of this blower hook up attached to the stove? Any more thoughts on it?
The blower is awesome. The fan's housing channels a focused stream of air that can easily be aimed into the bottom of the heat shield gap from below. I have lazily set it on a stack of two 2x6 chunks of scrap lumber until I find time to build a proper bracket so nothing to show. With this blower setup you can leave the ridiculously noisy and ineffective ac16 blower in place. Now, the blast of hot air shoots out from under the convection deck to easily dry your eyeballs out at four feet from the glass.
Okay folks. Had a day to futz around in the barn and decided to not only mount the 160cfm blower but also an adjustable snapdisk controller to turn the fan on and off. It is starting to become a bit of a minifurnace. So pics. The bracket is just 1.5" x1/8" thick angle iron. Two 8" sticks for the sides and a 15" across the bottom. Bolted onto the rear heat shield using the OEM bolts. The fan bolts to a little 5.25x3" wide square platform. I used the fans rubber mount pads. I held the fan as low as possible in the OEM fan opening and also as far away from the stove as possible to help with keeping the fan motor cool. The location for the snapdisk was chosen due to quick reaction vs. a thicker metal location and also a temperature that worked within the range of the snapdisk. It's a little ugly and yes, those spade connectors are hot so don't touch them. Works great though and I get 5 min on/off cycles near the end. With the fans I can run her up to 700 and then consume an entire firebox of cedar in 3 hours. Honestly, I think I'll be considering a wood furnace someday. The automation would be nice in this outbuilding. The snapdisk helps.
