Like many apparently, I have come to dislike the "hair dryer" blower on the 30-NC. It is great for Englander to include it, but I wish there would have been a way to upgrade to the AC-30 blower. The hairdryer just makes too much noise, though it does help move the air. At the moment we have quit using it, and simply have a fan blowing across the stovetop, which works as well as the blower, with much less noise. So, I want to upgrade to the AC-30 blower, but frankly the cost is a bit much, about $180. So a couple of questions: - Is it really way quieter than the smaller blower? Is it more effective? Is it tolerable to have running continuously while sitting in the same room? - Are there any equivalent DIY solutions that anyone has come up with? I have noted similar blowers on eBay and Amazon, but want the end reult to be decent, not something "cobbled" together. I can fabricate brackets and such. Your suggestions?
Yes, yes and yes. I think maybe Highbeam may have a DIY blower? HD sells both blowers as a separate item. I "returned" the hair dryer that came with the stove and got credit toward the purchase of the bigger blower.
I upgraded to the AC30 blower. It's pretty quiet and does a nice job without being too noisy. It's running at about 25%, and from 15' away, I can hear it, but it's not obnoxious.....to me. Dave may be right....I think it's Highbeam that has a DIY setup.
Yes, I bought and installed the big one from Amazon. The factory blowers seriously lack cfm. I added a convection deck as well to further boost the effects of forced air. Trying to make my nc30 a little wood furnace. It's worked very well.
Is it attached to the stove in a way that approximates the normal way of connecting the AC-30 blower, or is it different in its attachement? How noisy is it? Do you have a link to specs for it, or on Amazon? Thanks!
Click on my name and look for threads started by me. The thread title will say something about the blo. Then see the pics. It's not loud. Much quieter than the silly ac16 blower. Much more power than the ac30. Mounts in factory location on quality homemade bracket using factory holes.
The AC 30 is a huge improvement over the 13!. But once mine takes a crap! I'm gonna do what Highbeam did!
I am looking at various blowers. There is a Dayton one that is reasonably priced, less than $100 and 463 CFM of air! I really want more air movement, but not at the cost of noise. I am thinking a big blower, throttled way back might be quiet, then when I want to push a whole lotta air to warm the house quickly, can do that too. Anyone any thoughts on this plan? Blower, 463 cfm, 115V, 1.28A, 1600 rpm - Electric Fan Motors - Amazon.com
I thought about one of those big blowers. What I like about my stove blower solution is that it blasts the air up through the gap between the heat shield and stove. If you just bolt that Dayton on the back you'll need to seal off the bottom of the shield. Then if the power goes out your heat shield won't work as designed for safety. If you can deal with that then a rheostat on the Dayton should deliver high flows at low sound. Even full power is only 1600 rpm vs the regular 3600 rpm so it's a slow speed motor to start. I even considered remote mount inline duct fans and then a regular floor register boot fitting on the stove.
I believe an upwards facing deflector at the bottom of the blower opening will take care of that. Also I have a generous clearance, probably enough regardless.
Give it a shot. Just don't be tempted to simply bolt that boss onto the heatshield over the big hole.
Does anyone know whether blowers wth brushless motors, like the one I have listed above, can be speed controlled effectively? I have read that they do not like their voltage to be varied for speed control. If I am going to use a big blower, I definately need to be able to dial it back!
A variable speed control can't be used on any motor with a capacitor. The one that Highbeam installed can be purchased from Amazon with all of the controls needed. $100.32. Sent from my XT1080
