I bought this stove top fan in January 2020, and the fan is already failing, either not spinning or spinning very slowly. I was just wondering if anyone has ever fixed one of these, maybe by replacing the peltier thermoelectric cooler element. They sell the elements on ebay for about $8.00 and it looks easy enough.
I have one for my fireplace. Did you buy an original Ecofan or did you buy a knock off? The fan blades are held in by friction only. The center pin just pulls right out on mine. Perhaps some dust or debris got in the hole for the pin. I give the fan blades a push if I want the blades to start spinning before it "automatically" starts spinning. The push helps the blades go and the thermo electric generator has enough juice to keep it running.
It's a knockoff, a Tomersun. The other night the stove thermometer was about 450 degrees, and I gave it a push and it started spinning, but it does not have the gusto that it usually does. I should try your suggestion first, pull the pin and clean it off, and see how that does. I'll do that today, since there's probably only a couple more days left for a fire this season. It's supposed to get into the 90's next week.
I took it apart, blew out any dust with my air compressor, spun the blades around, fumbled the screws, put the fan motor enclosure on backwards pinching the wires, had to redo it, reassembled. One thing I noticed, the 2 screws holding the top and bottom of the fan base together were fairly loose. I'm hoping the screws being tightened, helping the halves being tighter on the thermo electric generator, may help. I'll see how it goes this evening.
I thought about thermal paste. I used to work on computers, and that paste is used on the cpu heat sink and fan. Good video, appreciate it!
Loose = no bueno. It runs on the heat differential between the bottom and the top plates so it should be tight. Pretty sure that's your issue right there.
Just an update, my fan still isn't working properly. The fan is long out of warranty, but I thought I'd take a chance and get in contact with them, and they said it is probably the fan or TEG module that is failing, and they're going to send me spare parts. I was pleasantly surprised by that. If they send both parts, I'll swap one part at a time, to see which one is bad. I'll report back just for conclusion of this. BTW, I'm not sure why I posted this in the Chainsaws and Power Equipment.... sorry about that.
The replacement parts came today, and I was impressed as soon as I opened the package. They included replacements for both the fan motor and the TEG module, and all screws, including the set screw and allen wrench, and a phillips screwdriver, and basic instructions to make sure the wires are properly oriented. I replaced everything, and gave it a successful test run on the kitchen electric stove top. If I get 3 more years out of it, I'll be happy. Tomersun's customer service was quick and easy to deal with.
