Hello. I have a wood burning fireplace, have used it for years. Years ago, I installed pipe for natural gas as a fire starter. So the metal pipe supply line comes through the stone and into the fireplace about 2 inches. I then attached the steel pipe in which the fire comes out of holes in the pipe, much like you'd find on a grill. I never used it. Early on I removed the attachment and just capped the steel supply pipe that was 2 inches into the fireplace because I never used it(see pic). The line goes through about a foot or so of stone and cement then into the basement about a foot. (see pic)I never attached this to our natural gas pipeline. The Fireplace burns reasonably well but I'm tired of getting up and blowing into the fire to get it going. Had bellows once but they got trashed, didn't work very well. Anyway, we open the glass fireplace doors, put in half of a starter log, light it and add kindling until it's ready for bigger logs. We leave fp doors open as we burn. We really enjoy it. My question is: can I add a blower or something similar to a hair dryer, and attach the blower to the pipe in the basement(pic)so it blows air through the steel pipe into the fireplace? I'd also add some type of air nozzle in the fp. I'd just plug it into a Bluetooth outlet and control it with my phone. I'm probably missing something as I couldn't find anyone doing this. I see people use these hand held fans or blowers and direct air into the fp. Our fp has a good draft. I should clarify that I'm sure I could do this with some tinkering but is it dangerous or won't it work for some reason? Thanks a bunch.
An air mattress inflator might do the trick. One that runs off a mains adapter rather than batteries. Searched and found this. Better Than a Bellows: a Fireplace Blower
Thank you. I'm not sure why this isn't, if not popular, asked more often. I was expecting to be missing something obvious. That being said, I'm going to move forward with it and will let folks know if it works and effectiveness, or lack of.
With good draft I'd speculate that continually needing to get up and blow on the fire may be related (possibly) to wood that may be a bit short on seasoning time? Just a thought from a fella who grew up with 2 fireplace's and still uses them. Actually planning a rather non-traditional Turkey day meal cooked in the fireplace this year. We have never used any form of bellows etc. Any chance you've ever tried a moisture meter on your wood out of curiosity? Either way if you do plum in a positive air supply let us know how it goes. Be safe. Good luck!
The wood I have now would benefit from more seasoning although it's still reasonably good/dry. Regardless, I just set this up: Bought a cheap blower from Amazon, hooked it up in the basement and attached it to the gas pipe leading into the fireplace. I never hooked up gas for my fireplace so an open connection was very convenient. It goes through the floor and into the fireplace, in about a foot of concrete and stone. I put the gas pipe in before work was done to fireplace. I added a wifi electrical outlet that I control via my phone when I'm in the living room with the fireplace.At the moment, I just have the 1/2" black pipe open to the fireplace. When I hit the switch on my phone, the air gushes out and in two seconds, the fire improves like I'm blowing on it only better. It works incredibly well. I'm wondering what the catch is. Nothing ever seems to be this convenient and work so well. On another note, I live in a neighborhood(in PA) covered with hardwood trees, oak, locust, sycamore, etc. They're very large, old growth. It's almost an every other week occurrence when someone's tree gets pruned or a tree gets cut down. About 8 years ago, I asked the arborists to drop some of the locust tree, oak and hickory that they had removed from felled trees into my back yard. Anyway, I split most of it, except the hickory and it took a good 3 years to properly season this wood, covered on top with a tarp but sides left open for air flow.
