one thing to beware of is – if like me you use the stove/fan to heat the house- door control is everything- if you have the stove belting heat out and the fan going – you get a constant blast of fairly quick moving cool air coming in the door to the room- all you need to do is close the door to a crack till the temperatures equalise or you will feel a cold draft as you sit.

Sorry dashed if you didn’t like the tone of my last post and thank you to trail_rat and Mark for your words of support. No one has picked up on my comment that Valiant Fans (and all other Chinese copy fans) do not meet CE approval requirements; surely that’s controversial enough to warrant some replies?

do not meet CE approval requirements

or do you mean “have not been submitted for CE approval”?
Not the same thing.

Not entirely sure what difference a CE mark would make to a stove-top fan – a CE mark isn’t a quality mark and it doesn’t imply a formal approval by an official body. Instead, it implies that the manufacturer or/and distributor of the item guarantees it meets appropriate European safety and efficiency standards. I suppose that if the blades of the fan were spinning with such speed and power to sever a misguided prodded finger then there could be a safety issue . . . but given that said fan is going to be sat on top of a hot stove then I suggest that the stove itself is the more significant safety hazard.

[/quote]it implies that the manufacturer or/and distributor of the item guarantees it meets appropriate European safety and efficiency standards

…this is exactly the problem; although the Chinese copy fans are marked as being CE approved and therefore the manufacturer and importer is claiming they meet appropriate European safety and efficiency standards, THEY DO NOT.

Sorry I realise that my ‘quote’ on my last post was the wrong way round…

.this is exactly the problem; although the Chinese copy fans are marked as being CE approved and therefore the manufacturer and importer is claiming they meet appropriate European safety and efficiency standards, THEY DO NOT.

and your evidence that they do not is…..?

I’ve thought about buying one of these fans for my Inset stove as most of the heat comes out the top vents and up to the ceiling – it’d be nice to circulate the heat a bit more, would one of these ecofans sit on the top of the stove? – it’s approx 3″ deep as pic below shows.

Kenny , you would have no cool air to pull forward to generate the temperature difference needed for the semicondutor generator.

Seeing as the energy source is ‘free’ heat, as long as it evens out the heat in the room, efficiency doesn’t really come into it.

I thought it was standard practise to sell your products based on their strengths rather than bashing the competition!

At the end of the day it’s a competitive market with just two main players, with not much more than looks and brand name to destinguish the products, your premium price is going to dissuade a lot of buyers.

somafunk – wot trail_rat said.

The fan needs to be able to draw cooler air across the heat sink to maintain the temp differential across the peltier device faces. However, FYI, mine has a footprint of 10cm x 8cm (w x d) with the fan out sitting out the front an extra 20cm x 4cm (w x d)

I reckon it would probably just work on yours if you set it on top to one side so that it could draw some cooler air from to the side of the stove. Mine works at relatively low temp differential but obv spins much faster at optimum diff.

Also, how hot does the top of your stove get? Mine runs at between 100 and 200 deg C

Hmm?, the stove has an airgap all the way around the box and it draws air in at the bottom and from around the sides and it’s meant to let the heated air out from the top vents. I thought the fan would help to circulate the warm air, i dunno how hot the top gets?, certainly hot enough to blister/burn wi the slightest touch….as i’ve found out.

Lilyking 609 inset stove

And yeah….i broke the glass so thats on my to-do list t’day – order a new bit of glass.

My parents tried it with a 6kw stove similar to yours.

The fan spins – but it wont start up – you have to give it a prod. It spins slow and doesnt move much air……same ecofan works fine on my stove.

Ahh bugger, well thats saved me buying an expensive ornament, cheers. Might just get a wee electric fan and mount it to the ceiling to blow the hot air round the room 😀

My parents have gone for a wee electric fan thats quiet and they point it at the stove to blow the air about – it works , thye not worried about the leccy just wanted to stop the chimney brest getting too hot…theres cracked many mirrors over the years. – since doing so no more busted mirrors

Hi Stoner – Several of the Chinese copy fans have been independently tested so we know that they do not meet CE requirements and exactly why they do not. Sorry but we are not going to spell out where they fail, that’s up to them to find out not for me to hand it to them on a plate!

Hi spooky_b329 – it’s not the efficiency part of CE approval that I’m pointing out but the safety part. These fans do not meet these safety standards. I am not trying to bash the competition, and I’m sure the importers believe these products do meet the standards, but they are still in breach! It would be good to have the goal posts in the same place for everyone don’t you think?

So are you saying they don’t have CE Approval and the mark is being used fraudulently, or the independent testing suggests that they should not have achieved the CE mark they’ve been awarded?

Hi spooky_b329 the Chinese manufacturer who copied this product has no idea about the product and they’ve not only copied the product but they also copy all the benefits which are quoted by Caframo for the genuine product. If they have awarded themselves a CE Approval certificate they are not using the correct criteria so as far as I am concerned yes their approval is fraudulent. So therefore is the importers…

These fans do not meet these safety standards.

What hazard do these fans create?

Short of trying to eat one I am not sure what harm they could do?

I’m guessing the voltage is low and power output minimal?

Neither design has any guarding on the blades, so that can’t be a problem? It’s ‘elf an’ safety gone mad I tell you!

The Chinese “CE” mark means “Chinese Export”, its just a coincidence that it looks very similar to our “CE” mark!

Bump.

A friend wanted to use a fan but their stove is inset and they had limited space on top the stove/below the register. I remembered a forum link to a smaller design fan and sent them the details.

It arrived the other day and they have installed it and are very happy with it. Thought you lot might like to see it out of interest.

It’s pricey, but it apparently works very well, distributing heat from an inset stove with limited clearance. I reckon it might well pay for itself in less than two years of fuel savings.

http://www.stovetopfan.co.uk/

We went to a mate’s house over the weekend and he had two (looking at the pics on the web) Valiant ones on his big stove. The problem was they started a different times and revved at different speeds, that’d wind me right up!

Cheers,
Jamie

I have a slightly different “DIY fan” project in mind for my stove.

We have a VERY high ceiling above the stove (barn conversion, ceiling at the highest point is about 5m). A stove-top fan would probably work quite well, but I was thinking of something slightly more subtle.

Our flue goes up to the roof inside a large false chimney breast. The downstairs neighbours flue also comes up here and we built the false chimney breast to contain both flues. There is plenty of space available inside and access is pretty easy for now.

I’m thinking about putting a ducted fan in there, with an inlet at the top and an outlet at the bottom. Would be easy enough to have this controlled by a switch, but I’d like to make it a little more sophisticated, with a sensor to detect when the “roof” temperature is higher than the “floor” temperature and turn the fan on appropriately.

Anyone done/heard-of something similar? Engineering degree here, so happy enough to do the electronics from scratch if necessary.

Mine has stopped working-any ideas? about to take it appart…

Has it been dropped/got to hot?

check the motor has not got clogged up with a hairball wound up inside the motor shaft

I have a valiant. Works fine, silently, and I haven’t died a horrible fiery death yet.

If ecofans genuinely thinks that there is a significant safety issue with these imported fans, I’d expect them to let people know about it in more detail.

Might have got very hot….any suggestions before the lunch settles and I hit the screwdrivers.

Motor smelled of burnt acrylic – so I got one on ebay. £12.
I might have got the stove a wee bit too hot (it glowed)

Autumn thread resurrection!
Any feedback on these at all, after a winter of use.
I didn’t hit the buy button last year but tempted to this time.

my Chinese fan still going great…

Mine too. It’s spinning now as it’s bloody cold today.

I was looking at this thread last week – glad there’s been an update. That’s me sorted then – cheapo chinese fan. 🙂

Be warned though as they’re not CE approved they get hot, of course that’s the whole idea or they’d not work very well. 😆

Any links to the cheap chinese stove fans of death?

down to £35 on ebay these days.

Might get a second for the other woodburner to save me moving mine between the two. Although we rarely have both going at once, it depends on which room we’re in of an evening.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/High-Quality-Black-Heat-Powered-Eco-Friendly-Stove-Top-Fan-Wood-Coal-Burner-/231625185983?hash=item35edefdabf

how on earth caframo eco fans can demand £150 is beyond me.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ecofan-812-AirMax-Stove-top-fan-self-powered-black-blade-ECOFAN812BB-/111490941101?hash=item19f560c0ad

I was erring on a valiant one, brand name etc…..

Valiant FIR300 Original Heat Powered Stove Fan – Anodised Satin Black https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007W5IIRI/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_zELhwb267THV0

My cheapo one is still sitting there humming away and blowing a nice warm draft towards the sofa.

I’ve moved it whilst dusting the stove and found a hotter spot as its starting before the kindling has burned away now 🙂