[Closed] Stove fans; Ecofan, Valiant etc

The valliant looks like a carbon copy of mu ecofan it works fine

New ecofan has a redesigned blade to shift more air.

Either will improve what you have.

Thanks.

I'm impatient so about to hit the button on a Valiant 🙂

anyone know any models that are shorter? stove in sitting room is under a low mantle and the base model ecofan model is too tall. which is a shame as it would work really well I reckon..

kcal - I had the same issue, and found this guy http://www.peakdistrictcreations.co.uk/members/look-creations/the-fan-c-recycled-stove-top-fan/

I didn't buy one in the end, but only because the Mrs didn't want one, but several emails back and forth with the chap, and he seemed a decent bloke.

The only difference I noticed with one of the cheaper ones was it was not silent in operation, just thought I mention it just in case, might not be an issue with the one you are looking at, but something else to consider

Ecofan user for the last 3 years

Also take a look at max and min temps for each.

Some of them can't take too much heat.

Another Ecofan fan here!

SB

How cool do these fans run down to?

I've got back boiler on my fire and it never boils a kettle on the top, do you reckon there would be enough heat emitted to turn one of these over though?

kcal - I had the same issue, and found this guy http://www.peakdistrictcreations.co.uk/members/look-creations/the-fan-c-recycled-stove-top-fan/ /p>

I didn't buy one in the end, but only because the Mrs didn't want one, but several emails back and forth with the chap, and he seemed a decent bloke.

nice use of a £30ish cpu cooler and selling it for £155
http://www.quietpc.com/cnps9700?gclid=CJnz1JuonLoCFRMftAod8QkALQ
and a £10 TEG module

Mine gets going at 300f but once going will only stop working once the stove drops below 200f

That's the temp taken from the flu pipe btw

Cheers Ski, my local friendly publican has one on his fire, I'm going to blag it off him for an evening to try. 😉

I'd forgotten all about getting a stove fan since I heard of them a year or so ago. Just bought a Valiant stove fan from Amazon. Thanks for Spooky!

🙂

Valiant here.

Came "free" with the stove, when I say "free" I mean "I'm having one of these as well after you've cocked me about for so long"

Seems to do the job. No noise.

if you get it and its noisy - you can ge the ecofan motors for 12 quid from calfree in the uk 😉 - check your drive shaft OD and you holders ID + voltage and youll be good to go.

After the ecofan fell off the stove while wifie was cleaning, it's clattering at low revs 🙁
However I'm not sure I'm competent to diagnose the actual fault (bearing I guess) let alone sort it.

Kcal - all you have to do is change the motor. a child knocked mine over

Its litterally a small allen key to remove the grub screw from the blade.

its a philips screw driver to remove the clamp from the motor

pull off the 2 spades

motor is out - reverse to rebuild.

what i also did temporary was strip it down and bend the motor axel with pliers using a flat plate and my eye to judge where it was out and it worked fine - but id already ordered the spare so changed it and kept the other.

phone calfree they will help.

You could always build your own 🙂

[IMG] [/IMG]

your thermometers too close to the stove 😉

nice work on the homebrew - what did taht cost ? i need another shortly and i like those copper heatsinks - go better with the room than the brass

nice use of a £30ish cpu cooler and selling it for £155

Yeah, it does seem rather excessive. I wonder how many he sells.

Built something pretty similar for sub-£30. (to be fair tho', I've not fired up the stove yet to see how well it works).

Apparently you should be careful not to knock it off the stove, they are heavy enough to chip the hearth!

your thermometers too close to the stove

nice work on the homebrew - what did taht cost ? i need another shortly and i like those copper heatsinks - go better with the room than the brass

I bought extra bits to make a few for presents but Ecofan wouldn't sell me any more blades 🙁 still trying to source an alternative.

I'll move the thermometer up as high as it'll go, cheers 😉

trail_rat, thanks, would be good to have silent running again.
after a bit of a house invasion this weekend I'll look into it..

cheers!

These any good Dal?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/125-mm-diameter-plastic-3-blade-propeller-fan-model-2mm-shaft-/300909042448

Might be wrong but im fair sure that blades pitch is wrong to move air in the right direction - and it not as simple as fitting it backwards to the motor

Yeah, that's been the problem, finding one with the right pitch and a good surface area to the blade so it will move a good amount of air at low RPM. Currently trying to source an Ecofan one from overseas as they're made for the job.

cheers trail_rat, I gave them a call this morning. since the fan is going 'clack clack' at low speeds, then running silent at working speed, it is most likely the motor but they couldn't rule out the blades, so I'm not sure now! at least I know what kind of motor is needed if I were to get that.

Tried to remove the blades to give them (and the spindle) a check but can't get an allen key to fit - not 1.5mm (too small) and not 2mm (too big) so I assume 1.75mm or something esoteric - did you get yours off with their allen key or one of your own?

Callum

i used one of my own cant remember which - but i am a tool klepto - have you tried imperials ?

also - for the blades to be clacking they would have to be hitting something - rotate blades by hand and see what if anything they hit. if nothing it can only be the motor- youll be surprised at how simple these things are when you get it apart.

blades have good clearance so a sanity check would say it's /not/ the blades (I didn't think so but)

Not sure I have imperial hex keys but I'll have another look. cheers. plenty other things are higher priority but would be satisfying to get it running right.

I made one, but the solder on the cheap TEC melted!

prompt email back from Calfire.

basically as you said t_r; 1/16" allen key
Canadians, eh?

also good tips on removal of blade, problem tracking, and re-fitting again. Very helpful.

I'm hoping to have a working one going doe circa £20 soon. Had a heatsink knocking around from an old PC and have bought a Zalman PC cooler with fan for £15 - just waiting for the £4 Peltier module to arrive. The fan with the Zalman cooler doesn't shift as much air as is probably needed but I've got the cooler now so can just upgrade the motor and fan.

Looks like an interesting project, to build one. Found this if anyone is interested. Bit American but explains what you need and the principle behind them.

[url= http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Stove-Fan-for-under-50/ ]Instructables Stove Fan[/url]

I came across your blog while doing a bit of surfing and feel the need to comment on some of the last posts. We at Calfire are the UK distributors for Ecofans so all of the legitimate Ecofans sold over here come through us. We look after our customers extremely well but do not hold and supply spare parts to make life easy for anyone who wants to make their own stove fan. The Valiant Stove Fan is made in China by a company who copied the design of the old 800 style Ecofan. Moreover the Valiant Stove Fan and all other Chinese imports do not meet CE approval despite what is printed on the boxes or the importers may say. Current models 810 UltrAir and 812 AirMax produce much better air movement at all temperatures than the older models they replaced. Yes they are more expensive than the Chinese old style copy fans but if it wasn’t for Caframo and their design team, there would be no TEG Module Powered Stove Fans!

Since this thread has been resurected I thought that I would add my thoughts...

I have both fans - the Valiant and the Caframo eco fan. I initially purchased an Eco fan, and was so impressed that I decided to buy another for my second stove, but tried the cheaper Valiant version.

So for a direct comparison (only based on one of each - so may not be true to type)...

Caframo Eco Fan - Probably the better looking fan (in my mind), neater with smaller blades. This fan definitely starts moving at lower temperatures than the Valient fan, and at any given heat appears to have a faster rotation speed. It certainly feels to move more air than the Valiant - but I am unable to quantify that. The only down side is a slight noise - not enough to annoy, but if you are close you can hear a faint 'whizz'!

Valiant - Slightly more 'clumpy' looking, with larger, curved blades (I guess there is some balance between rotation speed / blade size). It is slower to get moving, but when it does it is totally silent. It does exactly as you would expect and certainly makes a difference to the heat distribution within a room, but doesn't seem to have quite as much 'power' as the ecofan.

So in summary - both fans work and would seem to make a significant difference to the heat distribution in a room - I am very pleased with both. The more expensive Ecofan (think I paid about £90) moves more air more efficiently, however in my opinion the cheaper (£50 ish) Valiant also works well. I use the Ecofan in a large sitting / living room and if the doors are open find that it moves air throughout the room and into the hall. The Valiant is in a smaller 'snug' and evens out temperatures nicely within that room, although there is less movement into the hall (this is also a smaller stove).

Not sure if that helps at all. If you don't have a fan at all yet - then get one they are great.

ecofansrule - Member
We look after our customers extremely well but do not hold and supply spare parts to make life easy for anyone who wants to make their own stove fan.

Glad this has been resurrected - was just about to shop for a one this morning and entirely because of that post, my money is now going to Valiant.

You have really strange morals dashed.

You may also want to check valiant spares exist in any dimension....

Calframo/calfree do help legitimate owners repair their fans - i have done it. They will not sell you parts en masse to knock out copys to protec their investment and design.

Why on earth would anyone expect any company to sell the components separately to enable anyone to buy and build their own version of the product they are trying to sell?
Airfix perhaps but really? Would you expect to be able to call up Dyson and buy all the bits you need to build your own?

It was the tone of the post I didn't like - self promotion and cheap slagging of the opposition.

I can see their point about spares but do they really have such an issue with people building their own? C'mon, how many people other than a few nerds on STW buy a ecofan blade and then build their own. Must run into a least single digits every year 🙄 Hardly gonna put them out of business...

how much difference to room temp will a fan make?

had a stove fitted recently and its lush but still notice that with very high ceilings here the warm air does sit high above your head!

scandalous - Member

how much difference to room temp will a fan make?

had a stove fitted recently and its lush but still notice that with very high ceilings here the warm air does sit high above your head!

With the fan going, you will notice a more even heat around your room, so you get less of a hot spot just in front of your stove.

The fan will not blast you with hot air if that's what you are looking for, but will make the room feel more evenly heated, which imho makes the room feel warmer.

See the link here for an example of how it disperses the heat:

[url= http://www.ecofan.co.uk/woodstove-ecofans.html ]http://www.ecofan.co.uk/woodstove-ecofans.html[/url]

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.

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.

[img] [/img]

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.

[img] [/img]

[url= http://www.ukstoves.co.uk/product/6.5KW_Lilyking_609_Inset_Multi_Fuel_Stove ]Lilyking 609 inset stove[/url]

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/

[img] [/img]
[img] [/img]

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...

[img] [/img]

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 🙂