Blower for wood stove

I have a question about our woodburning stove. We have had it for three years now and it has a blower on it. Unfortunately the blower rarely turns on even though the fire is roaring. When it does click on, it doesn’t stay on for more than a few minutes.

Is there a way to make the blower stay on continuously? Our cabin is not benefiting from the many logs we have burned as the heat does not radiate out to the rest of the house unless the blower is on. Does your woodburner heat your entire house?

Deborah Motylinski
Cadiz, Ohio

Unfortunately, the blowers they put on most wood stoves are inadequate. Ours quit after only a year’s worth of burning. (I think they manufacture them for folks who only use them occasionally.) We ended up just using a box fan on a bucket behind our stove and turning up the speed as needed, manually. You can either go our route or replace the fan. Another option that friends have is the no-electricity fan that sits on top of the wood stove, run by heat alone. They are a bit pricey, which is why we don’t have one yet, costing about $200. Yep, we heat the entire house with our stove. When it is really cold, we also fire up our woodburning kitchen range. The basement is unheated but does stay above freezing which is perfect for storing seeds and our pantry foods as well as bins of root crops, etc. — Jackie

Old honey

I have stored one gallon jars of honey for 10+ years wrapped in brown paper grocery bags. I just took one out to use and I expected it to be crystallized. It was not! Instead it is black and runny almost like molasses. The smell is kinda pungent like molasses but it is honey. What would you think is its condition as far as using it to eat and cook with?

Grey Linker

Although honey can ferment, it usually won’t unless it is not in an airtight container and moisture gets in or the honey had a high moisture content to start with. Some honeys are naturally dark and get black after storage. These are often honeys from buckwheat, knotweed, and some wild trees/flowers. I’d taste the honey and see just how strong it is and if it tastes fermented. Honey seldom “goes bad” and even if it is fermenting, you can still usually use it for cooking/baking. I’ve got 15-year-old honey in quart jars that is crystallized but after warming it looks and tastes just fine. (It’s an experiment of ours!) — Jackie

5 COMMENTS

  1. The electric blower on our wood burning stove has been dying for a while, the last couple years I”ve pulled it apart twice a winter and cleaned it and lubed it, helping it last a bit longer, but this winter it finally died.

    We’ve been using a pair of no-electrical outlet needed thermoelectric fans for a while. Definitely do some shopping around as prices vary quite a bit (I found the best deal on Amazon, but it does vary).

    BUT, also get a stovetop thermometer too. When we first got ours we were struggling to get them running up to speed. Turned out we weren’t allowing the stove to get hot enough most of the time! Once we knew the problem it turned out to be quite simple to get it burning hot enough to make the fans move properly.

    Also, for your electric blower, the sensor on ours is actually UNDER the stove, so make sure that you don’t have to much of an ash buildup in the bottom of the stove, or it’ll insulate the bottom so much that the sensor can’t sense enough heat!

  2. I too have jars of crystallized honey, but I usually use it as is since I mainly add it to my hot tea, or spread it on bread. I discovered that way it isn’t drippy. Admittedly, I would warm it if using it in a recipe where it needed to be liquid, but otherwise I just scoop out a spoonful and add it to my tea. Love reading your blog and articles Jackie! Thank you for being there for all of us.

  3. Years ago when we heated with a Napoleon woodstove, the manufacturer’s fan would last a year, maybe two. A less expensive option was to mount an inline 6 inch duct booster fan with the applicable vent adaptor from 6 inch round to the rectangular floor register. It worked better than a box fan because the air was forced between the outer and inner walls of the woodstove. Here is the type of booster fan I used: http://www.amazon.com/LEDwholesalers-GYO2402-6-Inch-Hydroponic-Booster/dp/B003YFADW8/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1455861792&sr=8-5&keywords=air+boost+vent+fan

  4. I don’t know if they are even in business anymore with all of the EPA regulations, but my folk’s last house in Minnesota had an ARROW woodstove in it. The blower always worked great. The house was 2300 feet on the main floor with a cathedral ceiling in the living room. The stove was in the family room on the main floor. The house had a full basement with a tuck under garage. The stove was capable of heating the entire house (no matter how cold it got), IF someone was willing to get up and stoke the stove once at night. We called it the “bun warmer”. The blower would hit you right in in the “bum” (British term – I think) if you were about 5′ 6″ or so….. I loved that thing all the time but especially on a COLD (-25F) or so winter’s day.

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