A quiet fan for the wood stove

[FISH4BUGS]

We heat with wood, and we also use a fan to circulate the air from the stove room to the rest of the house.
The past floor fans have been way too noisy.
My SO is apparently sensitive to the fan noise but it doesn't bother me. She claims she can hear it all night long and it keeps her up. Well....Okay...if you say so.
Are there fans that are made that super quiet?
We only use it to circulate air from the center of the house to the outer rooms.
Any suggestions?
Thanks!

[EDG]

Yes but the fan is probably going to be expensive.
My grandparents had one probably made in the 1950s by GE. It was all metal with heavy aluminum blades with extreme tear shaped blades on the trailing edges. It was whisper quiet. It was killed by a lightening strike.

[Blanket]

https://www.amazon.com/Home-Complete-HC-7002-Fireplaces-Quiet-Maintenance-Disperses/dp/B018G9ZKBK operated by heat

[Bulldogger]

Like Blanket, I immediately thought of the heat-powered fans. They are not cheap, but I'd expect their low number of moving parts would tend towards long life. If I heated with wood I would pony up for one since it can operate without power in a blackout.

If anyone here has one, I hope they'll chime in with how well they operate.

BDRG

[Petrol & Powder]

If you need to move a large volume of air, over some distance, you will probably need something larger than a stove top fan.

The noise comes from the turbulence around the blades AND the motor itself. The old heavy metal fans like the one EDG speaks of in post #2 were industrial works of art. Many of those electric motors were seriously overbuilt. They could operate at low speeds and still quietly move significant air. They also had bushing with oil cups, very well made motors and well designed blades.

In today's world you're probably looking for something that turns slowly and moves a lot of air at low rpm's but without that 60 Hz hum that plagues cheap motors.

An old turntable motor, pulleys, a belt and some well designed blades might work but that's going to be some serious fabrication.

Another possibility if you have central air is to use the blower in you system (without the HVAC unit running) to just move air though the duct work.

[ShooterAZ]

Dyson makes some air movers that don't make any noise at all. They are pretty expensive though.

https://www.dyson.com/fans-and-heaters/dyson-cool-overview.html?utm_source=google.com&utm_medium=paid_search&utm_campaign=us_en__environmental__fans__dyson__na __na__Google__na__all__Exact__na__na&utm_content=goo_405949429&utm_term=dyson+fan&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIsf-44JnX3QIVkONkCh2K2QTrEAAYASAAEgLgZfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CNqWmOKZ190CFYzOWwodpLMJcA

[Petrol & Powder]

Dyson is a little heavy on marketing.

[DCM]

Low RPM is the key as others have mentioned.
The Dyson looks interesting but I have no experience with that.

[NyFirefighter357]

Your moving the wrong air, you should be moving the air close to the ceiling not the cooler air on the floor. https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=Q7qqW9u5COmqggfEurKwCw&q=Doorway+fans&btnK=Google+Search&oq=Doorway+fans&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0l3j0i22i30l7.1907.5200..5533...0.0..0.244.1 007.13j0j1......0....1..gws-wiz.....0..0i131j0i10.m69PX220mHU

[EDG]

Yes but the fan is probably going to be expensive.
My grandparents had one probably made in the 1950s by GE. It was all metal with heavy aluminum blades with extreme tear shaped blades on the trailing edges. It was whisper quiet. It was killed by a lightening strike.

[beemer]

[QUOTE=Bulldogger;4464239]Like Blanket, I immediately thought of the heat-powered fans. They are not cheap, but I'd expect their low number of moving parts would tend towards long life. If I heated with wood I would pony up for one since it can operate without power in a blackout.

If anyone here has one, I hope they'll chime in with how well they operate.

BDRG[/QUOT

My Mother has had an Ecofan for about 10-12 years or so. It helps to circulate the air very slowly around the house but does not move a lot of air like a proper blower on a wood heater. The way her house is laid out and the type of heater she has makes it worth while but is almost worthless for mine. Would work for a shop or room with a small wood heater.

[shortlegs]

I use a small "squirrel cage" fan to push the heat from my wood burner down the hall to the other end of my house.A variable speed on is nice to control noise and amount of heat going to bedrooms.

[Shawlerbrook]

Something like this would be quiet.
https://www.sportsmansguide.com/product/index/caframo-ecofan-airmax-heat-powered-wood-stove-fan?a=911558

[leeggen]

Your wife would have night mares around thhis house with the old grandfather ticking away. Finding a quite fan is not easy. I have found fans from the same company have different levels. I have 3 eskimo fans and each make more or less than the other. Go to the stores and have them plug the fans in so you can listen.
CD

[MUSTANG]

I have three of these on top of the Wood Stove, one face straight forward, and the other two about 30º offset from the center fan:

https://www.amazon.com/Ecofan-800CAXBX-Original-Powered-Canada/dp/B00P8E14K8/ref=sr_1_19?ie=UTF8&qid=1537918958&sr=8-19&keywords=stove+fans


Easily moves air in "Great room" of about 36ft x 24ft (20 ft vaulted ceiling). With bedrooms and office doors open it does move some heat to other end of house; but see a 15º differential in room temps to other end of house.

We also use a Ceiling fan in the "Great Room" to move hot air down from vaulted ceiling during the day.

[MaryB]

Your moving the wrong air, you should be moving the air close to the ceiling not the cooler air on the floor. https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=Q7qqW9u5COmqggfEurKwCw&q=Doorway+fans&btnK=Google+Search&oq=Doorway+fans&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0l3j0i22i30l7.1907.5200..5533...0.0..0.244.1 007.13j0j1......0....1..gws-wiz.....0..0i131j0i10.m69PX220mHU

Actually you need to move the cold towards the stove. Cold air is denser so trying to push it out with heated air is a battle. Pull the cold out and warm flows in to fill in behind it. MUCH more efficient! I use a cheap box fan running on low to do this from the bathroom which is 25 feet from the pellet stove. I used to try and push heat, needed fans running on high with lots of noise...

[Idaho45guy]

I heat with a gas stove that sits in my tiny living room on one end of the house and I have to get the warm air to the rest of the house. I have ceiling fans in the major rooms as well as a big standing fan about 4' from the stove.

I tried one of those non-electric fans but the way my gas stove is designed, it didn't have enough heat on a flat enough surface to work. Gave it to my dad for his wood stove and he says it spins pretty fast and is quiet, but you would need a bunch of them to really move a lot of air.

Now, my ex-wife won a Dyson bladeless stand fan at work and put it in our bedroom in Arizona. I hated it because it was too quiet. I need the noise to sleep due to tinnitus. But that was indeed an impressive fan; whisper quiet and moved a lot of air. We had it for about three years before we divorced and she took it with her.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

A couple years after I put a woodstove in my livingroom (center room in my house). I realized I needed to move some air to other rooms. I also have a forced air furnace. So I re-routed the cold air return of the forced air furnace, to the wall, right behind the wood stove. Then I wired a second thermostat...with AC capabilites. I have it turn on the furnace fan when the livingroom is above 80º. I also have a ceiling fan in the livingroom that is on whenever the woodstove is going.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

227847
Click to enlarge.

I have one of the Ecofans. Bought it from Sportsman's Guide about 2 years ago, cost maybe a bit more than $100. It's advertised to improve your heating efficiency by about 18%. I used it to move the heat from the area of the woodstove toward the door of the room and then have a small electric fan that blows it on into the next room. The Ecofan uses no electricity from an external source, but instead makes it's own from the heat of the stove. It has a tiny electric motor inside, but I've never taken it apart. They are said to last about 5 years, and that replacing the motor isn't difficult or expensive. I like it enough that I bought a second one as a gift for a friend who also heats primarily with wood.

[Tackleberry41]

Its the RPMs, I have one of the $100 TSC heat powered fans, cant tell its running. But is not a huge mover of air. The lower on the back of the stove, moves air, but you can hear it. A box fan, you can hear it. Smaller fans will make less noise. Or something like the dyson where the fan is buried deep inside the housing.

Those little heat powered fans do make a difference, just not like a box fan where you can feel it. I plan to get another one this year, one to blow into the hallway, another into the master bedroom. All you need to do is move the air a little to make a difference.

[mold maker]

AC and central heat sure have spoiled us. I can remember when all heat had smoke in it and only warmed one side at a time, and AC required a fan and a block of ice.
Seriously, vibration in the air created by out of dynamic balance plastic blades causes most of the fan noise we hear. Again, it's the bean counters fault that imperfectly injection molded or stamped blades from the lowest priced supplier are the norm. They beat the air and set up vibrations.
There was a time when pride and quality were more important.

[Minerat]

We have a Dyson. It is expensive! At low speed below 4 it is pretty quiet. Above that it is a fan. We keep it at 2 to sleep other wise it is intrusive. They work by pushing air thru a pipe and circular distribution unit with a squirrel cage fan so the air is gentler if that makes sense. Have not had it long enough to try with wood stove but we will see this season.

[white eagle]

Eco fans rock
I use one in my hunting shack
works slick as snot

[Traffer]

If I needed a fan like that I would go to my friendly local HVAC (heat, vent, air, conditioning) place and inquire about a used furnace fan. They are big squirrel cage fans that make very little noise, especially when you spin them slower than normal. Depending on the size of the city you live near (bigger the town cheaper the deal) you might be able to pick one up for very cheap.

[Mr_Sheesh]

The Ecofans use a Peltier device to power themselves; The fan helps cool the top side of the module, which makes it more efficient. (They're not all that efficient, but, they do the job without needing external power - Good Enough!)

I've done a lot of Audio Engineering and if you run some fan(s) into a plenum (chamber) designed to knock the sound level down, you can quiet it a LOT. They do this in buildings in the HVAC section; I was doing that at studios (places they record music or videos at) as work. If you're running a long air pipe for cold air return or hot air sending, you can use an eductor fan (see below) or put a plenum in it with sound-reducing baffles (same thing as a suppressor only no bullet, just fan noise)

In Gold Dredges etc. they use Eductor Pumps - You spray a jet of air (or water, in a dredge) in at the outside edge or center (depending on design) of the larger pipe, this causes the air (or water, in the case of a dredge) to move. That's all that they use in the Dyson's, and they act like they invented it and are geniuses for it. Just a "little lie" there.

Also, if you buy fans from some place like DigiKey or Mouser, they sell some fans that are cheap and noisy and some that are a lot quieter and cost a little more; Mainly a better designed fan blade, some are spun slower though. Sometimes a little better fan will work a lot better.

Last thing - A Ducted Fan (sort of a special case of an Eductor Pump) would probably move more air than just the fan alone, not sure it'd be quieter though.

Just some options, maybe someone here has more expertise on those (The studio work was a long time ago!)

[MUSTANG]

One could always go with applications on Flat Surfaces to reduce the noise level:


227911

[popper]

Bro had a wood stove in his family room. The stack was routed inside along the ceiling and provided lots of naturally circulated heat. Never had a problem with smoke, CO or anything else.

[KCSO]

We use the eco fan and it circulates enough for our basement. No noise at all.

[gwpercle]

Old oscillating fans from the 1950's -1960's , like those made by GE are very quite . I found one at a estate sale, little used since every house has central HVAC , I use it in my reloading shed (no AC) and you can't hear it running even on high speed.
Check out garage, estate and thrift stores and see if you can find a good one.
Gary

[Traffer]

I got a $1 dimmer switch from eBay and hooked it up to a box fan so I could turn down the juice to it. There is a sweet spot where it is almost completely silent but moves a fair amount of air. Most fans, if slowed down will only produce a fraction of the noise. You could invest a dollar into a dimmer and see if it works for you with your current setup. If not? You are out a dollar.

[Mr_Sheesh]

DC powered fans can be run at reduced power, also (For paintball mask fans I used to run a 12V fan at 9V, just run it so it exhausts upwards if the fan is atop the goggles, you do not want to blenderize a 'skeeter WHEN it flies into the fan and then spatter it into your eyes...) DC computer power supply fans run in an array of say 4x4 at reduced power would be fairly quiet and move a fair bit of air - And be near free if you're getting some from any place that scraps computer parts. Do use a switching power supply to run them, not a linear power supply, for efficiency, tho.

[Traffer]

DC powered fans can be run at reduced power, also (For paintball mask fans I used to run a 12V fan at 9V, just run it so it exhausts upwards if the fan is atop the goggles, you do not want to blenderize a 'skeeter WHEN it flies into the fan and then spatter it into your eyes...) DC computer power supply fans run in an array of say 4x4 at reduced power would be fairly quiet and move a fair bit of air - And be near free if you're getting some from any place that scraps computer parts. Do use a switching power supply to run them, not a linear power supply, for efficiency, tho.

I have been building computers since 1994. The fans in them have gotten bigger and bigger. For a long time 80mm was standard size. Then 100mm and 120mm and now many of the large workstations have 140mm fans in them. I believe that the Dell Precision "T" series have either 120mm and 140mm fans .The T3400 T5400 etc are obsolete and you should be able to find some fans from them. The T3500 T5500 and T7500 are becoming obsolete and fans can be had from them. Each of those has two big vans in the front.
I would not suggest using computer fans less than 120mm. They are just too small. But 4x 140mm fans in a box pattern might just work for you. They would draw about 1 amp.