A quiet fan for the wood stove

[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:


Attachment 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.