Review: Eco-Fan

2/16/11

We have a propane fireplace/stove in our living room – we bought it a few years ago. This past year, the fan has decided that it would just stay running and we’d have to get up and unplug the built-in fan (very annoying, when it could be turned off and on a half dozen times in an evening.)

So, I thought, “what about one of those eco-fans”?

(photo from Lee Valley website)

Pros
1. no electricity
2. no noise
3. no getting up to plug it in or unplug it
4. Debbie will feel SO much better because of not wasting electricity when too lazy to unplug the fan.

Cons
1. another big expense to heating bill (initial outlay)
2. will take a couple of years, perhaps, to pay for itself $-wise.

I did a little research and checked out a variety of prices and ended up purchasing our fan from Lee Valley Tools – a company I trust and the fan would be delivered via mail in a week.

Satisfaction
I love my eco-fan and am so glad I decided to bite the bullet and make the investment.

• The “no noise” factor is a bonus. I didn’t realize how much background noise was created by the built-in fan in our propane stove.
• The cost: I’ve already forgotten about the price … that’s in the past. done. forget about it.
• at first, there was lots of “burnt” smell in the air and I panicked, thinking that it wasn’t pulling enough heat out of the stove. But after a couple days, that went away and all is well. I guess it was just the new material. I’m sure the toxins haven’t taken too many days off our lives. All is well now.
• it seems to me that we are getting more heat distributed through the room. I seem to be shutting off the heat at about 2 degrees cooler than before. I also seem to feel more heat down the hallway than before. My imagination? Perhaps, but I don’t think so.

Overall, 2 thumbs up and a big sigh of relief—which you can hear because there is no humming in the background to cover it up :)
SIGH..

Update (April, 2011)
We were just without electricity for two days, due to a storm, and what a pleasure it was to have heat circulating through the house. Normally we’d have to stand right by the fire to get the heat and not run it for long because nothing was drawing the heat out. It was “warmth” as normal! Thank-you Eco-fan.
Now how do I get running water when the electricity is out. hmm

-- ~ Debbie, Ontario Canada