Advice on Getting a Hearth

 
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av8r
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Location: Near Owego, NY
Hot Air Coal Stoker Furnace: Leisure Line Hearth with twin turbos (sounds like it)

Post by av8r » Sat. Oct. 30, 2010 10:13 am

Flyer5 wrote:The fan you have is 212 CFM The one on the Alaska is around 100 CFM . The Hearth running the same 100 CFM probably will not be louder . This is the first complaints I have really seen on this issue . Dave

Just stating that if you compare apples to apples the 212 fan puts out a lot more air than the hopper or hopper lid fan and if you don't run the fan on high it should not be as loud .I am not not knocking Alaska but don't they use the same fan as the econo in the hopper lid on their hearth model . It is rated at 120/130 CFM actually .So if you limit the 212 blower to the 130 cfm it is very quiet and usually when on the coal-trol it is turning slow and quiet. I will have to do some tests and see . If this is an issue I will look into what we can do in the future .What oil have you tried for lubing the motor ? Dave
ok..I think you're replying to my other thread regarding the sound of the blower. There aren't any lubrication holes that I could find so I used some machine oil and a long tube to place a few drops at each of the bearing/bushings then ran the motor to warm the oil and allow it to run into these areas. I then cleaned the small excess off the shafts with a q tip dipped in alcohol to keep the oil from attracting dust. The lube isn't the issue...it's a combination of the speed of the blower with the way it's attached to the stove body. Anything over 42-45 on the CoalTrol fan speed and the fans create a high pitched whine. On cold days the fan will run 60-100 and the sound is so loud you can't watch TV in the same room so I have to walk to the stat and lower the fan speed to something under 50. When we wake up on a cold morning you can hear the fan from our bedroom. I talked to Jerry a few times about this and he just kept telling me that fans make noise. I've experimented with a few things and it seems a plenum that can be attached to the back of the stove where the motor/fans would attach could be a great solution for this. You could use a free standing fan with a length of flex duct which would isolate the vibration and the sound very well.

Thanks for showing interest in this issue. I can shoot some video with a db meter to show you what it sounds like.

Here's my post from the other thread...

On my Hearth model (circa 2007), LL used a convection blower that has 2 fans riding a common shaft with a center mounted motor...direct drive. Because these fans are so small, they must be spun at high RPM to get the airflow necessary to work effectively. This causes the sound output at anything above 50% to be significant and obtrusive if the stove is in your main living space. Would you consider building an interface that would allow me to use a blower that has a significantly larger and slower spinning fan thus eliminating 3 problems:

1) Annual servicing of the convection fan is impossible without disassembling the stove and removing it from the hearth to gain access to the motor and fans for cleaning and lubrication.

2) The noise...it's freaking loud...a high pitched howl...

3) Vibration of the fans and motor being amplified by the big, steel box thus making the noise issue even worse.

A simple sheet metal plenum which allows a 4" or 6" flex-duct to be attached to it would allow us to use a free standing motor/fan assembly and make this thing virtually silent...like my friend's Alaska stoves.[/quote]

 
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Flyer5
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Stoker Coal Boiler: Leisure Line WL110
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Post by Flyer5 » Sat. Oct. 30, 2010 11:05 am

The lube holes on the 212 fan are actually on the bottom of the motor when mounted to the stove .I know its a PITA but the fan has to be removed to properly oil them . Are you sure that it wasn't tightened down to tight they are rubber mounted with hard plastic compression stops ,the washer side of these stops goes on the out side of the bushing . I will get some pics on Monday .I have heard these stoves and thought they were pretty quiet in normal operation . But then again my hearing isn't the best, ask my wife . Dave


 
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av8r
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Posts: 1164
Joined: Thu. Dec. 06, 2007 12:07 pm
Location: Near Owego, NY
Hot Air Coal Stoker Furnace: Leisure Line Hearth with twin turbos (sounds like it)

Post by av8r » Sat. Oct. 30, 2010 7:11 pm

Flyer5 wrote:The lube holes on the 212 fan are actually on the bottom of the motor when mounted to the stove .I know its a PITA but the fan has to be removed to properly oil them . Are you sure that it wasn't tightened down to tight they are rubber mounted with hard plastic compression stops ,the washer side of these stops goes on the out side of the bushing . I will get some pics on Monday .I have heard these stoves and thought they were pretty quiet in normal operation . But then again my hearing isn't the best, ask my wife . Dave
Yes, the rubber bushings were installed correctly and not overtightened. I could find no lube holes on this motor even after removing it from the stove and partially disassembling it. Maybe I just missed them, but it was easy enough to lube the shaft and bushings with a tube.

I'll do a comparison video of he stove running at idle, 50% fan and 100% fan with a db meter in the shot.

I like the stove, but not the noise! :D

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