Alaska Channing Mark 3 Blower Noise

Hello,
I have an Alaska Channing Mark 3 and last season I noticed it was somewhat loud. We have the stove in our living room. My thoughts were if I could replace the blowers with some quieter ones it would help reduce the noise. I have looked at the Alaska Stove site, and the only spec I can find is that it has a 265 CFM blower. Does anyone have any recommendations of blower makes/models? I know that ducting the blowers would help the noise but it is just not practical in this situation. Is there any way to replace the combustion blower as well? Or any idea of the air flow needed to properly combust? Thanks for all of the help.
Robert

I think if you just put some panels on the sides and over the top of the blower motors, enclosing them in an open backed box, then line the box with sound absorbing foam, you will greatly reduce the noise into the living room.

Even ducting with a 90* elbow so the intake is toward the floor will also make a difference. But I'd try the box if it were my stove. Just make sure the foam and box are not touching anything that can create heat enough to melt or ignite the box or foam insulation.

Putting a speed reducing reostat on the motors and slowing them down some will also help, but make sure the motors can stand the reduction without shortening their life.

Greg L.

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Another source of noise may be its mounting, sometimes blowers mounted on thin metal can develop some pretty irritating harmonics. If this is the case, feel around the fan and what it is mounted to. Hold the different pieces or press against them firmly. If the sound gets quiter, you will need to dampen the vibration in some way.

Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately angling the convection blowers intake won't really work because it is so close to the floor. And the combustion blower already points down. I will try the box idea and check to see they are vibrating on their mountings. I never thought about that. Thanks again for the help.
Robert

hey Robert, The noise my channing makes would bother me if it were in a living space but we don't really mind it. Im on the other side of the coin though, I would like a bigger blower for my stove because I feel the 265 cfm is slightly innadequate for the heat the stove can generate. If you get any return correspondence from alaska keep us informed and like wise Im gonna try to make it to an open house at one of my areas largest coal stove dealers this weekend at which will be an alaska rep. Take it easy Jim

First of all I would like to say thank you again for all the help everyone has given me. I have heard back from Alaska and the convection blower is a FASCO model B45227. Here is the link for FASCO's online catalog. To cheapheat, if I were you I would simply get the biggest blower I could that would still fit those dimensions. That way it would be a nice easy swap. You may need to upgrade the rheostat depending on how big the blower is. I have been unable to locate any sort of dB rating for it. I have emailed FASCO and am waiting to hear back from them. The combustion blower is a Bay Motor Prod rated at 55 CFM. I have also been unable to locate any dB rating for this blower as well. I did check for vibrations, and I think that the combustion blower noise is from vibrating. I am going to get some metal C clamps and try to reduce the noise with that. It seems if I hold the housing tight enough the noise goes down. The convection blower is noisy on its own, it does not seem to be vibrating to generate its noise. I have not yet boxed it in. I am going to see if I can get some foam padding or something from work. However I am concerned about the heat the stove generates setting it on fire. And with boxing the motor in wouldn't that cause the motor to heat up and reduce its life span? Thoughts on that anyone?
Robert

Hi Robert, what I meant by creating a box was to sort of extend the sides of the stove to the wall behind it, and put a partial 'roof' over these two sides. What I would be trying to do is make any noise energy to have to go around at least one or two corners to get from the fan motor to my ear.

Most sound travels in straight lines. Low frequency sounds tend to travel well around corners and through surfaces. This is why we hear the 'boom-box' base sounds so well in the cars with the huge sound systems, but can't hear much of the mid and higher frequency sound.

Most of the fan noise is mid and upper frequency, so you should be able to block it by blocking the direct line from the fan inlet to your ear. This is why I suggested an elbow over the intake opening, with the elbow facing the floor, this would signifiacantly reduce the straight line from the fan to your ear. Since you said that an elbow intake won't work, then try some extended side walls and a sort of roof over the rear of the stove, partially enclosing it. You should be able to keep the clearance to hot metal and around the motors far enough to not restrict cooling.

I can't remember the names of any sound proofing foam sheet, but you can put a layer of fiberglass insulation like for your walls, and use a layer of wire mesh to hold it in place, the fiberglass will provide a sound absorbing surface.

All of the above can be done as a very 'temporary' attempt to see what works, using some plywood or heavy cardboard, just keep several inches between the temporary box and the stove. Try it for a few hours and see if you can tell the difference. If it works, then you can figure out some more perminant fireproof materials. Don't leave the temporary pieces in place if you are leaving the room for any length of time, especially if they are flamable. Safety first!!

Hope this helps, and makes sense, Greg L

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Thanks, that really clears it up. I see now how that would work. I will how to scrounge up some materials to try it out.

Hey robert thanks for theFasco link, Ivegot to takesome measurementsto se if they will have a larger blower for me to use. One more thing for you to think about is Dynamat...I just googled itup and they arestill going strongerthanever. Years ago I worked for a car stereo wholesaler that sold tons of that stuff to eliminate vibration and noise from show cars You may want to read a little on their website, it makes alot of sense in our/your application and I have yet to hear of a town that didnt have a car stereo shop where you maybe able to buy scraps from a bigger job...and its heat resistent too like 300 degrees. Jim

Thanks for the idea Jim. I never thought about using that kind of material. I will look into car stereo places around where I live and see if they have anything I can use. I am going to try rig something up soon to see if I can box it in to see how much that helps.
Robert

The Dayton motors that Keystoker uses are real quiet.

To Complete Heat, do you have any further info? Brand model, etc.? Even the model of stove you have would help. Thanks for the tip.
Robert

I found some pieces of plywood lying around. Even just leaning them against the stove so the pieces go right past the blowers really helped. The noise from the convection blower dropped significantly. Now I just want to find some sheet metal to put there instead. Having wood that close to a running stove would make me really nervous. So I figure some sheet metal going from the stove to the wall, maybe with some sound dampening material on it and I think that would solve my noise issues. Thanks everyone for the support and ideas.
Robert

RT, another good material would be fire board (cement board), Home depot or Lowes sells it in 4 x 8 sheets. Since it's about 3/8 thick the cement has good sound damping qualities so it may do the trick without worrying about flammables.

Ed.A has a great idea.

Cement board is usually smooth on one side, so paint this side and face it toward the room. The other side usually has grooves for the tile adhesive to stick to, so this will reduce sound reflection and the heavy weight of the board will also help reduce resonance.

Greg L.

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