Pellet stoves don’t rely as much on radiating heat through the body of the appliance as with traditional wood burning stoves.
Instead, pellet stoves opt to provide heat to a room using a number of electrical components through convection of heat using movement of air in and out the stove, and so does this mean that pellet stoves have blowers/fans?
Pellet stoves typically have two integrated blowers. A fan can be found as part of the fume extractor that helps remove waste air from a stove and also suck fresh air in, and a blower can be found forcing air around the combustion chamber and producing hot air for a room.
Our pellet stove has two fans and so we’ve explained in more detail below using our own pellet stove as an example:
- Why pellet stoves typically have fans/blowers.
- Where blowers can be found within a pellet stove.
Do Pellet Stoves Have Blowers?
Pellet stoves use a range of electrical components to help facilitate the more automated burning of fuel and production of heat for a home.
One or more of these electrical components inside a pellet stove can be a blower or fan.
For the purposes of this article a blower and a fan are referred to as the same thing.
Traditional wood burning stoves typically don’t have any electrical components and rely on the metal body of the stove absorbing the heat from the fire inside the stove and radiating that heat out into the room.
However, pellet stoves are electronic appliances and use a whole host of electronic components and provide the ability to heat a room in your home without the need for constant attention of fires and manually adding fuel when required.
Pellet stoves require electricity in order to work and by using these electronic components pellet stoves focus more on releasing heat into the room through convection rather than radiation of the heat.
Pellet stoves also use electronic parts to help vent waste air from the stove, rather than relying solely on the movement of hot air up a flue known as the draft.
In order for a pellet stove to achieve both the venting of waste gases and convection of hot air into a room, a pellet stove can be equipped with a number of blowers or fans.
These fans are hidden away inside the body of a stove and typically aren’t visible unless you look inside a pellet stove.
Our own model of pellet stove has two integrated blowers serving different purposes:
- A blower located just below and behind the combustion chamber.
- A fan located below the combustion chamber as part of the fume extractor.
The standalone blower located behind the combustion chamber in our pellet stove is for heating purposes. This can also be known as the distribution blower.
The fan as part of the fume extractor in our pellet stove is for venting purposes. This can also be known as the combustion blower.
Distribution Blower
To allow pellet stoves to transfer heat from the fire in the combustion chamber to the room, blowers are typically found as part of the heating system in a pellet stove.
There’s a large blower located in our own model of pellet stove located right in the middle of the appliance, just below and behind the combustion chamber.
The manual for our pellet stove explains that the blower:
‘Ensures additional circulation of air in the room. Using this internal mounted air fan, the hot air is pushed into the room and improves the efficiency of the pellet stove’.
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A blower of this sort found in a pellet stove helps:
- Suck in cooler air from the back and sides of the stove through the slats in the body.
- Force this air around the back and top of the combustion chamber.
- Transfer this heated air into the room through the front of the stove.
On the front of many models of pellet stove you’ll typically see a grille-like feature.
There’s a grille located at the top front of our own model of pellet stove.
This will be where the air forced by the blower comes out of the stove. As the air passes around the combustion chamber from the blower to this outlet at the front of the stove, it heats up and provides heat to the room.
Combustion Blower
As pellet stoves are solid fuel burning appliances waste air from a pellet stove must be sufficiently vented from a home in order to be compliant with local building codes and regulations.
Pellet stoves don’t depend on the draft as much as traditional wood burning stoves do to remove waste air from a home.
Instead, pellet stoves use a fan within the fume extractor component to suck air out of the combustion chamber and out through the flue.
The fume extractor fan is located right below the combustion chamber of our own pellet stove. It can’t be seen from the front of the stove but can be seen when looking through the vents in the back.
The manual for our pellet stove explains what the fume extractor does:
‘Extracts the flue gases from the combustion chamber to the flue pipe outlet and intakes combustion air by vacuum.’
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The internal workings of the fume extractor on our pellet stove can be seen by looking up from the flue socket located on the back of the stove.
This fume extractor creates a vacuum within the combustion chamber, which in turn sucks in fresh air to feed the fire through the air vent located at the back of the stove. A separate fan for the fresh air intake therefore isn’t required on our particular model of stove.
Do All Pellet Stoves Have Blowers?
Pellet stoves typically have both distribution and combustion blowers to help facilitate the automated process of burning pellets to generate heat. However, all models of pellets stove are designed differently and so blower components may differ between different versions of pellet stoves.
Further Reading
What’s Inside A Pellet Stove With Pictures