Stove Maintenance Part 2: How to Replace a Wood Stove Fan Cover

This is another Alternative Heating & Supplies episode and in this blog post we are going to talk about how to replace a wood stove fan cover. This is the second episode of the series on outdoor wood stoves annual maintenance.

Wood Boilers Maintenance

How the Wood Stove Works?

Basically, when the control unit calls for heat, it lifts this up and there's a rubber flapper here.

Now, the rubber flapper looks generally okay, but what happens is the rubber loses its elasticity, and it doesn't make a tight seal, so air penetrates the unit. Again, making the unit smoke more than it should, and also not run as hot and clean as it should.

Why Do You Need to Replace the Fan Cover of a Wood Stove?

So again, a yearly replacement will solve and prevent any problems. The fan cover does break. It is called a catastrophic failure because it'll be held up, it won't sit flat, air will continually run in, which a unit cannot control the air. Which will make the unit overheat, which will cause many, many different kinds of problems, everything from electrical to all sorts of monitoring temperature, monitoring systems that are in the unit.

How Much Does It Cost to Replace a Fan Cover?

For $12, $13, $14, it's worth replacing the fan cover to make your stove run properly.

How to Replace the Fan Cover?

Fan Cover Replacement

Okay, one other thing I wanted to point out while you're changing a fan cover to these WoodMasters, is that if you notice on the fan cover of the used one, if this is 12, this is 6, make sure this earlobe that's holding up the chain that pulls up the laminated center, pulls up, is at the six position.

Changing the Fan Cover of a Wood Stove

If you do not put it back at the six position, sometimes, the laminated solenoid will hold it up and stick it, so again, it won't drop. So what you need to do is, mimic exactly what is happening on the old one to what's happening on the new one.

Now, we'll reapply. This will help you from a sticking flapper, and again, it'll overheat. It doesn't happen all the time, it happens periodically.

Okay, so now that we have replaced the fan cover, we're just simply gonna grab the laminated solenoid, and make sure it's going up and down smoothly and making sure it's sealed quite well.

Previously, we have talked about how to change the wood stove fire rope and our next video is on how to change the water, flush and clean the inside of the unit.

Check out our yearly maintenance kits and do it yourself kits, and if you need assistance or you have questions that we did not cover here, give us a call!