Ecofan: Worth it? Fragile?

Robbin · Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2009 10:35 am Post subject: Ecofan: Worth it? Fragile?

You may have seen a photo of me on this site where I'm huddled up in a yellow hoodie right in front of the Wallas trying to get warm.

We may go out for Thanksgiving again this year, and I'd like to leave the hoodie off when I'm in the cabin.

We're looking at getting an Ecofan and want to make sure it'll work and hold up in the boat. I've been reading about these fans, and some reviews say they are fragile. Other reviews say they look pretty but don't do much.

Most reviews say they're great, and even can help heat a 1600 square foot house.

So. Should we get one. Should we get a larger one with 3 blades or a smaller one with 2 blades. Or, should we just put in a whole fancy pants heating system. The fan's about $120. Lord knows what a real heater would cost, but I bet it'd buy a few of these fans if they ARE fragile.

macmac · Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2009 10:53 am Post subject: Ecofan

An Ecofan only helps to move air over a heat source that has no active (blown) ventilation. The Ecofan produces no heat itself.

The Wallas stove/heater I will assume you have uses a fairly strong blower to move heat around and can produce up to 1900 watts of heat for you (if it is the model I think you are using, either an 85D or a 95D). These should produce enough heat for use in the late fall and early spring seasons in any of the lattitudes of the lower 48 and even most of Canada and Alaska, but there are plenty of exceptions.

If it is 10 degrees F, you will need to either bundle up or consider installing an additional furnace! Call us, we have 'em!

Thanks for using Wallas.

Doug at Scan Marine 1-888-606-6665

journey on · Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2009 11:33 am Post subject:

OK, we have both a Wallis 95D and an ECOFAN. The Wallis has worked well, and it has a blower which blows air right across the cabin, about where you're sitting. The Ecofan is just a heat driven fan which moves warm air.

However, we've just come back from another nice warm trip around Vancouver Isle, where if the temperature got above 65, it was a heat wave. Since the Wallis fan didn't distribute the hot air throughout the boat, we used an Ecofan to do so, especially towards the V-berth. We would position the Ecofan over the aft side of the stove (which puts out the least amount of heat), pointed towards the V-berth, and it would admirably blow warm air over the stove around the cabin. The amount in the V-berth was questionable, and someone has to get up to turn the stove on, but as a heat driven fan it worked well.

As mentioned above, it doesn't generate heat, but it distributes it better than the Wallis does.

Bought it on Amazon for ~$50.

Boris

Spike · Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2009 12:01 pm Post subject:

Robbin
You should check out Amy and Karls album on the C Daisey. Carl installed one heck of a heater in their boat. I saw it in action at the last Friday Harbor get together. Works like a champ.
Chuck
Bootleg Hooch

Plan C · Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2009 12:16 pm Post subject:

I use one of the fans on my woodstove at home. Has worked well 2 years. The two blade fan is fine. I have used it on the boat, which allows stove/heater operation without running the current sucking stove fan. It worked nicely, but is only a bit awkward to carry about. I think I got it from Home Depot for $49.
Dave

dotnmarty · Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2009 12:58 pm Post subject:

Fan or no fan- I love that picture!

ppriest · Guest

The J.C.Lately is equipped with the Model 85 (two-burner) Wallas stove/heater and we add to that a Model 800 (2-blade) Ecofan.
We use it in early season when the A.M. temps are ranging down around 40F or a little lower, and starting up the Wallas at 04:00 (on one of my late-night Old Man trips); and, leaving the fan sitting on top of the smaller burner and pointed forward over the larger burner, it will bring up the cabin temp to something more tolerable by the time Verla likes to arise and we're thinking about breakfast.
It is probably worth noting that we leave the forward hatch cracked a half-inch or so in hopes of reducing the condensation buildup in the cuddy while we sleep; I suspect that perhaps this also facilitates the flow of some warmer air from the cabin proper into the cuddy.
I believe that, if your intent is to have 68F room temp thruout, this scheme won't cut it. But if you just like to take the curse off the morning cold in the cabin as you're getting dressed and are thinking about assembling breakfast, this is a good solution. And it removes the load of the Wallas circulation fan motor from the electrical load on the battery.

REMEMBER the operating caveats from Wallas re using the "cooker" on high for long periods without supervision and allowing turn off/cool-down time before leaving the boat.

We got our Ecofan for $50 from Home Depot - at that price a nice accessory worth the storage space it occupies.

Paul Priest
Sequim

Wandering Sagebrush · Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2009 2:26 pm Post subject: Ecofan - thumbs up!

Love the Ecofan! We keep it in the original box to alleviate any transport damage, but that may be overkill. They do a great job of moving air around the cabin. Typically, we have ours on the cooler burner, with the fan facing which ever direction needs the most heat (i.e. where the windows are fogged up). I have one for the boat, and one for the woodstove!

Steve

DaveS · Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2009 3:41 pm Post subject:

thataway · Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2009 6:26 pm Post subject:

granted we have not been in really cold weather--just AK in the summer, which is about the same as Pensacola in the winter. We found that using the Vantastic Ocean Breeze or the 02 fan (for a fraction of the price--$12 on sale at Wally world) to blow the warm air into the V Bert did better than the Eco Fan.

I was more likely to use the eco fan when Marie was cooking on one of the burners, to get heat distribution. I personally didn't think it gave a lot more distribution than the blower on the Wallas. Back some time ago there was a post of how much current draw for the wallas, start up, run and blower. As I recollect the blower didn't add that much to the current draw--less than I thought it would.

One other trick: you don't have the windows covered. We found that just the canvas window coverings helped a lot, then if we added the bubble foil type "sunshades" we use to keep the heat out on the desert, it made all of the differnce in the world. Lots of heat lost in those windows.

We keep the Eco fan in the original box--no problems with it. Home Depot for about $50 on sale.

MOOSE · Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 9:10 am Post subject:

We have the two-bladed Ecofan and love it. It allows us to keep the Wallas on all night long, but without the annoying fan noise. And since the original box was starting to show wear and tear, I fabricated a replacement out of thin wood paneling which holds the fan securely and protects the blades, the most fragile part, from bending.
Al

JamesTXSD · Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 11:36 am Post subject:

Another EcoFan fan here. Our Wallas has the blower, but besides the noise, it uses more battery power... something to consider when you're on the hook or at a dock without power. We have run heat several times (including overnights) since we've been in Canada this trip, and use the EcoFan each time. It allows you to direct the heat: to the dinette before bed and into the V-berth after lights out.

We do carry ours in the original box. If it (the box) deteriorates, I'll shore it up with some duct-tape.

We found our EcoFan online last year for less than that $120 price. Brent and Dixie lent us theirs two years ago when we were headed to the PNW. It seemed pricey at the time, but it does the job.

Best wishes,
Jim B.

Rock-C · Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 2:29 pm Post subject:

journey on · Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 3:41 pm Post subject:

Jim/JamesTXSD

I'm curious, how much fuel did the Wallis burn overnight? Ours burned a little over a quart.

Also, what's the difference between an 85 and 95? We have a 95 and it's a 2 burner. I don't think burner is the right word, since it appears to have only 1 burner, but 2 "cooking areas". fortunately, I've never had to look real close.

Boris

JamesTXSD · Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 4:37 pm Post subject:

Hi Boris,

Can't say exactly, but I'd guess our burn was well under a pint overnight. We had the Wallas on low most of the night. We still have not gone through a container of Kleen Heat (less than a gallon) in the past two months. It's only in the last two weeks that we've needed the heat. We do carry an extra container of Kleen Heat on the boat and keep one in the truck.

As you know, we use the boat plenty, and I still have two containers of Kleen Heat left from the 5 I bought about a year and a half ago.

A quart in one night seems like a lot to me.

Ours is the two "burner" with the sloped blower-top.

Best wishes,
Jim