Durablow GFK-160 (with Power Cord Only) Fireplace Stove Blower Unit for Lennox, Superior, Heat N Glo, Hearth and Home, Quadra Fire, Regency, Royal, Jakel, Nordica, Rotom

Overall— great replacement fan. A bit of a struggle finagling it into the bottom of the fireplace— however, after installing, it is considerably louder than I imagined, and wanted to purchase, additionally, the blower motor control dial— instead of returning this unit and ordering the one with the controller.I can’t find where to do that.Furthermore, their website has no way to contact them directly, so I’m using this review to do so.If I don’t hear back from them before the return window closes, I’ll be returning this unit and ordering the other— costing us both more time and money…On the whole however, a solid little blow fan for the gas fireplace.

Room Sizes; is this worth it?We have two gas fireplaces from Hearth and Home. The one we modified with the blower was the one in the master bedroom and have not yet installed a blower in the great room since we don't use that fireplace for heat. Our master bedroom is 16-feet wide and 24-feet long with 10 foot ceilings, not the largest but good sized. The gas fireplace was not able to heat this room prior to installing the blower. After we put in the blower, it all worked very well and the fireplace put out much more heat. We have decided to install a blower in the great room gas fireplace next fall (2014).How it Works:The blower requires 110VAC to operate the fan motor, which is placed in the back of the fireplace. When the fan motor is turned on, it draws air through the bottom fireplace vent and pushes it up around the hot fire box, and the warmed air is expelled from the top vent on the front of the fireplace. In line with the power to the fan motor is a temperature controlled thermostat switch, which you must mount in contact with the firebox on your fireplace. When the firebox heats up to about 120F, the contacts in the thermostat switch close and if you have the blower plugged in, the blower will "blow." Alternately, when the fireplace gas is shut off and the firebox cools down slowly, at some point (I think around 90F) the thermostat switch opens... and the blower stops blowing. Another device, the speed control, is also in-line with the thermostat switch... it simply controls the speed of the blower while it is on. I have mine up about 3/4 of the way... quiet but audible.Installation manual:I provided three links but amazon edited them out of my review... PDF copies are readily available online. I'm an electrical engineer and didn't really even need the instructions (it seemed self evident to me) but that's my skill set. Others here had a hard time with the instructions but some won't really need them.Possible Challenges:Your installation will vary; the things to think about. 1) Pushing the blower to the back of your fireplace may be a challenge. Mine was tight, but I did manage to wiggle it in. Be careful. 2) You'll need to mount the thermostat directly to the firebox. 3) It's nice to have a place to mount the variable speed control... mine fit under the firebox, about in the middle. Almost anyplace will do. 4) Naturally, you'll also need an outlet somewhere under your fireplace to plug it in.Controlling the Gas:This is a separate issue from the blower. Initially, we went with a "Smart Stat-II" remote controlled temperature controller. This worked but had issues... cat lays on top the remote and it won't turn on (cats are about 103F). Also, the remote ends up on my side or her side... anyway, it was okay but not optimal. Recently, I installed a 4th Nest Thermostat to control the gas to the fireplace. The Nest does not control the blower in the fireplace... that is heat operated as described above. In order to get the Nest to work I also had to use a 24VAC transformer and a fan relay (24VAC coil)... if you're interested, this is a very easy thing to do and I'm willing to answer questions on the Nest install. You can't control the gas directly with the nest because most gas fireplaces use a millivolt system (fancy language for saying it doesn't use 24VAC... usually 3.3V or less than 1.0VDC... anyway it won't work without the 24VAC supply; the 24VAC transformer supplies power for the nest and relay. Nest controls the relay which controls the gas... Simple.I give the blower 5 stars. Piece of pie and works great.

The Durablow blower arrived with all advertised items. It was fully assembled, ready to plug into the electrical outlet under the fireplace. Getting the blower into the space under the fireplace was a very tight squeeze. Before beginning installation I went to YouTube. There are several excellent videos, most of them done by the same guy. Just as the videos indicated, I needed to take off the rubber feet to get the unit into the space under the fireplace. The only real problem that I had involved those rubber feet. After putting them back on, once I have the unit in the space, they kept coming off as I moved the unit toward the back of the fireplace. The videos don’t indicate this problem or how to deal with it. I discovered that once the feet are in place it’s important not to slide the unit toward the back, but, to lift slightly as I moved it to the back of the fireplace. The rubber feet and the Velcro strips at the back do an excellent job of preventing any vibration of the blower against the floor or back of the fireplace. Once you have the unit in place against the back of the fireplace, the rest is fairly simple. All I did was plug it into the AC outlet under the fireplace. It’s important to make sure that you plug the blower into an outlet that will remain on even when you turn the fireplace flame off.The magnetized Temperature sensor is awesome. It’s simply attaches to the metal underside of the fireplace. I used a digital kitchen thermometer to find a place which heated up the quickest. But, I would say just make sure you put it directly below where flames are coming out in the hearth. The unit came on between eight and 10 minutes after I turned on the fireplace. And because I had my kitchen thermometer I can tell you that it came on right at 121°F. After turning off the flame, it took right about 10 minutes for the blower to turn itself off. You can turn the blower off manually with the variable speed switch.The variable speed switch which controls the fan speed can be left inside the bottom of the fireplace. However, to change the speed you would need to take the cover off of the fireplace, change the speed and put the cover back on. I chose to drill a 5/16 inch hole in my fireplace cover and insert the switch control on the lower right outside of the fireplace cover.Once installed the blower makes very little noise. At full speed there is more noise than I care to have, mostly the sound of rushing air. I found that putting it at about 80% gives us sufficient airflow and reduces the air sound to a comfortable level.At first, I was going to give this 4 stars. Mostly because the difficulty I had with the rubber feet. However, if I had known about the little trick of lifting the unit slightly while pushing it towards the back of the unit it would have made the installation much easier. So, I’m going to give it 5 stars.Disclaimer: I am not a professional electrician or contractor and please use any of the above information at your own discretion.Please let me know if you find this review helpful.

Delivery was fast and well packaged. The blower arrived with a grounded plug. The fire place was designed with two ungrounded receptacles. Installation was hindered by the fact that the blower didn't fit underneath the firebox. Spacing was about 1/8" too low. Had to loosen the fire box and move it up. The blower had double sided adhesive tape which allowed for easy placement and installation. The temperature sensor has a magnet which made installation easy. Fan moves lots of air. Becomes noisy when turned to full speed.(they all do) overall well designed.

Ive installed/reinstalled a few times to minimize noise/vibration. Wish it were quieter…

So far so good, its been installed for a few weeks now. Straight forward to hook up the wiring. Was a bit tricky for me to fit in the fireplace had to disconnect the gas line to get room for this sucker to fit at the back. Unit works as described, although I thought it would be a bit quieter than it is, its not overly loud. You have to find the right speed setting where the motor does not seem to 'hum' as much, its about midway between very low and full blast. I don't have anything to compare the sound against so I don't know how it compares to other models. I did notice that there was a bit of 'play' in the fan units. I don't know if that will cause an issue over time or if thats why its not as quiet at the lower settings. When watching a youtube video that compared the these replicated versions compared to a more expensive manufacturer they point out that their's has no play in their fan unit and the 'replicated' versions do. Aside from that it seems to be well constructed. I played around with placing the thermal switch in the right place, you don't want it directly under the fire because that's the last spot to cool down and the thing will run for almost a hour after. I found a decent placement just off to the side and the blower turns on after about 10 min and stays on for about 20 min after the fireplace is turned off. Make sure you have power to your fireplace receptacle, I did not they didn't hook it up and I ended up having to do some wiring inside of the wall.

really quite, metal case ,good strong breeze . and on top of that ordered it Saturday night 6 pm and it was on my door step at 11 am Sunday next day .. we are in rural area so this was great .. thank you guys great product works perfect ..viva home delivery .🍺🖖🥳

The blower arrived in 2 days, the unit is a little smaller than the lennox fab1600 blower I replaced. I had to drill new holes to mount it on the bracket, overall though for a universal unit im very pleased. It's not silent but not overly loud either and it blows hot air very efficiently. My main floors are warm to walk on, electric heaters are not running that would have come on before hand. I've had it in for a couple weeks so far and I'll give it 4.5 out of 5 stars as I had to do some adjustments to the mount. I would recommend this product to others.