Ecofan broken and repaired!

January 10, 2010 by Mike
Filed under: Canals 
Ecofan Motor Replacement Kit

Ecofan Motor Replacement Kit

Most boat owners have at least heard about the Ecofan – very clever device which sits on the stove top and uses the thermal energy to power a tiny electric motor which spins a fan blade to help circulate the hot air further round the boat.  In these low temperatures every little helps, and it was noticeable last week that the fan had stopped spinning as fast as normal.

A new Ecofan is quite an investment – including postage they are somewhere between 85 and 100 pounds depending on where you buy them, so I was interested to discover that a replacement motor kit is available for about £15.00 including postage, from the UK distrubutor.

Worth a punt I thought, so ordered one which arrived yesterday.  Its not a totally straightforward operation, as the wires to the motor are soldered on, but with very clear instructions, I had the new motor fitted in minutes.  I am delighted to say that the fan started spinning instantly and is now back to normal operation.

Bear it in mind if your Ecofan has stopped spinning.  Its a lot cheaper than a replacement, and in this disposable world its nice to find something so specialised off the shelf.

Check out www.ecofan.co.uk for details.

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Comments

5 Comments on Ecofan broken and repaired!

  1. Rob on Fri, 19th Feb 2010 12:45 am

    2. As you went to the trouble to repair your ecofan instead of chucking it overboard and commiting it to watery grave you clearly like it. I recently got one for my woodburner stove and I think they are brilliant. In fact i would go so far as to say I am quite a FAN of them (!)

  2. Mike on Fri, 19th Feb 2010 12:17 pm

    3. From a recent survey on canal world forums it seems most people (81%) find they make a difference. Whether they are worth the money or not is another matter, but I wouldn’t be without mine, though I was stalling at the prospect of having to pay almost a hundred pounds for a replacement!

  3. Mike on Fri, 31st Dec 2010 12:36 am

    4. The most frequent cause of failure for the ECOFAN is a bad TEG module. This is the thermoelectric generator that converts heat to electricity to power the fan. The manufacturer will not sell replacement TEG modules but you can find them on eBay. They are quite simple to replace. Just remember to use a thin layer of thermal grease on both sides of the TEG module prior to assembly. Do a search on eBay for ECOFAN REPAIR

  4. Mike on Thu, 13th Jan 2011 7:49 pm

    5. Is this not what I did? Or perhaps you sell them?

  5. Peter on Tue, 31st Jan 2012 4:28 pm

    6. I just repaired my Ecofan. It slowed down then stopped spinning. First I tried a battery to the motor, this seemed ok and at 1.5v worked freely and at 3v very fast no noise and the fan delivering plenty of air. So that made the TEG module suspect, before i went to cost and hassle of buying a module from the states I had heard of another fix. I obtained some thermal grease from Maplin, after cleaning the module I put grease on and reassembled. So far its working perfectly. I bought cleaner and grease for £9.99 but the smallest tube of grease was £1.99 so if you have a slow or stopped fan could be a cheap fix.

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