Description
The Mighty Vanquish 250 Stove Fan, By Valiant
If you use a fireplace or wood burning stove for home heating, then you are already aware of their biggest drawback. They produce a tremendous amount of heat in the immediate vicinity of the stove, but tend to leave the rest of the room feeling cool, and sometimes, downright cold!
Fortunately, several bright, forward-thinking engineers came up with a solution to that – the stove fan! Valiant, a UK company, makes some of the finest stove fans in the industry today. Their latest model is the Vanquish 250. Before we get into the details of this model in particular, let’s talk about how stove fans work in general, as a means of laying some groundwork.
The Basics Of Stove Fan Operation
Broadly speaking, there are two basic designs of stove fans on the market today. Those that use the Seebeck Effect to turn the fan blades, and those designed around a Stirling Engine, which is an external combustion engine.
At the end of the day, while the two designs share some technical differences, they both draw their power from a common source – the heat of the stove itself. This is a big win for stove owners, because it means that no power is needed to run the fan. No electricity, no batteries…nothing. The heat from the stove is all that is required.
It is this property of stove fans that dramatically improves the overall efficiency of the wood burning stove or fireplace. If the fan required an external power source, then most of the efficiency gains would be eaten up in the act of supplying the power needed to run the device, which makes them something of an engineering marvel.
Operationally, stove fans serve a fairly straightforward purpose. By moving the warm air away from the stove itself, and circulating it throughout the room, the temperature is evened out, nicely overcoming the wood stove’s biggest shortcoming.
The Vanquish comes in the packing of the same pattern as all remaining Valiant models come. On order to avoid any damage the fan in the box id secured with foam pads.
What Makes The Vanquish 250 Special
The Vanquish 250 is the latest in a long line of stove fans by Valiant, and with each new generation they introduce, their design sees further refinement. This fan is the most powerful that the company has made so far, capable of moving an impressive 425CFM (cubic feet of air per minute), which makes it suitable even for very large rooms.
The heat sink is designed so distinguish “V” can be recognized to remind the name of the Valiant newest model
The secret to the Vanquish 250’s massive air moving capability lies in the design of the unit itself, and the two fan blades. Thanks to Valiant’s engineering expertise, they’ve been able to design their new fan so that it moves up to 90% more air than other fans of comparable size, which is impressive indeed.
One of the best features of the Vanquish 250 is the fact that it has a very low startup temperature, of just 50 degrees Celsius (120 degrees Fahrenheit). This means that when you make a fire in your stove, you’re not stuck waiting an inordinate amount of time. When the temperature of the surface of the stove hits 50C, the fan kicks on automatically.
The Vanquish stove fan is protected from overheating by a strip of bimetal fitted in the fan’s base.
The fan is designed to operate between 120 degrees Fahrenheit, to a maximum temperature of 640 degrees Fahrenheit (340 Celsius). If the temperature of the surface of the stove should exceed this value, the fan will shut off automatically, so as to avoid damage.
Another thing people constantly rave about, especially where Valiant fans are concerned is how quiet the operation is. If not for the fact that you’ll feel drafts of warm air moving about the room, you wouldn’t even know the fan was on unless you were literally sitting right next to it. They’re that quiet!
The motor is mounted in the center of the fan’s body so the long blades don’t protrude over the stove fan’s top.
When you actually see and hold these fans, you will be both shocked and surprised at how tiny they are. There might be a part of you that’s thinking there’s just no way a fan so small can move so much air – again, this is due, in large part, to the excellent engineering and design team at Valiant. The Vanquish 250 is just 250mm high (including the blades), and only 230mm wide. Remarkably, it weighs just 700g (which is about a pound and a half).
Given the fact that no assembly is required, and setup amounts to simply placing the little fan on top of the stove, there’s nothing really in the way of maintenance to be done. Nonetheless, Valiant stands behind their products, offering a two-year materials and workmanship guarantee on every fan they sell.
The blades itself are attached to the motor’s shaft with tiny screw.
While it’s certainly true that you can find less expensive stove fans on the market today, this is one of those cases where you get what you pay for. Valiant has been in the business for a long time. Their design and engineering is top notch, and their fans will last longer and serve you better than most models offered by other companies.
If you’re looking for a way to take the efficiency of your fireplace or wood burning stove to the next level, you should strongly consider getting a Vanquish 250, by Valiant, and vanquish those cold winter nights for good!
The blades of the Vanquish 250 are made of plastic for a reason. Long blades have an aerodynamically designed profile, so they push the air as the airplane’s propellers do rather than the ventilator’s blades. Despite a huge diameter the blades are light to make it easier for the motor to spin faster.
