****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
here is nothing to dislike about a well made problem solver. However mating a device wanting a 10-inch round duct into a 6 x 13 inch rectangular duct requires a lot of imagination and work (two full days). The problem was made more difficult by the small space between the furnace plenum and the upward turn of the duct into a wall, as shown in the first picture. Ultimately both sides of the duct were adapted to 10 x 10 inch square openings terminated in square plates having round holes matching the blower. The downstream end of the blower was inserted through the 10-inch round hole and the upstream end was pop riveted to the upstream plate with its 8-inch round hole.The duct ultimately forks to serve three 6 x 6 ducts to bedrooms far from the furnace over an unheated garage. The bedrooms have been cold for 4+ decades despite attempts to redirect air to them by furnace blower speed and register closures. No longer. At full voltage the in-line air flow is now enormous, even drafty, at distances from the bedroom registers, with some bedroom wind noise and a vibratory hum at the furnace. Reducing voltage with a variac brings both air speed and noise concerns down to acceptable levels. I'll make a decision on final voltage level to the blower after I get further into the heating season. It appears likely that it will be run at about 70 volts with power consumption of about 85 watts. At that level the sound of the in-line blower cannot be heard over that of the furnace ID fan and its circulator, which is exactly the reason for an oversized in-line blower in the first place. As in a previous application of their 6-inch blower in another house, the blower is wired in parallel with the furnace blower, whose relay switch can easily accommodate the less than 1 amp extra current. A brief heating trial this week showed the condensing gas furnace producing 110 degree heat with 103 degree air reaching the bedrooms in whatever volume is necessary. If the bedrooms will now somewhat overheat, as seems likely, damping the air flows at the registers will both allow individual bedroom control and will paradoxically reduce in-line blower power consumption, as is the fact for every fan, blower and vacuum ever made.The photos show before, during and after installation. There was not a half inch to spare. One needs to be competent with cutting sheet metal, pop riveting, bending edges with a seaming tool and making connections with s-connectors and metal duct tape. So unless you have round ducts, it is not easy to boost air flow with round blowers of this type. However, its quality is top notch; it has near unity power factor; and it is easy to control with a variac or fixed ratio transformer of desired voltage(s). In my case an alternative solution would have me breaking into into floors, ceilings and both stud and masonry walls to route more ducts to the bedrooms or adding electric heat in each bedroom. Since this is my second successful application of a HydroFarm blower, I obviously recommend them over such other options that seem even harder to me.
