I've seen them at surpluscenter.com. Not sure if its for a 6041 but if it is you won't pay much.

Try surpluscenter.com. I bought several gear motors to keep as spares. Price is nice too, like < $20.00.

Keep the spare fan when you get it and leave the original in place. I had the same problem and got the spare fan. The sound went away a week or so later and the original fan is still humming along in it's fifth season. It's quick to replace, so if you have to do so in the middle of the season it won't matter much. 20-30 min. job.

$2.30 in upstate NY as of today. Even corn at at .14/lb. is still a better deal.

What an awesome machine!

After a couple of weeks off, I'm burning again. Got to use up about 200# of corn. Never stored corn over the summer before and hope I don't have to. Does it absorb humidity readily. I don't want a mess in the fall.

Does anyone else have any experience with these units? Looks promising. Are they expensive?

Damn! I liked that one.

Right you are, Corny! Although once radiant heat is transmitted toward the glass it's unaffected by airflow, so there must be less heat from the fire in the first place due to added airflow which makes sense. I didn't consider that in my initial assumption. So the 70%+ increase in radiant heat is the sum of less convective heat loss and added BTU content of the corn based on greater mass of fuel fed to the pot. At least the heat exchanger has more of a chance to pick up the heat prior to venting.

Whew!

I have the same control board (v0.26). Just took the temp on the glass (top and center of it just under the cast iron frame) on HR5 it was 634F. It seems as if I get minimal increase in heat output past HR5. It must be getting less efficient as the flow rates increase (which stands to reason). DF is always on high and controlled by the damper. I just prefer it that way. I'll have to get a more reliable thermometer for the room air output. I'll get back to you on those temps.

Corny, thanks for pointing out my laziness . I converted to kelvin and ran the figures through a net radiation loss rate equation figuring for a room temp of 65F for each calculation. The result is based on the 1/2" circle of area which my IR thermometer takes a reading on the glass. Results: corn 1.13 watts for the given area; pellets .65 watts for the given area. I hope I used the correct equation: q = ε σ (Th4 - Tc4) Ac

where

Th = hot body absolute temperature (K)

Tc = cold surroundings absolute temperature (K)

Ac = area of the object (m2)

Does that sound right to you? 73% increase in radiant heat transmission seems high to me.

PS temps were 652K for corn and 573K for pellets.

With my stove the heat exchanger is rather primitive ( just a box in a box; no tubes ) so the additional air flow is just bypassing the heat exchange surfaces and going out the vent when burning pellets. The real indicator is in the temperature of the glass in the door. This would be just based on radiant heat transfer and so unaffected by air flow which makes it a direct indication of energy output from the fire. Corn provides consistent glass temperatures of 25% greater at the same heat setting compared to pellets in my stove. On high setting burning corn it tops out at 716F and air output of 254F. Stack temperature is about 290-300 but the flow is about that of someone exhaling. As you can see, my heat exchanger sucks. I should be getting a bit more heat out of it.

I think Firepot hit on an important point with the need for additional combustion air in order to obtain an efficient burn with the pellets. It will take more energy to maintain the burn pot at the same temperature with the added cold combustion air ( worse if using FAK ). Difficult to quantify without flow rate measurements, but anecdotally it makes sense. Perhaps a dedicated pellet stove is better designed to burn the pellets than a multi-fuel unit like mine and so it might not be a problem.

That must have been one desperate day when you burned the dog food.

Stirrer is made of hollow half inch 304 stainless. Entire drive shaft is the same. It attaches to the stock drive motor via a custom machined drive shaft which has an air plenum to which an air pump attaches with standard nylon tubing. Plenum allows the shaft to turn while maintaining an air seal. The incoming air keeps the stirrer cooler and thus also reduces the amount of clinker formation in addition to improving burn. You can find similar information on an old patent application I found on Google Patents.

Air injection through modified stirrer. Much better burn, like a blow torch.

I'm really pleased with my 6039. I heat a 2000sf shop with 19' ceilings with it. I modded mine, but it's fine right out of the box. I just like to tinker.

Looks like my glass every morning. I shut down at night ( stove is in my workshop) so every morning I just wipe it off with a moist paper towel and polish it dry with a clean dry cotton towel. The color of the ash is usually almost pure white.

I've had the same stove for four years now. I've made several modifications to it in order to improve it's design and am now happy with it. I heat a 2000 square foot insulated pole barn with 19' ceilings with it successfully. The FAK will help with comfort level due to improved indoor humidity. You'll still be paying to heat the combustion air either way though. Very cold outdoor air needs to be heated that much more as it passes through the firebox in order to achieve the same heat output to the house. It takes more fuel to do this, so it's really a no win in that regard.
I use manual settings for the fans and keep both on high all the time. Use the damper to control the combustion air. It's more precise than varying the fan speed. Get the flame to the point where it's lazy and then give it just enough air for the laziness to disappear. Hope this helps.

Looks some sort of time machine from an old 50's movie...