Better than a Bellows: A Fireplace Blower

Who doesn't love a fire in the fireplace? But we all know that fires burn low now and then due to inattention, so sometimes you have to fan the flames and get the fire going again. The classic way of doing this is via a bellows. But bellows are a lot of work, get holes worn in them, and don't provide steady air flow. This instructable will show how to construct a simple blower that will do a better job of rekindling the fire than a manual bellows.

Here's a video comparing the efficacy of manual bellows to the blower we'll make:

The overall plan is simple: take an old battery-powered air blower that's used to blow up air mattresses, attach a flexible tube to its exhaust, put a metal nozzle on the end that will go into the firebox.
 

Step 1: Materials and Tools

Materials:
1 - battery-powered blower like the kind used to blow up air mattresses. The one I had laying around the house was the Coleman 4D Universal Quick Pump that you can get for less than $15 on Amazon.
4 - D cells for the blower, $7 at Home Depot
Fabric Tape: Duct tape or Gorilla Tape
2 - hose clamps 1" or so, about $0.70 each
18" of 1" ID plastic tubing a couple of bucks at Home Depot
9" of 3/8" copper tubing

Tools:
Flathead Screwdriver
Copper Tubing Cutter

Comments

[meddler]

I am going to build a flower pot charcoal forge. I was thinking of using a blow dryer for the bellows, but I believe this is a much better solution.

[ibrent]

Really interesting thought! I've built a flower pot charcoal bbq (small brown egg, as opposed to the big green egg) so I know something of what you're using. My guess is that the blowdryer is more of a high volume/low pressure device whereas the air mattress pump is a higher pressure/lower volume device. We're had nothing but good luck with the blower in our fireplace so far, so I believe it will work well for you. Please keep me posted. Thanks for the comment.