Fireplace Fan Lubrication

Gas Fireplace Fan extracted from its hiding place

The fan in the main floor gas fireplace fan started screaming, so I pulled it out but now that it's cooled off the bearings seem fine. It's as old as the house, so like 25 years. This winter we have been running the fireplace almost constantly instead of the furnace. 

I've run into this problem before with the fireplace in the basement. The bearings in that fan have failed a couple of times. I cleaned and oiled them and that worked for awhile, but then I got the idea to use high temperature grease. That didn't work so well, it ate the bearings. Those bearings were bronze bushings supporting a quarter inch polished steel shaft. Eventually the price for a replacement fan dropped from $160 to $60, which made it an easy decision to replace it.

The bearings in this fan are almost non-existent. The motor has nylon bushings on an eighth inch shaft. The far end of the blower is supported by a minuscule pin riding in another nylon bearing. I could have ordered a replacement blower from Amazon for about $60, but would it fit exactly? I'm sure it would have fit in the space available, but would the holes for the mounting screws line up exactly? Sure I could drill a couple of holes, but what other problems would I run into?

I took this one apart and cleaned it up and then I put a drop of motor oil (because that's what I had on hand in the garage and I didn't want to go all the way downstairs to get the 3-In-1) on the nylon bushings. Put it back together and wiggled into position. It was a little awkward lying on the floor and trying to reach into the cavity under the firebox to reconnect the wires and gas line (had to remove the gas line to get the fan out). Finally got a couple of cushions to support my chest and that made it much easier.