I have a bosca classic 500 pellet stove which shuts down on its own. I purchased this stove in 2008. This year it's happened every time i start it. Sometimes it is after 30 min, sometimes 8 hours. Last week i sat and watched the stove and it seems the auger stops dropping pellets for no reason. There is a nice fire in the firebox and it just stops. I have bypassed the low limit switch with same result, i bypassed the hopper lid switch with same results. I didnt bypass the high limit because when the stove does go out i can restart it right away. Any ideas? Does anybody have a way to contact Bosca. I had a number in Washington state but thats disconnected.
Bosca pellet stove problem
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Bioburner
Moderator
Thanks, i called them the other day, the rep helped me but said they are no longer are the distrbutor and doesn't know who is.
Bioburner
Moderator
MountainSean
Credo Quia Absurdum
Amazon is selling the dang things DIRECT. You'd think they'd have a distributor of some sort......although they may not divulge.
Bioburner
Moderator
Round and round we go, I guess!
That company has been through a lot of importers and distributors, it seem! It's a wonder anyone buys them anymore....
I seem to remember that the company pushed for retailers here to buy full containers of the stuff. That's probably why all these places are selling them. But without some support here, this is not going to end well.
Bioburner
Moderator
Wonder if the auger motor has a thermal overload? If you had a kill o watt you could monitor the load when the auger runs and determine the motors listed load as labeled to see if that may be the issue. 6 years on a auger sounds a bit short.
Two dozen or so things I can think of, there is crud in the vent system or the vacuum tubing going to the vacuum switch, possible but not likely a failing vacuum switch, a split in the vacuum tubing, a loose connection on the vacuum tubing, an overheating and failing combustion blower, a marginal gasket that opens just enough when the stove temperature gets past a certain point, a perfectly functioning automatic reset hi limit switch, a failing high limit switch.
Need anymore possibilities?
Need anymore possibilities?
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Thanks for all the help guys, the stove was professionally cleaned at the end of september. It was still warm on LI until last weekend when i first fired it up. Tonight i'm bypassing the high limit switch so we'll see what happens. Smokey i will look into the things you've mentioned but wanted to tell you that i have been sitting in front of the stove (more than once), the firebox has a great flame and the blowers all sound fine when the auger just stops dropping pellets, then the fire dies out and the stove goes into shut down mode and shuts down like normal. When i bypassed the POF switch i was told if the fire went out the blower would keep blowing and the pellets would contine to drop until the hopper was empty. I came in, the stove was off, blower still blowing, no pellets dropping and firebox completely empty???Two dozen or so things I can think of, there is crud in the vent system or the vacuum tubing going to the vacuum switch, possible but not likely a failing vacuum switch, a split in the vacuum tubing, a loose connection on the vacuum tubing, an overheating and failing combustion blower, a marginal gasket that opens just enough when the stove temperature gets past a certain point, a perfectly functioning automatic reset hi limit switch, a failing high limit switch.
Need anymore possibilities?
The #3 light is flashing. I'm up to number 10 on the manual list, the high limit switch. It says to let the stove cool down but i can restart the stove right away and it starts right back up. The next two steps involve the control board and i know it's not the fuse. If it was blown it wouldn't start back up. I'm thinking it's a bad control board and don't know if i can get a replacement
Bioburner
Moderator
If you are trying to burn on low it is possible that you are blowing the fire out, reduce your draft or change your low feed trim (this trim gets reset if the stove losses power).
ETA: It is still possible for the vacuum system to be causing a #3 flashing and not its normal #2, the #3 can come from the vacuum switch not being closed enough of the time so the stove starves for fuel which is what the #3 is all about, namely hey feed me I'm outta go juice.
ETA#2: A loose connection in the POF system can also cause what you are seeing, with the juice off, the stove cold, unplug and check all of the connections in the POF system, those slide on connections have been known to not always stay tight at the POF switch. Any break in this circuit will cause the #3 light to flash and the auger to stop as the stove thinks it has lost flame.
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Snowmobileaddict
Burning Hunk
I have a bosca 500 classic and I've never seen my stove flashing a #3 light before after a fail-safe shutdown.
I have had a #2 light flashing a couple of times as an intermittent thing that happened a few times during the last heating season. I never was able to identify what caused it, as it was likely 3-4 occurances over the course of hundreds of start-up cycles (stove is on a T-Stat). When mine did this, it happened during a startup cylce. The exhaust blower would start, the auger would drop a couple pellets and then it would go into shutdown mode and flash a #2 (indicative of insufficient vacuum measured in the firebox). In my situation a fire never even had a chance to start. All of my vent, the OAK, my switches, the rubber hose, gaskets and blowers all checked out.
If you think you have a defective board and you are out of warranty here are some places to order one:
http://www.stove-parts-unlimited.co...htm?searching=Y&sort=2&cat=623&show=45&page=1
Kind of spendy!
This guy has a boatload of new boards for sale that fit your Classic 500
http://milwaukee.craigslist.org/hsh/4158385629.html
I have had a #2 light flashing a couple of times as an intermittent thing that happened a few times during the last heating season. I never was able to identify what caused it, as it was likely 3-4 occurances over the course of hundreds of start-up cycles (stove is on a T-Stat). When mine did this, it happened during a startup cylce. The exhaust blower would start, the auger would drop a couple pellets and then it would go into shutdown mode and flash a #2 (indicative of insufficient vacuum measured in the firebox). In my situation a fire never even had a chance to start. All of my vent, the OAK, my switches, the rubber hose, gaskets and blowers all checked out.
If you think you have a defective board and you are out of warranty here are some places to order one:
http://www.stove-parts-unlimited.co...htm?searching=Y&sort=2&cat=623&show=45&page=1
Kind of spendy!
This guy has a boatload of new boards for sale that fit your Classic 500
http://milwaukee.craigslist.org/hsh/4158385629.html
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Just a short list of things you might not think can cause a flashing #2:
Damper mispositioned, doors warping under heat, hopper lid open, high negative pressure in the stove room and no OAK, joints in the firebox opening due to high heat or due to improperly tightened fasteners or missing sealant..
For a flashing #3 besides actually being out of fuel:
If you burn a lot on low and there is anything in the fuel path that partially blocks it, or the damper is open too much, these can lead to loss of heat and coupled with ash (read you didn't clean your stove properly) on the low limit/POF leading it to drop out long enough for the controller to say hey I'm out of fire, running the convection system on high with a marginal fire going in the stove, a loose POF/low limit switch (not fastened to the stove properly). Intermittent loss of negative pressure such that the auger gets shut off for too long or periodically, a flaky vacuum or auto reset high limit switch.
Both indicators can also come from wonky controllers.
Damper mispositioned, doors warping under heat, hopper lid open, high negative pressure in the stove room and no OAK, joints in the firebox opening due to high heat or due to improperly tightened fasteners or missing sealant..
For a flashing #3 besides actually being out of fuel:
If you burn a lot on low and there is anything in the fuel path that partially blocks it, or the damper is open too much, these can lead to loss of heat and coupled with ash (read you didn't clean your stove properly) on the low limit/POF leading it to drop out long enough for the controller to say hey I'm out of fire, running the convection system on high with a marginal fire going in the stove, a loose POF/low limit switch (not fastened to the stove properly). Intermittent loss of negative pressure such that the auger gets shut off for too long or periodically, a flaky vacuum or auto reset high limit switch.
Both indicators can also come from wonky controllers.
Here's an update, two night ago bypassed high limit switch with same results stove went out. Last night bypassed the vacuum switch and as i leave for work the stove has been on for 12 hours (on low no less, it's warm here). I think we found the culprit (fingers crossed). Will update later tonight.
Bioburner
Moderator
Hmmm professional cleaning, we have seen a few of those on here that resulted in the crud getting shoved into the stove from the vent instead of being removed from the system.
Oh well at least the issue has been narrowed down.
Oh well at least the issue has been narrowed down.
Snowmobileaddict
Burning Hunk
MountainSean
Credo Quia Absurdum
I emailed Bosca like I said I would but I haven't heard anything back yet. Since the company is in Chile I can't really chase them down too much but I am keeping my ears and eyes open.
MountainSean
Credo Quia Absurdum
I have heard back from Bosca. They told me the following
"As you probably know our office in Spokane was closed two years ago under a commercial agreement with USSC as solid distributor for USA, today this situation is changing and now we will back to have our people in charge for parts and warranty claims in USA, I will keep you informed about our parts inventory in USA. "
Along with another email saying they are working on getting a delivery of parts and stoves sent to the US with one of their people in charge up here. It looks like perhaps there might be a glimmer of light in the tunnel now.
"As you probably know our office in Spokane was closed two years ago under a commercial agreement with USSC as solid distributor for USA, today this situation is changing and now we will back to have our people in charge for parts and warranty claims in USA, I will keep you informed about our parts inventory in USA. "
Along with another email saying they are working on getting a delivery of parts and stoves sent to the US with one of their people in charge up here. It looks like perhaps there might be a glimmer of light in the tunnel now.
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