Whitfield Advantage 2 making me go bald pulling my hair out!!

ThumpersK_A · Oct 31, 2013

hello all, i have a whitfield advantage 2. It has no igniter system. Here is what it is doing. Upon pushing the start button the fuse blew on the control board. I replaced the fuse and pressed start again and it ran for a few minutes but the convection blower wouldnt turn. I attempted to get the motor working oiling and cleaning and it was shot. I replaced the convection blower assembly. I started the stove up and it ran for 10 minutes and the fuse blew again. The combustion blower is new as well. So i unplugged the auger motor and hand fed the stove pellets for 45 minutes finally the fuse blew again, opening and closing the door to dump pellets every few minutes. Both the combustion and convection motors turn freely. The auger motor seems to work as intended when i hook it up to 120 volt plug by itself (trying to isolate it to see if it makes any weird noise or heats up). When i vacuumed the pellets out of the hopper i did it carefully to see if there was an excess of dust or material jamming the auger. never saw a thing. I started checking all the wiring for a pinch or bare spot that might have been shorting out and it all looks to be in great condition. I took all 3 snap discs and hooked each one up to my multimeter and took a heat gun to them and they open and close as they are supposed to. can a snap disc short to the chassis upon opening or closing maybe?? The control board was put on another identical stove and it worked flawlessly for 5 hours and at that point i figured that the board was not the culprit.. This stove worked Great all last winter it burned clean, it looks pretty dirty on the glass from my pellet dumping and it smoldering out. It has been unplugged all summer until i attempted to fire it up a couple days ago. I am out of ideas. Any suggestions are appreciated ....I know i know go buy a new one....I wish...thats not an option at this point. Thank you all in advance!! here is a picture of this beast

rickwai · Oct 31, 2013

I had a St croix with a similar issue and it ended up being a wire pinched near auger motor. May want to check wiring again

MikeSs · Oct 31, 2013

If possible, check the current draw on all of the motors...
As you were able to test the auger motor separately, test again by plugging into a Kill-A-Watt.
Record all the current and wattage for each and compare to the label.
Do the same for the convection and combustion motors...
Add them all and compare to the fuse rating..
Also, with the motors and controller disconnected for the wiring harnesses, test the wires to chassis continuity.
Test the snap disks to chassis.
I have the advantage IIT and there is also a pressure switch just off the combustion blower.. Check for shorts to chassis as well.
Try to keep the wires in their normally sitting position...
Since you have tested the controller, I would say that is probably ok.
I would bot rule out any component at this point until checked with a meter.

Stovensen · Oct 31, 2013

Hello ThumpersK A, and welcome to the forum. So far your troubleshooting has been very thorough and detailed and it was hard for me to come up with anything additional. I have one suggestion, though.
Most Whitfield control boards have a VDR ( aka varistor ) on the pcb. Also the older ones with rotary knobs. It's a disc shaped component close to the fuse. On the pcb in my Quest Plus it is red, but I've seen them blue as well. Now, this VDR serves as surge protection by shorting any incoming voltage spikes on the line. Lightnings striking the line, typically. This VDR could have entered a faulty state of intermittent/periodic nature due to ageing ( think, thermal runaway ), where it sometimes shorts the line voltage... it is mounted in parallel between the hot phase and the neutral, but AFTER the fuse, so when it does this shorting, the fuse will blow suddenly and without any outer physical signs.
Here is a couple of Whitfield pcbs, both with the VDR disc mounted close to the fuse. I hope your pcb matches something here, so you'll know what to look for. On my pcb the VDR is stamped: 275L20, the 275 no. means that it is made for a continous ac-voltage of max. 275 V. Yours is probably stamped with a lower max. voltage: 130 V. Anyways, this VDR should be available in most electronics shops for a few $. Until you get a replacement, you could unsolder it and see if the stove runs without blowing the fuse.

Good luck and take care!

View attachment 116323

wwert · Oct 31, 2013

Try disconnecting 1 motor at a time and run the stove with no pellets. In order to do this you will also have to jumper the snap discs. Just use a piece of wire to jump them. My guess is the auger motor as the others are new. I have seen a lot of them run fine on the bench and screw up the minute you put them in the stove.
I don't think it is the board as it ran fine on another stove. Don't give up as these are really simple stoves. You can probably get a new wiring harness as a last resort

Stovensen · Oct 31, 2013

Also be sure to use a fuse with the correct ratings... it should be a 6 amps, fast acting type.

If it's the auger motor that acts up, try measuring the resistance of its field coil. It should read 18 Ohm +/- 2 Ohm. See photo from svc manual. I've also attached the Advantage II T svc manual below this text. It should be downloadable by clicking on the icon.

To the OP: A new auger motor is about $ 60,- and a new VDR is $ 2.49 at Radioshack... so, for the sake of your economy I hope that the VDR is the culprit

Auger motor: http://www.cshincorporated.com/product_info.php/products_id/10184

VDR surge protector: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062574&clickid=prod_cs#tabsetBasic

briansol · Oct 31, 2013

my ignitor melted the plastic sheeting on a wire and was causing a ground that kept snapping fuses for me. Snoop around and make sure all wires and good, in loom and tied away/back from the heat sources.

ThumpersK_A · Oct 31, 2013

Hello all and thank you so much for your help. The local stove shop put the board on one of their stoves and it ran perfect, but when they did this they put a 6 amp fuse in the board. I put it back on my stove with the 6 amp fuse and it works perfect. It turns out that the stove came with a 3 amp fuse in it and it ran perfectly on that fuse all season last year but for whatever reason this year it wouldn't do it!! To my understanding they used 3 amp fuses unless the stove had an ignition system. I guess when in doubt Get a bigger fuse LOL. Im leaving the stove running to see how it does for a few days. ill keep you updated. fingers crossed!! thanks again all

Ficoce · Oct 31, 2013

I was having problems with feed on my Whitfield Advantage II. Someone had put an over sized fuse in it, too. It was like the pellets were getting jammed in the auger and stopping the motor. I took the thing apart a half dozen times, removed the pellets, and could spin the auger by hand easily. Put the motor back on and it would turn until the auger chute filled and then quit. Figured it was a weak motor and ordered new - same problem.

What I found was the steel bearing surface of the auger had worn down over the years and caused issues with the bronze bushing, (Not the shaft, but the "stop ring" that is machined around the shaft.) The auger "blades" were hitting the back plate. It had egged out the back plate and spun the bushing - common problem. When I pulled back on the auger hard and tried to spin it, I could feel the catch. Full of pellets, this was causing the motor to bog and stop. I had tried to repair this bushing before by using a center punch and hammering marks in the steel around the hole to hold the bushing firmly - this worked, but all it really did was fix side effect, not the problem.

The fix was to take the auger down to Ace Hardware and pick up a new bronze bushing and thin bronze washer that would fit the diameter of the auger shaft. The bushing they had was long, so it took a little saw and file work to shorten it up, but when I slapped it back in and shimmed the auger with the washer - like brand new and i doubt I'll have to mess with it again.

You might be having the same problem. Mine started with a slow feed. Well, I say started, but it was always like that for me. Now there's no problem with feed and it's a little quieter, too.

DirtyDave · Nov 1, 2013

these old stoves work almost forever with little trouble. I replaced the auger bushing with the updated nylon bushing and the stamped tin nut was to large ( stuck out to far). the auger motor collar redesigned the nut , so i hammered to fit better. new grease in auger gearboxed helped drasticly, but carefull, the pins holding the gears will fall out and then u have a mess to figure out. or replace with new. convection (room) fan motor are granger replacements and blow twice the amount of air. I use a UPS to condition line voltage in to machine as we loose power a few times a year, and yes have generator for backup power. Snowy Rivers posted her fix for a hardware store replacement control board and other fixes on here. Keep the dinosaur and love the simplicty of it. Pyro industries of Burlington Wa did a fine job of building it to work for years, just missed on looks. Good luck.

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Whitfield Advantage 2 making me go bald pulling my hair out!!

ThumpersK_A

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rickwai

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wwert

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