Emergency auger motor replace

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mystove

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Nov 28, 2012
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I have a 25 pdvc. Bottom motor is bad and I cannot find a 1 rpm motor anywhere near. I can get a 1.5 Is it possible to get this to work? Tech said it may put out too much pellets to burn and another guy told me he has swapped out higher rpm but to turn the stove down to control the over feed issue. I have no heat and it is going to be -14 tonight. Please help me with any experiences.
 
If you post the area your from or put the info in your profile, someone may know of a or has a source close.
 
The speed of the bottom auger is (within reason) not important. The top auger meters out the pellets and the bottom auger simply delivers them to the firepot. A 1.5 rpm motor should work without problems. If you do use a 1.5 be sure to label it so that nobody will swap it with the upper motor without knowing the difference.
When it comes down to it, the stove will work even with the 1.5 in the upper auger location. It will just burn hotter and possibly not as clean since the fuel to air ratio has been altered. In that case there is a choke plate at the bottom of the hopper that can be used to reduce the feed rate.
 
bottom auger running at 1.5 will not increase feed rate , it will only feed what the top auger drops into the bottom, so this should be ok in a pinch to do MAKE SURE ITS A COUNTER CLOCKWISE MOTOR!

now if the top one was changed in this manner it definately would affect feed rate
 
MAKE SURE ITS A COUNTER CLOCKWISE MOTOR!
If it isn't, the rotation can be reversed by flipping the coil over. There have been a few threads on how to do this.
 
Thanks for the answers. So the only localish pellet stove dealer/repair type shop guy didn't get back with me today so I was unable to buy a motor locally. I purchased one off amazon and it will be here whenever but that doesn't help with our sub zero temps tonight. I also found out we had a bearing issue with the auger. I was able to replace the bearing locally but the motor, while it is turning, isn't turning the auger. Today I hate pellet stoves. We spent all day trying to get it resolved but still no heat.
 
what do you mean by the motor turning but not turning the auger? is the gear train not turning?

Good question....

If the shaft of the motor (as seen thru the bearing), is turning, and the auger isn't....maybe you missed the "flat", on the auger shaft, when you tightened the set screw
 
Well the auger starts out turning with the motor on start up but then the auger quits turning after a few minutes but the motor still seems to be working.
 
Recheck the set screw and make sure it's on the flat as Mary stated.
 
gotta be in the gearbox, either the spline gear is disengaging from the phenolic gear or you have a "flat spotted gear in the train. also check to see if you have misplaced a spacer, some motors have spacers to prevent the shaft of the motor from walking out and disengaging the phenolic gear
 
Well the auger starts out turning with the motor on start up but then the auger quits turning after a few minutes but the motor still seems to be working.
Does the output shaft of the motor keep working? If yes, the set screw isn't on the flat of the auger. If no, the gearbox is at fault.
 
The shaft was turning when we tested the motor earlier today. I'm not sure exactly what happened last night but around midnight the auger quit turning and the result was pellets burned around the bottom auger clear to the gasket, melting it. We took it out and cleaned it up, took it over and had a new bearing put in. I woke up to the stove going out, bottom auger not turning and some very slight smoke coming from the motor.
 
Who put what bearing in it?

If they opened up the gearbox, chances are, as Mike said, they misplaced a small nylon(?) spacer, that may still be stuck to the grease inside.

Are you comfortable, opening the gearbox up yourself, to check?

regardless, if the gasket got melted, it might be safer to wait for a motor (and a new gasket)
 
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Ok so we swapped out the motors top to bottom and same issue as before so looks like the motor is bad.
 
I just had the exact scenario happen on neighbors stove. Bottom motor was running slow and skipping, motor running fine just intermittent output shaft rotation. Burned back into auger and partly melted plastic gasket. I replaced motor and gasket and cleaned top and bottom augers and feeder and all is well now.
 
I just had the exact scenario happen on neighbors stove. Bottom motor was running slow and skipping, motor running fine just intermittent output shaft rotation. Burned back into auger and partly melted plastic gasket. I replaced motor and gasket and cleaned top and bottom augers and feeder and all is well now.

Sorry it happened to them also but good to hear it is working well now. It is pretty scary to see that it will burn up into the auger like that. I kept pics so hubby can see when he gets back home.
 
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