Auger working intermittently--drops pellets after fire is almost out.

I am new here and maybe I've missed this one so please be kind. I am learning as I go. I have a Heatilator PS 35 which is about 3 years old. Right now I am running it by firing by hand until I get someone to install a new igniter. And I realize this isn't the best way to go but sometimes you do what you have to do. Yesterday I shut it down to clean out the ash and when I restarted it with the starter gel--it was going good then the auger stopped dropping pellets until the fire was almost out then it would begin to drop pellets enough to get the fire going again--then stop, drop pellets again before fire went out completely, then stop. I have never had it do this. Today I plan a more thorough cleaning and trying to reset snap discs. I know that possibly there's dirt somewhere I haven't cleaned yet. Is there anything else I should try before I call for service. I've had a service tech talk me through some things before and I probably know just enough to make me dangerous. I'm an older gal living on my own and willing to try most anything within reason. I have studied my service manual so that I know where most things are but definitely don't know it all. Thanks for any help.

Vognorth said:

My stove has a rod that needs to be pulled out once a week (scraper bar that sweeps the heat exchanger tubes clean). This sends a slug of ash past the flame sensor and every so often my stove will have the same symptoms as yours after pulling the rod. Solution (on mine anyway) is to remove the flame sensor and wipe off the ash and build-up with a damp rag.

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Thanks for all the suggestions. I am going to make myself a sign that says a super clean stove is a happy stove and post it where I can see it all the time. I always shut down the stove and vacuumed every day or two at the least before this igniter went out. Now that it takes more time to get everything started again, I have become lax about my cleaning and obviously that was what caused my problems. Did the super clean it all and even the chimney and used my hand to clean out where the vacuum doesn't reach. Looks like I'm back in business. I'm never quite sure just what did the trick but I know more things to try. At least I learn something new each time I go through this and my take away on this one is--clean, clean, clean.

Also--forgot to mention--I do not use the rod to clean out the fire pot as it has become almost impossible to get it to slide back in. Not sure what the cause is but I just scrape and clean the fire pot each time and make sure all the holes are open and free. I did do a lot of extra scraping this time around perhaps that helped too--certainly didn't hurt.

Vognorth said:

Glad to hear that it worked out! The other thing I was going to mention is that sometimes the auger can get choked up with saw dust (this has a tendency of sifting its way to the bottom of the hopper) or a few extra long pellets in the auger chute can prevent the pellets from dropping normally. And of course, if the pellets don't drop, the chain reaction begins...fire begins to go out - flame sensor does it's job and stops feeding pellets, etc etc. The saw dust is an easy fix...just run your stove down on pellets or remove them manually, and vacuum out the bottom of the hopper and get as much dust out of the auger chute as you can. After doing so, this might require a couple "primes" of the auger to get enough pellets in the chute again to continue running.

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I did unload the hopper and vacuum first thing because I did see a lot of dust coming down the chute and I know that my pellets do have a lot of dust in them--maybe they all do. Kind of forgot that the primes were required to get that chute filled again and panicked when the auger started and no pellets came out. But I did hit the restart and pretty soon it was working like it is supposed to. Really not a complicated appliance but the cleaning factor is BIG--seems simple but I got lazy. Hope I don't have to come back for help anytime soon but I sure do appreciate knowing it's here. Thanks again.