Serious Stumper HELP PLEASE!! (Whitfield Advantage ii-t)

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bigbo587

New Member
Nov 22, 2015
2
Montana
Alright. I am at the end of the line. I have a Whitfield Advantage ii-t Pellet Insert. Here is the story:
1. My circuit board was rebuilt about 8 months ago but has worked great (important information)
1. I woke up one morning and fire was going but the convection (room air blower) was no longer running.
2. I disassembled and removed blower.
3. Tested Blower by hooking up into wall outlet (good)
4. Tested both high limit discs (both closed - good)
5. Tested low limit disc (open - good)
6. **This is what gets me*** Tested electrical output right from female adapter going into the convection blower and it says it is putting out anywhere from 75-95 v!
7. Replaced adapters to make sure fan was getting a good connection.
8. Everything else is working great on the stove except convection fan wont blow. I am stumped. Mainly, I don't understand how there could be power supposedly going directly into the fan and it still not be blowing.
9. I really need some help here. I thought I have checked everything and have had this thing torn apart for weeks. Getting majorly frustrated and so confused. What am i missing experts? Any help? I don't know where else to go!?!?
 
Sounds to me like your convection blow motor is overheating. Had the same issue last winter. The Fasco blower motors have a overheat protection that will trip if the motor gets too hot. The motor will shut down until it cools enough then come back on. Try cleaning the motor housing getting all the little dust bunnies out of the airflow ports and give the motor a couple drops of electric motor oil. Worked for me!
 
If the motor runs on the bench but not in the stove, the blower itself is fine..Did you check for voltage right at the blower motor when it's installed in the stove, everything connected? Sometimes you can find open circuit voltage coming off the control board but no power (amperage) will flow.. The voltage will drop to near zero when the circuit is connected to a load..
 
Fairwind said:
If the motor runs on the bench but not in the stove, the blower itself is fine..Did you check for voltage right at the blower motor when it's installed in the stove, everything connected? Sometimes you can find open circuit voltage coming off the control board but no power (amperage) will flow.. The voltage will drop to near zero when the circuit is connected to a load..
Click to expand...
Thank you guys for attempting to help. It feels good to at least hear there are people out there to help hopeless pellet stove people like me.
1. The fan does work just fine when tried on an outlet. It has been cleaned thorough and that should be good.
2. I even ordered a new convection fan, 200$, plugged it in only to find it to not work just the same.
3. So Fairwind, this sounds like it could have some merit in my situation. How do i check this and if this is the problem, is it a circuit board issue? wiring issue? Thanks for the thoughts and time!
 
bigbo587 said:
Thank you guys for attempting to help. It feels good to at least hear there are people out there to help hopeless pellet stove people like me.
1. The fan does work just fine when tried on an outlet. It has been cleaned thorough and that should be good.
2. I even ordered a new convection fan, 200$, plugged it in only to find it to not work just the same.
3. So Fairwind, this sounds like it could have some merit in my situation. How do i check this and if this is the problem, is it a circuit board issue? wiring issue? Thanks for the thoughts and time!
Click to expand...

If you can, connect a drop-light to the stove circuit that powers the blower. Power up the stove. See if the light comes on when the blower should come on. Use a little common sense when hooking this up..Measure the voltage to the light. If it's zero or near zero, the circuit board that controls the blower is bad..You could do a workaround by installing an on / off dimmer switch in the blower motor circuit, fed from the main on / off switch for the stove, so you can control the operation of the blower manually..The dimmer will provide a broad range of speed settings. Again, use a little common sense in the installation and operation of the new blower control....
 
Without a wiring diagram makes it a guessing game. But based on what you said it sounds like the board isn't switching power on to the blower.
 
I don't want to start a new thread but a question came up as i read comments about this blower problem. I have a wiring diagram but it does not have voltage outputs on it. Does anyone know where I can obtain voltage details on a Whitfield Advantage 2 pellet stove? Thanks
 
PM either Snowy or Stovenson.
Snowy built a stand alone control replacement for Whit
 
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Most convection fans are AC. To vary the speed the voltage varies. The lower the voltage the slower the speed. On my last stove, when I adjusted the fan speed the voltage varied from 75V at the slowest speed all the way to 120V at the highest speed. So your fan should be running at those voltages. It almost seems something else is wrong, because if the fan is getting voltage it should run and I think you proved that by trying a new fan.
 
Try cutting off the connector and hard wiring it. Leave enough room butt splice it back on. If your telling me the leads for blower have voltage then it should work. The only thing between the fan and voltage are those connectors
 
David Fix it said:
I don't want to start a new thread but a question came up as i read comments about this blower problem. I have a wiring diagram but it does not have voltage outputs on it. Does anyone know where I can obtain voltage details on a Whitfield Advantage 2 pellet stove? Thanks
Click to expand...

If your Advantage II has a serial # 75864 or greater the service manual attached below should have the voltage details for the blowers on pages 6, 7 and 8. Click on the icon below to download manual.
Note: From serial # 91410 the control board was upgraded with the touch pad type.
If your Advantage II is an older model with a lower serial # you'll find additional and very useful info in these technical notes from Hearthtools.com. The pdf is too large to attach here, so I'll have to throw a link.
Link to technical notes on older Whitfield stoves from Hearthtools.com: http://www.hearthtools.com/parts/whitfield_wire_diagrams.pdf

This technical litterature and the pellet section here at Hearth.com is basically what has enabled me to repair and maintain my old Whitfield Quest Plus since 2008, and it is still working perfectly well with almost all the original parts (except for the replacement of the parts described in my signature).
 

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smwilliamson said:
Bad common wire. Check the white wire that is shared with the auger motor at that disconnect. Try switching the commons. Plug the convection blower wire that that runs to the white wire in at the grouping terminal at the auger motor and see if it works
Click to expand...
On that note where are you getting voltage on your meter. To ground or to nuetral?
 
Hasn't been around since November but will leave thread open if he should show up...
 
One of you guys were talking about there being a difference in the boards. My old (1988) advantage 2 has the rehastat knobs on it and I'm wondering if he's measuring voltage coming thru the reastat knobs? bjr23
 
David Fix it said:
I don't want to start a new thread but a question came up as i read comments about this blower problem. I have a wiring diagram but it does not have voltage outputs on it. Does anyone know where I can obtain voltage details on a Whitfield Advantage 2 pellet stove? Thanks
Click to expand...


I know it's been six years but I can help you with that let me know if you still need a diagram.
It also has what kind of readings you should get when you're testing the different circuits inside there.

I'm trying to figure out why mine isn't working I've had a similar situation as the thread poster.

Or if you figured it out please let me know.
 
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