St. Croix Overfeeding

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subysti

Member
Dec 13, 2008
6
western MA
We have a St. Croix Afton Bay about six years old. Lately it has been getting stuck in feed mode when put on setting 2 or 3. Last night I was woken up by the smell of burning paint it was so hot. The pellets just continually feed and I get a giant fire. We were very lucky last night. Not sure why it does this though. If I notice it doing it, I will change the feed rate back and forth and then it will stop feeding and goes back to a normal feed rate. Is this a bad board? The dealer we bought it from way back when has since gone out of business and wasn't much help then either. On another note I was told the blower motor needs oiling every six months amd it is very loud. Where do I oil it?
 
Sounds like a possible board problem.

The manual says the blower motor does not require oil.
I have a bad bushing in mine. It is noisy. I plan on replacing it within my 2 year warranty for electric parts.
I oiled the hek out of it and its still noisy.

There are 6-8 sheet metal screws in the back that hold the blower motor. You have to find the wires that and disconnect them by the board.
Pull the fan. You can see the ball bearing bushings on each side of the fan next to the cage. It could be worth a try. But I don't think it will help.

bw
 
Have you tried to pull the plug on the stove and allow it to sit then plug it back in?. If not then try that it may reset the board. If not you have a board issue and should get it fixed asap.
 
If I just change the feed setting it will stop over feeding but I never know for how long. some times its good for days or weeks and them sometimes it will start overfeeding again in a few minutes. I suppose I should just break down and buy a new board.
 
Have you tried timing from when the light comes on for the auger motor (needs to be done with a stop watch) till it goes off? I'm assuming that you have an analog board if your stove is 6 years old (this is differnet if you have a Pepin Stove though). On an analog board the timing should be on level 1 1.5 to 1.9 second and the total time (from the time that the green auger feed goes on until it comes on again) should be 9.5 t0 9.9 seconds. The On time will automatically adjust as you go up in cycles. The toal times will remain the same though. Adjusting them are very simple to do though

If you don't have an analog control board then you might want to reset your control board, as the last person (sorry can't rember his or hers tag name) simply unplug the stove for about 30 seconds and you should be good as this will reset the computer chip in the control board
 
Sorry, I forgot to add that if you are smelling a burning paint smell then you need to check the Exhaust Motor to see if that is where is coming. After so long, since they do have sealed bushings, and if they aren't cleaned out well....dust, pet hairs....blah,bblah, bbbahl, got all of those in my house, sorry, not to mention the build up of soot that accumulates in the exhuast duct that is underneath the combustion fan will clog up your fan then they might burn up. Anyhow, you might want to remove your combustion fan, if you don't do that regulary every year you might check that. RRRR
 
Thanks for all the help. It is an analog board as I have rotory knobs for all he settings. I'll try the reset options for unplugging it. Lately its been running for three days now on level one with no problems. The problems seems to start on level 2 or 3. The buring paint smell was from the stove getting so hot. We never have it set over 3 for heat but if you turn it all the way up it gets real hot. The stove was so hot I almost couldn't get to it to turn it off.
 
Is it the convection / room blower or the combustion/exhaust blower that is making the noise ? Acordding to the later manuals the only lubricant required is on the versa-grate cam.

Are you pre versa-grate ?
 
nope got the versa grate system which I lube. The manual doesn't say to lune the motor but the label on the motor itself says to. I figure the motor manufactuer knows more about the motor then the stove company. and yes it is the room blower.
 
I'd give it a complete thorough before laying out cash for any parts.
If you spend any time on this forum you will hear Eric (kinsman stoves) and Rod (hearthtools) both
repeatedly say that most of the service calls they get are a result
of very dirty stoves.

When is the last time both blowers were pulled/cleaned and the stove
completely cleaned including ash traps and the ports that lead
to the exhaust fan? Clogged ports will mess up the way your stove runs.
The recessed area where the exhaust fan sits gets caked with solid soot.
Same with the ports leading to this area. Many of us use coat hangers
and small hoses rigged to shop vacs in order to reach these areas.
I've even used a small hammer to tap on the back wall of the firebox to
loosen solid chunks of ash.
 
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