Auger jam

My Saranac insert shut itself down tonight and I discovered that the pellets were not feeding. After vaccumming the pellets out the hopper Iso I could see the auger found that it was not turning and was jammed. There is no good access to the auger from the hopper so I pulled the insert out. I tried to free the auger by hand from behind and it would not budge. I then took a set of vice grips and worked the auger shaft back and forth until it moved freely. I re-fired the unit and it seems to be fine. Did I do this the right way or does anyone know a better way of doing this? I have run at least a half ton of pellets through this stove flawlessly and I have no idea what caused this to happen.

kinsman stoves said:

I am not familiar with this unit but unless you disconnected the auger from the shaft I would NOT have used a tool to try to work the jam free.

Since you did keep an eye on the auger motor/gear box for further issues.

Eric

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Thanks for the feedback Eric. I did not disconnect the auger from the shaft. In the trouble shooting section of the owners manual, Hudson River recommends that you empty the hopper, remove the auger cover and clear the blockage. All well and good, but I am not sure that my 10 year old daughter could fit her arms and hands inside the hopper opening. There are four screws holding the cover in place that appear to be almost impossible to remove without taking the stove apart. I am going to check with my dealer to see what he thinks, but I am not sure there is any other practical way to free an auger jam other than doing what I did. When I started turning the shaft by hand, fines were pouring out of the chute so I will assume that a buildup of fines finally clogged it. Three or four half turns of the auger shaft freed the jam. I am using LG, and the fine content is pretty low. As a result of this jam, I started dumping the bags into a wooden box and scooping them from there instead of just dumping the bag into the stove. The fines tend to drop to the bottom of the box when doing it this way. It is also nice to have a stock of 3 bags inside the house. Anyhoo, the auger seems to be working OK and has run almost 40 hours since I had the problem. Hopefully I did not damage anything.

My dealer agrees that my method was not the desireable way of clearing an auger jam. As it turns out, removing the rear cover of the stove gives you easy access to the hopper. My dealer suggested pulling the unit out and removing both the hooper and auger tube covers. He informed me that I would certainly have the opportunity to do it the correct way because he was confident that my method only temporarily solved the problem and I would have another jam in the near future because there was no way I could have removed the buildup just by turning the shaft. Well, he was correct. I had another jam 2 days later. I cleaned it the right way and everything seemed OK until I had another jam last night. Upon inspection and cleaning, I found a cake of fines. Cleaned it out and fired her up again with no problems. The real question is: Is it just excessive fines in a particular bag, dumb luck, or did I damage the motor? To be on the safe side I have started sifting the pellets. No fun.

Jon P said:

I too own a Saranac, although it is the free-standing. Something you may wish to make note of. On the back of the auger motor is a screw that can be tightened with an allen wrench. In the event of a a jam, this will sometimes loosen as a safety measure to protect the auger from damage. Tightening that up after a jam usually does the trick and will keep you from continuing to have jams. Leaving it loose decreases the torque of the auger and will most certainly result in increased jamming. I have learned this the hard way and thought I would pass along.

The Saranacs in general seem to be really prone to jams especially from fines. I eneded up getting pellets from Home Depot, Lowes, And Blue Seal Feeds this year - all supposedly hardwood. The Lowes pellets were made in PA and are wonderful. They are darker in color than any of the other I have. The pellets from Blue Seal Feeds are also wonderful and are made in Canada. The pellets from Home Depot go by the Brand Name Nature's Heat. They are just terrible. I sifted a bag yesterday and almost 15% of the bag is fine dust. Not only can I not burn that, it is a sure bet to jam the Saranac.

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Thanks Jon I will check that out. Knock on wood, I have not had any jams recently. The last jam I had I ended up sticking the end of a coat hanger up the chute from the firebox and poked at the cake of fines at the top of the auger shaft until it was free. This seems to be the easiest method of freeing a jam. I agree that the saranac seems to be unhappy with excess fines. I am burning LG's, which are softwood and from Canada. They burn well, no clinkers to speak of and the ash content is within a tolerable range. I do find however, that there are more fines in the bottom of the bag that I would like to see. I usually shake the bag, pour the first two-thirds of it into the hopper and then sift the rest.