Cold Wake-up this morning

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rottiman

Minister of Fire
Hearth Supporter
Sep 23, 2009
1,249
Ontario Canada
Woke up this am to a cold house. When I checked, Ol' Black Betty had crapped out during the night, probaly shortly after beddy-bye time by the amount left in the hopper. Had just done a THOROUGH cleaning of all systems yesterday, so the stove was spotless. She re started no problem with no error lights on the control. Noted the bottom auger was turning but producing no ammunition. Had to take the big shop vac and clean out the full hopper only to find the top auger dead in the water. So off comes the back panel and sure enough the top auger not moving a muscle. Out come the meter, and power to the motor was A-OK. Checked the auger connection bolt and all was good. Gave the motor itself a couple of gentle taps and BINGO she starts to run. Ran good for about an hour, all was fine, things were warming up and BINGO, same deal again. Since the stove is only 2 months old, the Boys @ Englander will be getting a Monday a.m. call. I am sure they will be as helpful as they have in the past. Any body else ever have an auger motor crap out intermittently?
 
rottiman said:
Woke up this am to a cold house. When I checked, Ol' Black Betty had crapped out during the night, probaly shortly after beddy-bye time by the amount left in the hopper. Had just done a THOROUGH cleaning of all systems yesterday, so the stove was spotless. She re started no problem with no error lights on the control. Noted the bottom auger was turning but producing no ammunition. Had to take the big shop vac and clean out the full hopper only to find the top auger dead in the water. So off comes the back panel and sure enough the top auger not moving a muscle. Out come the meter, and power to the motor was A-OK. Checked the auger connection bolt and all was good. Gave the motor itself a couple of gentle taps and BINGO she starts to run. Ran good for about an hour, all was fine, things were warming up and BINGO, same deal again. Since the stove is only 2 months old, the Boys @ Englander will be getting a Monday a.m. call. I am sure they will be as helpful as they have in the past. Any body else ever have an auger motor crap out intermittently?

Yup replaced 2 last week happens all the time more often with the Meklekorf mortors

they both had bad spots on the gear box and the customers said the stoves would run fine and then run low.
they both thought is was a control board problem or thermostat going into keep fire.
I sat and watched both feed times right on.
just the auger motor would be fine then as it reached the bad spot on the gear box it would hang up. after a few feed pulses it would catch and go again
 
Only help that I can be, is when my englander(retired), had a jam in the top auger. called tech service. they let me know of the knobs in back of auger motor. grab the top one and lift back and forth until it swings freely. took care of my auger jam. yours might be a build up of fines to far in to clean, see if that might loosen up things so top auger does not jam and stop.
 
hearthtools said:
rottiman said:
Woke up this am to a cold house. When I checked, Ol' Black Betty had crapped out during the night, probaly shortly after beddy-bye time by the amount left in the hopper. Had just done a THOROUGH cleaning of all systems yesterday, so the stove was spotless. She re started no problem with no error lights on the control. Noted the bottom auger was turning but producing no ammunition. Had to take the big shop vac and clean out the full hopper only to find the top auger dead in the water. So off comes the back panel and sure enough the top auger not moving a muscle. Out come the meter, and power to the motor was A-OK. Checked the auger connection bolt and all was good. Gave the motor itself a couple of gentle taps and BINGO she starts to run. Ran good for about an hour, all was fine, things were warming up and BINGO, same deal again. Since the stove is only 2 months old, the Boys @ Englander will be getting a Monday a.m. call. I am sure they will be as helpful as they have in the past. Any body else ever have an auger motor crap out intermittently?

Yup replaced 2 last week happens all the time more often with the Meklekorf mortors

they both had bad spots on the gear box and the customers said the stoves would run fine and then run low.
they both thought is was a control board problem or thermostat going into keep fire.
I sat and watched both feed times right on.
just the auger motor would be fine then as it reached the bad spot on the gear box it would hang up. after a few feed pulses it would catch and go again

Yup, you hit it right on. Sat watching it and sure enough runs awhile then stops. giving it a little tap and away she goes. Then the feed rate slows and I almost lose fire. I know there was a previous thread about the Meklekorf motors and using a different brand( Glen Avery, I believe) for replacement but since this is probably going to end up a warranty replacement, I will have to stick with what Englander sends. Kind of strange that this would happen after only 2 months. I am running clean pellets(use a vaccum cleaner set-up) and have virtually no fines and my pellet quality is such that I doubt I am having auger jams. Either way, appreciate the imput.
 
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