drolet eco 45 auger question

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J

jpcamb

Member
Nov 22, 2008
10
Westford MA
So after a year and a half of service my drolet eco 45 stopped working. I dont get an error code the thing runs and runs without feeding pellets. after 30 minutes of doing nothing it will sometimes give an E" or empty message. I poked around some in the back panel and it seems the auger in the rear isnt attached to anything, is this normal? its baffling if it is, I can rotate the whole auger motor assembly 90 degrees or so freely. I don't see any loose screws but the auger isn't tuning or feeding the stove. How can I determine if its the auger motor or the internal thermostat?

thanks

Jeff
 
I have one of these. Yes ,the auger motor sort of "hangs" there by the shaft connection ,and will turn like you say. Thats ok. The auger shaft connection to the motor is "keyed" and there is a set screw, so if the motor seems to be turning and not the shaft,plus with the error code you are getting that seems to indicate "no pellets",it seems likely that there could be a problem there(sheared key or loose set-screw...or something along those lines). I am on my second motor since the first one was really noisy,but now I am trouble free. Another fix I did was to cut the heads off of some of the motor mounting bolts that stuck into the hopper and kept the pellets from sliding at times. Anyways, I suppose you could try to turn the auger by hand (with the pellets cleared out) to see if it is freewheeling to indicate a broken connection to the motor. Hope that is helpful. I have found that my stove,-eco-45, has been having way too much draft and the draft control to turn it down is not that great and I have to jam some cardboard under the knob so that the plate it controls will seal better and slows the flow of air better. As a result,I have been getting much more heat output.I have also found more heat by letting the burnpot fill up so that there is more of a "bed of coals" type of effect,and that has also increased the heat output. Doing these things,I have been running on the "2" setting where as before,I would be using "3" or sometimes "4". Right now it is cold out,so briefly I am running on three but the heat gauge is way over 500 plus degrees. (630 degrees..i just checked) Lean on pellets this year. Hope that helps.
 
pete324rocket said:
I have one of these. Yes ,the auger motor sort of "hangs" there by the shaft connection ,and will turn like you say. Thats ok. The auger shaft connection to the motor is "keyed" and there is a set screw, so if the motor seems to be turning and not the shaft,plus with the error code you are getting that seems to indicate "no pellets",it seems likely that there could be a problem there(sheared key or loose set-screw...or something along those lines). I am on my second motor since the first one was really noisy,but now I am trouble free. Another fix I did was to cut the heads off of some of the motor mounting bolts that stuck into the hopper and kept the pellets from sliding at times. Anyways, I suppose you could try to turn the auger by hand (with the pellets cleared out) to see if it is freewheeling to indicate a broken connection to the motor. Hope that is helpful. I have found that my stove,-eco-45, has been having way too much draft and the draft control to turn it down is not that great and I have to jam some cardboard under the knob so that the plate it controls will seal better and slows the flow of air better. As a result,I have been getting much more heat output.I have also found more heat by letting the burnpot fill up so that there is more of a "bed of coals" type of effect,and that has also increased the heat output. Doing these things,I have been running on the "2" setting where as before,I would be using "3" or sometimes "4". Right now it is cold out,so briefly I am running on three but the heat gauge is way over 500 plus degrees. (630 degrees..i just checked) Lean on pellets this year. Hope that helps.
Click to expand...


Thanks! did you get the auger motor from Drolet or somewhere else? the motor was connected fine and the shaft moved freely when I disconnected it from spindle. It didnt turn when I hit the feed button. pretty sure at this point its the motor. If anyone has suggestions on getting a fast replacement Id appreciate it. from the manual the part is "Auger Motor 44038" I take it that it is not coincidence that the osbourn 45 has the same parts listed as the drolet 45....
 
What is the background on the problem? Is this an intermittant problem? Is the stove making any unusual noises? Is it clean? If I understand you properly, you start the stove, it runs for 30min then shuts down? The stove has a 12-15 min start up cycle. During this phase, the pellets feed normally and everything works. During this strtup cycle, the stove should heat to a pre determind temp and trip a sensor that tells the circuit board that it is ok to continue operation after the start up cycle is completed. If the stove fails to heat to the temp, or if the sensor is bad, the stove will go into a shut down sequence. It will stop feeding pellets and shut down. This may take up to a 1/2 hour to complete. This will give an "L" message. If the auger motor has failed, the stove will not even get to this point because it will have never fed any pellets to start the stove in the first place, so I doubt this is your problem.
The "E" message on this model can be from a few different sources, like if the vacuum switch fails, or if the auger motor suddenly fails during operation, if the auger gets jammed, ect, ect. To check the auger motor, plug direct power to the auger motor, you should see the motor running continuosly. also, put a multimeter on the leads to the auger motor and check for voltage while the stove is in operation. You should see voltage coming thru the leads in bursts of 1-3 seconds. My guess is that you will not see power coming thru after the start up time has expired, so at this point you will check the vacuum switch. The vac switch is the round disc like object attached to the back wall on the left side of the stove. It has a rubber tube attached to it. Disconnect the leads from it and connect the leads together. If the stove runs, disconnect the rubber hose from the vac switch and blow it out. Sometimes ash plugs up that hose and prevents the switch from operating properly. Hook up the wires to the vac switch and run the stove again. If it still doesn't work, replace the switch. If not already done, clean out the exhaust blower and venting.
Make sure that you re- attach the rubber hose to the correct nipple or it will not work when reassembling. Do not run the stove for any more time than necessary to do your testing with the vac switch bypassed- it is an important safety feature.
Good luck.
 
Mr Fixit said:
What is the background on the problem? Is this an intermittant problem? Is the stove making any unusual noises? Is it clean? If I understand you properly, you start the stove, it runs for 30min then shuts down? The stove has a 12-15 min start up cycle. During this phase, the pellets feed normally and everything works. During this strtup cycle, the stove should heat to a pre determind temp and trip a sensor that tells the circuit board that it is ok to continue operation after the start up cycle is completed. If the stove fails to heat to the temp, or if the sensor is bad, the stove will go into a shut down sequence. It will stop feeding pellets and shut down. This may take up to a 1/2 hour to complete. This will give an "L" message. If the auger motor has failed, the stove will not even get to this point because it will have never fed any pellets to start the stove in the first place, so I doubt this is your problem.
The "E" message on this model can be from a few different sources, like if the vacuum switch fails, or if the auger motor suddenly fails during operation, if the auger gets jammed, ect, ect. To check the auger motor, plug direct power to the auger motor, you should see the motor running continuosly. also, put a multimeter on the leads to the auger motor and check for voltage while the stove is in operation. You should see voltage coming thru the leads in bursts of 1-3 seconds. My guess is that you will not see power coming thru after the start up time has expired, so at this point you will check the vacuum switch. The vac switch is the round disc like object attached to the back wall on the left side of the stove. It has a rubber tube attached to it. Disconnect the leads from it and connect the leads together. If the stove runs, disconnect the rubber hose from the vac switch and blow it out. Sometimes ash plugs up that hose and prevents the switch from operating properly. Hook up the wires to the vac switch and run the stove again. If it still doesn't work, replace the switch. If not already done, clean out the exhaust blower and venting.
Make sure that you re- attach the rubber hose to the correct nipple or it will not work when reassembling. Do not run the stove for any more time than necessary to do your testing with the vac switch bypassed- it is an important safety feature.
Good luck.
Click to expand...

Hi _ this is a problem that suddenly occured and now the stove does not drop any pellets or throw any heat. the first few times it happend I got the E message (no heat or fire). Now Im getting the L message. Everything is cleaned including the vac tube (that is usually a P error on this model) I was reading ~120V at the two motor leads for the auger - didnt check after shut down. I cleaned the vent pipes about a week ago so I dont suspect that is at fault. The motor was getting pretty hot "just sitting there" so in my experience thats a bad motor... Im going to be away for a few days but can check other things if you have suggestions when I get home tomorrow night. One thing to add is that when I got the inital E message I could toss pellets in the burn pot and they would "smolder" not light great but they would catch. now nothing is burining in there if i drop it in..... could it be a bad sensor somewhere causign it not to fire?

thanks

Jeff
 
I took the back off the stove and took some pics for you that may help somehow,including the identification for the motor. See attachments(hopefully) . My motor is so hot that you cannot touch the frame of it so I would not say that is a true test. Before you toss this motor,I would finally check that the motor itself is free-as you know,it is geared down to give all of that torque ,but if you can take something to actually spin the motor itself to see if it is free,for it would take much less to hang it up and you could probably stop it with your finger, as it spins fast with little torque. Those motors have no moving electrical parts and are pretty tough,so you should really make sure it is toast before you move on with a new one. The easiest replacement is to get one from Drolet -S.B.I. unless you have lots of time to poke around locally. Be clear on shipping times however if you want it now. I have also replaced the burnpot on warranty -the previous one cracked and the new one is all steel,not stainless. Any other help..let me know.
 

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Check the hi temp sensor on the right side of the stove at the front on the inside. It has a little red button on it. Push that button in and try again.
 
Something else I thought of that is common with these stoves- on some of the earlier models of this particular stove, they neglected to properly insulate the auger chute inside the cabinet along the back wall of the burn chamber. This results in heat transferring up the auger chute and tripping the hi limit sensor ( h1,h2 or h3 error) This is not your problem, because it comes only after the stove heats up at a higher setting. You need to check that, though, because you may have that issue eventually and you will be paying a repair tech to stand there and scratch his head wondering why it is still tripping after changing the sensor.

The most common cause of the "L" message is a missing ignitor gasket. It is supposed to be in the round recepticle in the burn pot where the ignitor fits. it looks like a lifesaver. If it is missing, the ignitor will be cooled by the air blowing past it and will fail to ignite the pellets. Check this first.

Because you said that you started with an"E" code and now are getting an "L" code, the exhaust temp sensor may be at fault. It is the one thing that will give both fault codes. You may have an f140 sensor or a thermistor on that stove. Either way it will be located on the exhaust blower housing.
 
Yes- the other 157 people who read this thread were at least smart enough to ignore my mistake in reading the post and graciously move on. Thanks for pointing it out.
 
so just a quick update. it was in fact the motor. took the better part of the week to get it from them. Some weird thing about the can only ship so many things a day the tech claimed. Weird. At any rate im back off of oil and burning pellets again. :) thanks for the help!
Jeff
 
No lazy flame on mine even at min. I have the unit hooked up to out door air via a insulated air hose (simmilar to a dryer hose.) and the flame is still pretty good. I always run at the min air setting as well...

cheers
Jeff
 
Jeff,here is a picture to help explain,but it is really really hard to take pictures of a fire,or at least I have not yet mastered it.I am trying to show how I have slowed down the draft by taking some of the sloppiness out of the draft control and letting the burn pot fill with ash. If you look closely,you will see that I have the flame heading towards the glass door. As a result,that blackness you see on the glass will wipe off very easily but the benefit overall is an increase in heat output(so much that the temperature on the "3" setting is now obtained at the "2" setting. I am going to see if I can adjust further. I feel this stove is overdriven in draft.
 

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