Breckwell P24I HIGH pitched whine - Help please!

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Guk22

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Dec 14, 2010
9
Eastern MA
Hi, newbie here. I have been reading for a few years, even before I bought my stove. I have been searching the forums for info regarding my recent problem without much luck.

I have a noise that started about a week ago, kind of squealing or high pitched whine that started low and got louder and louder. Today it is so loud that I cannot run the stove anymore, the sound is too loud and piercing! I thought that it may have been the convection blower until I shut the stove down. As soon as I pressed the button to shut it down the whine stops immediately. The exhaust and convection blowers are still running with what seems to be "normal" amount of noise. I doubt that these could be the cause. Is this a known problem when auger motors fail? I can't find any info, please help! I can't just start throwing $$$ and parts at it a week before X-mas!

My stove has worked flawlessly for 2 years. I am religious about keeping it clean and never have gone more than a week without vacuuming & brushing from top to bottom. The stove was installed by a professional and also inspect at the end of each year with the pipe cleaning. We have been burning Okies for two years, they are the best in my book!

Any suggestions, thoughts or direction would be greatly appreciated!
 
You might want to take the pellets out of the hopper, remove the auger flight cover and give the entire auger area a good cleaning. Also at the bottom of the auger there is a tendency for fines to collect there.

Then I'd get a small amount of graphite and squirt some of that in the flight, button up the flight cover and try running some pellets through it.

I'm not saying this will cure it, but it will rule out a couple of things.

Let us know how it goes.
 
Thanks for the reply! I will work on this first thing in the morning and let you know if there is any improvement. Question, is the auger motor running all the time the it would screech like this? The sound is aweful and I can't tell you how loud it is!
 
Guk said:
Thanks for the reply! I will work on this first thing in the morning and let you know if there is any improvement. Question, is the auger motor running all the time the it would screech like this? The sound is aweful and I can't tell you how loud it is!
Click to expand...

The auger doesn't run all of the time(it is timed the higher the heat setting the more time it is on) it however gets shut off leaving the other two motors turning when you tell the stove to shutdown.
 
I am unsure what the "auger flight cover" is so I emptied the hopper to get some general cleaning done. I pulled the stove out and noticed there were a LOT of fines caked on and around the auger motor. I pulled the motor off, the clip that holds it on was a real pain! Maybe I was not doing it correctly... Is there a way to test the auger motor while it is out?

Please explain what you mean about the "auger flight cover". The stove is out, please let me know your thoughts.

Thanks!
 
I pulled off the hopper cover and found the auger cover you were talking about. I cleaned it up, not as much fines here and the auger now spins freely. I would like to test the auger motor if possible before I put it back together. I suspect that this is the source of the noise.
Your line of thinking seems to make very good sense, that the noise would be present until complete shut down if it were one of the blowers. Could it be that the fines are binding up the auger motor causing it to screech to get through its cycle and when I press the off button and triggers the auger to shut down immediately?
 
Guk said:
I pulled off the hopper cover and found the auger cover you were talking about. I cleaned it up, not as much fines here and the auger now spins freely. I would like to test the auger motor if possible before I put it back together. I suspect that this is the source of the noise.
Your line of thinking seems to make very good sense, that the noise would be present until complete shut down if it were one of the blowers. Could it be that the fines are binding up the auger motor causing it to screech to get through its cycle and when I press the off button and triggers the auger to shut down immediately?
Click to expand...

If you are comfortable playing with 120 volt ac, with the stove off and cold, unplug the stove, remove both wires going to the auger,

Then create a patch cord by cutting the socket end off of an extension cord, split the wire between the two conductors, strip an inch of insulation from each separated conductor, attach the ends to where the wires were that you removed from the auger motor. Make absolutely certain that the bare wire doesn't touch any of the stoves frame, I'm prone to putting insulated alligator clips on such things. Then plug the cord into the wall outlet.

DO NOT DO ANY OF THE ABOVE UNLESS YOU HAVE WORKED ON/WITH ELECTRICAL CIRCUITS. A MISTAKE HERE CAN KILL YOU OR BURN DOWN YOUR HOUSE.
 
I am pretty comfortable with most things, electricity is not one of them. Mostly due to "A MISTAKE HERE CAN KILL YOU". I can get a new stove, I can get a new house... it would be a bit difficult if I were dead! I will talk to a friend to test and let you know what I find. Do you think the gears could be froze? The shaft will not move at all, I suspect that is due to the gearing. It's cold today as you know, just want to get it up and running ASAP.
 
Is the whine continuous or does it start and stop as the auger starts and stops? if it is constant I would not think it to be a problem with the auger motor as this motor does not run non-stop. What heat setting do you have it on? Some bearings as they fail only create a noise at certain rpm's and may go away when the rpm has changed. When you shut down a Breckwell the convection fan goes to a higher speed to facilitate a quick as possible shut down. This higher speed may quite the bearing. Can you tell where the noise is coming from? Left side, right side ect?
 
I learnd a lot about my stove over the last couple of days. Such as, I learned how to tear it down and put it back together. Also, I thought I had a very clean stove... nope. Turns out that my problem is a very common one blower motor. What caused it and where the confusion came is was the stove was running was running on "high fan". When I leave it on normal the fan slows and makes much less noise, almost tolerable. Apparently, while it is running on high fan and you shut it down it immediately slows the fan to normal speed. This obviously was where all the confusion came in! New blower on the way, I'll replace it in a couple of days. Thanks for all the help, I appreciate your input and time!
 
Guk said:
I learnd a lot about my stove over the last couple of days. Such as, I learned how to tear it down and put it back together. Also, I thought I had a very clean stove... nope. Turns out that my problem is a very common one blower motor. What caused it and where the confusion came is was the stove was running was running on "high fan". When I leave it on normal the fan slows and makes much less noise, almost tolerable. Apparently, while it is running on high fan and you shut it down it immediately slows the fan to normal speed. This obviously was where all the confusion came in! New blower on the way, I'll replace it in a couple of days. Thanks for all the help, I appreciate your input and time!
Click to expand...

Between now and actually getting that blower, if the motor can be oiled, a couple of drops of SAE#20 (3 in 1 blue and white can) might quiet it down a bit.
 
Maybe it would be worth it to try and find a sealed bearing conv fan. I always questioned why bushing conv blowers are even used on pellet stoves. Spend $3,000 on a stove that has a bushing fan just doesn't seem right to me.
 
turbotech said:
Maybe it would be worth it to try and find a sealed bearing conv fan. I always questioned why bushing conv blowers are even used on pellet stoves. Spend $3,000 on a stove that has a bushing fan just doesn't seem right to me.
Click to expand...

I'm still having a problem figuring out why the convection blower is as close to the firebox as they tend to be. That also makes no sense.
 
I ended up buying a replacement Part# B24220 instead of the Breckwell part. I paid $82 shipped vs. $198 not including shipping! Hope it lasts longer than two years! Is there room to bolt it in upside down so that the motor is away from the fire box? Think it would help anyway?
 
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