Avalon Astoria burning issues

Hi all, what a great site! I am an Avalon Astoria owner and up until now have had zero problems with it. In fact this our second one, we had one in our home we sold and now own another. Been running it for the last 3 years and did standard cleaning as needed. Ran it almost everyday over the holiday break with no issue. This week I notice that the pellets are stacking up in the burn chamber and looks like no air is coming into the burn pot. Even with the selector on 5 this still happens after 30 minutes or so of run time. Today I thought I cleaned it very thoroughly, I cleaned the air passages and took the front plate off and cleaned all of that. I did not take the motors out though. I put my hand over the intake in the back of the stove and even held a piece of paper over the opening and noticed that there was no suction, dont know if this is normal or not? Im wondering now if the combustion motor is either clogged or dead? It felt like it was running but I am not sure now. Any ideas would be great!

Thanks!

hmm dont remember this stove having damper? Alright well tomorrow I know what Im doing then ,I will pull the combustion blower then and see what happens. Will post picts and let you all know. Thanks for the input already! Hoping I dont need a new blower already!

Great idea thanks again, will do that as well and post outcome...

Understood, I dont have a pipe running outside. I pull the intake air out of the room the stove is in, so there is only the nub on the back of the stove for the inlet.

Don and all thank you so much for the quick help! Okay so here it goes, spent my morning this morning pulling the stove apart. Took both blowers out to inspect and bench run them. Turns out the convection blower was clean as a whistle and ran just fine. There is one strange thing though (I will post picts this afternoon), I notice that the blower doesnt really seal all to closely to the metal housing of the stove, there are 4 felt feet in the corners but there is a gap there. Also there are 2 large o rings on the motor housing and I can figure why they are there and what they are for?

on to the exhaust blower. Took it out and it was filthy! lots of dark soot build up and I bench ran it and it ran alright as well. Cleaned it up and cleaned the chamber it sits in. Seeing all that dark soot got me worried (I was a captain in the fire department for 11 years), that dark soot tells me that the combustion was inefficent. So I took the front door off again and recleaned everything! Re-checked all of the passage ways and everything looked good. Did the dollar bill test to the front door and it passed. Cant put the blower back in now because I need a replacement gasket. I am going to buy a few of them so I have them on hand.

okay so the last thing I didnt really check was the exhaust piping. My pipe runs up the wall about 5' and then turns 90 degrees and heads out of the house. The cap only sits about 1.5' off the ground so I welded a metal mesh grate in it so critter cant get in. I didnt own a chimney sweep brush so I ran out and got one with a flexible shaft to run up the pipe. BINGO! The mesh grate was almost completely clogged and in the horizontal run of pipe there was quite a bit of ash. What really got me was in the elbow there was a puck of ash that must have built up over the last 3 years or so. Once I cleaned the exhaust and was back downstairs I could now feel outside air coming through the blower housing! Cant test the stove now until I get the gaskets in but I think the problem is solved. So to all of you newer stove owners, make sure you clean your exhaust piping, it is so simple but can cause a ton of trouble!

Hey guys thanks again! Yes I did remove those small access doors as well. As I said this is the 2nd Astoria I have owned so I am familiar with it. Thanks for the information on the convection blower, just wanted to make sure. Yeah I am a bit embarrassed at the exhaust, in our other house it was a straight 3 foot run out the side wall and it never had much ash in it at all. Stupid me, its clean now. So I am on a business trip this week in Massachusettes and will try to pick up some exhaust blower motor gaskets from the Avalon Dealers here. I did see the oil plugs and will also pick up a blue can of 3-in-1. You guys are the greatest, thanks for the help again!

Well guys back from my business trip playing in the snow up in boston. I ordered the blower motor gaskets from www.pelletstoveparts.com and now have some spares. Got to work on it tonight and got here all back together and proud to report that it is buring like the day I brought it home! I feel so stupid it was as simple as cleaning the exhaust! I have the air settin on 2 and the flames are blowing big time! To all the new stove owners out there, make sure you buy an exhaust cleaning brush and flexible rods, best money you will ever spend! Thanks again for all the suggestions guys you were a big help!