Whitfield Advantage II-t feeding problems

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Tony52

New Member
Dec 27, 2010
4
Southern Az
Several weeks ago I posted regarding a problem with my mother in laws whitfield II-T stove over feeding on the pellets. I have since thenreplace the controller board and found out that I needed to replace the brass bushing at the back end of the auger. I replaced the old flange and put in a new one with a nylotral bushing. I also did a thorough cleaning of the entire stove.
None of this has fixed the problem of it overfeeding pellets at about 2 hours into use. Essentially they start dumping out faster than they can ignite and start
piling up in the burn pot. I have had the auger speed on 1 and 2 and this hasn't stopped the problem.
I have noticed that there is a small adjustment setting on the controller for Auger speed. it is set at the center position. does that have anything to do with this issue or is there another direction I can go to solve this issue?
 
Tony52 said:
Several weeks ago I posted regarding a problem with my mother in laws whitfield II-T stove over feeding on the pellets. I have since thenreplace the controller board and found out that I needed to replace the brass bushing at the back end of the auger. I replaced the old flange and put in a new one with a nylotral bushing. I also did a thorough cleaning of the entire stove.
None of this has fixed the problem of it overfeeding pellets at about 2 hours into use. Essentially they start dumping out faster than they can ignite and start
piling up in the burn pot. I have had the auger speed on 1 and 2 and this hasn't stopped the problem.
I have noticed that there is a small adjustment setting on the controller for Auger speed. it is set at the center position. does that have anything to do with this issue or is there another direction I can go to solve this issue?

You have an airflow problem, the stove is likely dirty or the damper is closed to much.
 
Tony52 said:
....I also did a thorough cleaning of the entire stove........
Can you describe what your "thorough" cleaning included?
 
Dirty stove or not, you should be able to slow down the feeding of fuel by the control board.

Are you saying you cannot slow down the feeding of pellets...or that they are just not being burned up quick enough?

If you cannot slow them down, then you might have to look at wiring issues. What I am saying is your auger needs to be slowing and yet it is still getting power to continue.
 
Essentially about 2 hours after it has been running the pellets start to pile up in the burn pot even though the auger speed on the control board has been turned down. They feed to the point where they don't get a chance to start burning before more land on top of them.
 
Thermostat jumper missing @ thermostat connector will cause continuous auger feeding, as in constantly calling for heat.

When you replaced control board did you maintain the same jumper?
And really, stove should have been able to burn at that rate, so there's still an air problem as Smokey the Bear has stated.
It would of just over heated the room w/ all that heat output from constantly feeding fuel.
 
I'm having same problem with my St Croix EXP. The only problem is that the stove does not have auger speed control or a feed trim. We cannot put the stove on high because of that this year nothing but trouble this year. MY stove hates the Barefoot pellets I know that. We have done everything opened up the damper full bore, cleaned the stove over and over again throughly, blocked the outside airkit unblocked it u name it. We are vented vertical up through the roof 18 feet. Any advice would be helpful because customer service for St Croix SUCKS and so doesn't our local dealer where we bought it from. He told us just to bring the stove down. Yup I'll do just that!!!!
 
Tony:
I am thinking you might have an ignitor problem.

On my Whitfield if the flame sensor does not see a flame after a few minutes the controller will re-run the start sequence. The start sequence consists of several steps - see below. The times are my estimates and may be off some ...

Step 1: Contacts in the wall thermostat close - calling for heat
Step 2: Ingnitor is turned on by the controller for about 4 minutes. Auger turns on for about 40 seconds and dumps some pellets in the pot. After 40 seconds, the auger stops feeding and waits for the flame detector (photo eye) in the auger shoot to see flames.

Once the photo eye sees flame the start sequence is complete and the auger starts feeding - it 'pulses' every few seconds to feed a few pellets to sustain the fire and heat the room.

If the photo eye does not see a flame after some time (about 4 minutes) the controller runs the shutdown sequence (fans run for 4 or 5 minutes) and then reruns the start sequence - automatically. I have seen my stove run the start sequence up to 3 times after I have let the hopper run empty of pellets. It takes several start sequences to refill the auger shaft before the pellets start dropping into the burn pot.

After 3 failed attempts my controller will shut down the stove, turn off all the lights, and set the green start button flashing (error mode).

I am thinking your ignitor may be weak (resistance is increasing such that less electrical current flows through it) or you have an intermittent wiring issue (open circuit). Either failure mode would mean insufficient heat of the ignitor - and no ignition of the pellets. If you have access to an amp meter the current flow of a 400W ignitor should be about 3.3 amps. The current flow should be steady over the whole ignition sequence (about 4 minutes I think).

I think the other question that needs to be answered here is - 'Does the pot over flow issue only happen on startup or do you suddenly get an increase in pellet delivery while the flame is fully burning?'

If the issue only occurs on flame startup, my ignitor theory above makes sense. If the auger suddenly increases it's delivery rate well after the flame has begun, my theory doesn't fit! Then I would agree with others here, you have some form of air flow issue or a rate control issue on the auger. Although a rate controll issue on the auger motor should have been addressed with the controller replacement. ??

Note, some ignitors are available on Ebay for ~$100. Lennox price is much higher. The cold resistance of a 400W ignitor should be about 36 ohms.

Good luck. Please post your findings.

RonB
 
Check these things.

With the stove running and the fuel setting in the (1) position, the auger should be OFF (not feeding) for about 7 seconds then it should feed (red light on) for about 1.5 to 2 seconds.

If this is happening as mentioned then the issue is air flow.

Your cleaning ??? did this include removing the fire bricks and also the inner baffles that are directly behind the bricks ???

There can be a ton of ashes behind the baffles.

Direct vent or chimney ??

The use of a leaf blower hooked (suction side) to the exhaust and let howl for a few moments (stove door open to allow free airflow will remove any crap from the stove.

I do this with the stoves exhaust blower turned on.


Let us know
Snowy
 
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Yes we have removed the brick panels and behind it is a double wall with the 2 ash traps. We stick a bottle brush up in there to bring the ash down. I read on some thread that there should be two holes in this wall on the left and right of the burn pot with plugs in them. You are suppose to remove them and clean in there but we don't have any such thing on our 2007 St Croix EXP. If you ask me its a very poor design, too many nooks and cranies for ash to accumulate in. The Harman is so much easier to clean everything is open. Well anyway what I don't get is when the stove is on high this is when the pellets start to sit on top of the burn pot in a big glob and start to go up the shoot. We have to run the stove on level 3 not 5 so it takes a long time to heat my house up now. We are vented up through the roof about 18 ft. 4 inch pipe. oak installed.
 
kserr said:
Yes we have removed the brick panels and behind it is a double wall with the 2 ash traps. We stick a bottle brush up in there to bring the ash down. I read on some thread that there should be two holes in this wall on the left and right of the burn pot with plugs in them. You are suppose to remove them and clean in there but we don't have any such thing on our 2007 St Croix EXP. If you ask me its a very poor design, too many nooks and cranies for ash to accumulate in. The Harman is so much easier to clean everything is open. Well anyway what I don't get is when the stove is on high this is when the pellets start to sit on top of the burn pot in a big glob and start to go up the shoot. We have to run the stove on level 3 not 5 so it takes a long time to heat my house up now. We are vented up through the roof about 18 ft. 4 inch pipe. oak installed.

Your stove likely has two plugs to remove and clean through. There is a thread on here dealing with a modification that added a third clean out.

As the original two weren't allowing enough access to get all of the built up ash inside the stove.

You might be able to get to that ash by using the leaf blower trick on the stoves vent system.
 
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