New guy here, have an issue with my stove I was wondering if you folks had some insight on prior to winter rolling in.
I’ve got a castile insert that I believe is a 2003 model off the top of my head. I bought it used in 2007 and I’ve run 2T of pellets through it each winter since (brand is blazer). Over the years I’ve replaced both blowers when the bearings started squealing (winters of 08 and 09 if I recall, one each year). The snap disc that turns off the convection blower (can’t recall which # that is off the top of my head) went out last winter and that was also replaced, however the body on it was a little different than the original. Door gaskets were replaced a few times, the last being late last winter.
My normal fall routine is pull out the unit, sweep the exhaust, and vacuum every nook & cranny I can get to. Also I use a scraper & piece of wire to make sure all the firepot surface and ports are all clear of crap. During the season I vacuum out the firebox/ash pan/heat exchangers/etc. and wipe down the glass once or twice a week. If the unit starts running poorly late in the season I’ll repeat the fall cleaning but it’s normally not an issue.
Later in last season I started having issues with my unit though. It started over feeding and would build up a huge pot of hot coals, it would overflow the firepot if we didn’t catch it. I’ve got a grey control box with three speed settings and normally keep it on the middle setting, nothing was changed there. I tried choking box the feed rate to the auger by adding an extension onto the normal rod/cover assembly. I had it choked down such that it usually took hitting the reset once to get enough pellets into the pot for initial start and yet once going the thing would still over feed. Also once the thermostat shut the unit off normally, the blowers would run for a while like normal but then they’d shut off after a bit with the heat exchangers still hot and hot coals in the firepot (things weren’t burning down all the way and this also created lots of excess ash build up). Basically it acted like it was just going off a minimum run time setting rather than sensing the heat in the unit.
We limped it through our last bags of the season and then put it to rest for the summer. Well I’ve just picked up my 2T of pellets for the year and it’s time to dust off this issue. Based on my research I’m inclined to suspect 2 items:
A) Lower suspicion: Pellets moisture content increased over the winter causing them to not burn as well thus the increased amount of coals. However that hasn’t been an issue for the 3 prior winters. Also that doesn’t explain shutting down the unit before it’s properly cooled down.
B) Higher suspicion: My control box is getting flaky. I believe the replacement box is SRV7000-205 which I can find on ebay for about $290.
Folks have any thoughts or other things I should check? I supposed I could fire up the stove now that I have pellets to check but it’s not really that cold out yet and I don’t really want to procrastinate (more) till I finally do need heat. I’ve seen some threads on rebuilding the box, however I’m not sure how the trouble shoot each circuit off hand to know which components are haywire. (I’m an ME, not an EE).
Thanks.
I’ve got a castile insert that I believe is a 2003 model off the top of my head. I bought it used in 2007 and I’ve run 2T of pellets through it each winter since (brand is blazer). Over the years I’ve replaced both blowers when the bearings started squealing (winters of 08 and 09 if I recall, one each year). The snap disc that turns off the convection blower (can’t recall which # that is off the top of my head) went out last winter and that was also replaced, however the body on it was a little different than the original. Door gaskets were replaced a few times, the last being late last winter.
My normal fall routine is pull out the unit, sweep the exhaust, and vacuum every nook & cranny I can get to. Also I use a scraper & piece of wire to make sure all the firepot surface and ports are all clear of crap. During the season I vacuum out the firebox/ash pan/heat exchangers/etc. and wipe down the glass once or twice a week. If the unit starts running poorly late in the season I’ll repeat the fall cleaning but it’s normally not an issue.
Later in last season I started having issues with my unit though. It started over feeding and would build up a huge pot of hot coals, it would overflow the firepot if we didn’t catch it. I’ve got a grey control box with three speed settings and normally keep it on the middle setting, nothing was changed there. I tried choking box the feed rate to the auger by adding an extension onto the normal rod/cover assembly. I had it choked down such that it usually took hitting the reset once to get enough pellets into the pot for initial start and yet once going the thing would still over feed. Also once the thermostat shut the unit off normally, the blowers would run for a while like normal but then they’d shut off after a bit with the heat exchangers still hot and hot coals in the firepot (things weren’t burning down all the way and this also created lots of excess ash build up). Basically it acted like it was just going off a minimum run time setting rather than sensing the heat in the unit.
We limped it through our last bags of the season and then put it to rest for the summer. Well I’ve just picked up my 2T of pellets for the year and it’s time to dust off this issue. Based on my research I’m inclined to suspect 2 items:
A) Lower suspicion: Pellets moisture content increased over the winter causing them to not burn as well thus the increased amount of coals. However that hasn’t been an issue for the 3 prior winters. Also that doesn’t explain shutting down the unit before it’s properly cooled down.
B) Higher suspicion: My control box is getting flaky. I believe the replacement box is SRV7000-205 which I can find on ebay for about $290.
Folks have any thoughts or other things I should check? I supposed I could fire up the stove now that I have pellets to check but it’s not really that cold out yet and I don’t really want to procrastinate (more) till I finally do need heat. I’ve seen some threads on rebuilding the box, however I’m not sure how the trouble shoot each circuit off hand to know which components are haywire. (I’m an ME, not an EE).
Thanks.