Hello
I was fortunate to come across this Archgard Optima-PS1. This model is still being made and sold by Archgard Fireplace Products 7116 Beatty Drive Mission BC V2V 6B2 CA. The unit I have was on a 2006 production run and did suffer some of the early growing pains of having a few bugs. It had a hopper fire! The good news is it was very cheap and it can be fixed and is still supported! I called Archgard and ordered a new hopper lid handle the other day since the original was totally disintegrated! The people up their are very kind and very helpful and the part is on it's way down here for the final touch! Now getting it working was not that easy. I cleaned the stove and re-painted the fire box and the inside floor in the back to get rid of the rust. The final painting on the outside will be done in it's new home. I found that the exhaust venting flange on the back of the stove only had had 2 holes on each side that slid over the exhaust blower's plenum and there was a big gap! Normally the exhaust flange has 4 holes and completely slides over the plenum so there are no gaps. I also found there was not hopper gasket and no gasket or any RTV on the auger backing plate! So I made 2 high temp silicone gaskets and put in the standard 1/2" flat gasket for the hopper and problems resolved! Now for the fix! Replacing the hopper switch with the same Honeywell type roller switch from Newark was the only way to go. It was the same size and same mounting holes. The difficult part was the auger motor was frozen to the auger even after removing the auger set screw! By removing the side doors and the bottom screws of the back, I could pull the back out just enough to remove the auger and motor in one piece! Then my welder who is very creative found a way to separate the two! After cutting a new gasket for the auger backing plate, I installed a brand new 1 RPM auger and bingo it worked! The ACE control panel also worked fine!
Does anyone else have one? Do you like it?
I fired it up on manual. It throws out great heat. Rated at 40k BTU. The flame blows close to the front of the fire box and looks great thru the very large door window! I am very impressed with the modern looking brushed nickel door trim and grill. It seems like a real winner! See pics below. Click to enlarge!
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I was fortunate to come across this Archgard Optima-PS1. This model is still being made and sold by Archgard Fireplace Products 7116 Beatty Drive Mission BC V2V 6B2 CA. The unit I have was on a 2006 production run and did suffer some of the early growing pains of having a few bugs. It had a hopper fire! The good news is it was very cheap and it can be fixed and is still supported! I called Archgard and ordered a new hopper lid handle the other day since the original was totally disintegrated! The people up their are very kind and very helpful and the part is on it's way down here for the final touch! Now getting it working was not that easy. I cleaned the stove and re-painted the fire box and the inside floor in the back to get rid of the rust. The final painting on the outside will be done in it's new home. I found that the exhaust venting flange on the back of the stove only had had 2 holes on each side that slid over the exhaust blower's plenum and there was a big gap! Normally the exhaust flange has 4 holes and completely slides over the plenum so there are no gaps. I also found there was not hopper gasket and no gasket or any RTV on the auger backing plate! So I made 2 high temp silicone gaskets and put in the standard 1/2" flat gasket for the hopper and problems resolved! Now for the fix! Replacing the hopper switch with the same Honeywell type roller switch from Newark was the only way to go. It was the same size and same mounting holes. The difficult part was the auger motor was frozen to the auger even after removing the auger set screw! By removing the side doors and the bottom screws of the back, I could pull the back out just enough to remove the auger and motor in one piece! Then my welder who is very creative found a way to separate the two! After cutting a new gasket for the auger backing plate, I installed a brand new 1 RPM auger and bingo it worked! The ACE control panel also worked fine!
Does anyone else have one? Do you like it?
I fired it up on manual. It throws out great heat. Rated at 40k BTU. The flame blows close to the front of the fire box and looks great thru the very large door window! I am very impressed with the modern looking brushed nickel door trim and grill. It seems like a real winner! See pics below. Click to enlarge!
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