auger speed too fast

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morses

New Member
Dec 11, 2009
5
ct
I have a Whitfield Advantage II-T freestanding pellet stove. I recently replaced the auger motor after the last one died (used the number on the original parts list to find the new one). Runs great and quiet, but either because it is newer or because the amp rating was slightly different than the old one, the auger feeds substantially faster than the old one so that the stove is often too hot for the room even at the slowest setting. I was wondering if there is some way of slowing it down a bit, such as putting the stove on a dimmer switch. Anyone have any suggestions, or information on whether a dimmer switch would damage the stove in some way?
Thanks
Tim
 
morses said:
I have a Whitfield Advantage II-T freestanding pellet stove. I recently replaced the auger motor after the last one died (used the number on the original parts list to find the new one). Runs great and quiet, but either because it is newer or because the amp rating was slightly different than the old one, the auger feeds substantially faster than the old one so that the stove is often too hot for the room even at the slowest setting. I was wondering if there is some way of slowing it down a bit, such as putting the stove on a dimmer switch. Anyone have any suggestions, or information on whether a dimmer switch would damage the stove in some way?
Thanks
Tim

the auger motors run at one speed.
all whitfield stoves use a 1 RPM auger motor
are you sure you did get a 2RPM or a 4Rpm?
 
your feed rate or heat rate is NOT controlled by the speed of the auger. it is controlled by the ON and OFF times of the auger.
Depending on what control board you have your feed times will be around 1.5 seconds ON and 7 seconds between feeds on the low setting
 
OK, but that makes me a bit more puzzled. It definitely is a 1 rpm motor, and it definitely is a bigger and hotter fire (including going through pellets faster) than the other auger motor, and that was the only change that I made.
 
morses said:
OK, but that makes me a bit more puzzled. It definitely is a 1 rpm motor, and it definitely is a bigger and hotter fire (including going through pellets faster) than the other auger motor, and that was the only change that I made.
Could be that your old motor had a bad spot on the gear box or the motor was hanging up
and was not feeding correctly and was not delivering pellets every time power was giving to the motor
 
morses said:
Is there any way to slow down feed such as a dimmer switch???
NO
the auger motor is NOT a varable speed motor and the feed rate is not controlled with speed it is controlled by on and off times.

it needs 110 volts for it to have full torque
 
hearthtools said:
morses said:
Is there any way to slow down feed such as a dimmer switch???
NO
the auger motor is NOT a varable speed motor and the feed rate is not controlled with speed it is controlled by on and off times.

it needs 110 volts for it to have full torque

Does this model have the ability to adjust the timer to make the on/off times further apart?
 
rap69ri said:
hearthtools said:
morses said:
Is there any way to slow down feed such as a dimmer switch???
NO
the auger motor is NOT a varable speed motor and the feed rate is not controlled with speed it is controlled by on and off times.

it needs 110 volts for it to have full torque

Does this model have the ability to adjust the timer to make the on/off times further apart?
Depending on control board the TRIM adjust is for the low setting and for the Thermostat Keep fire mode.
 
hearthtools said:
rap69ri said:
hearthtools said:
morses said:
Is there any way to slow down feed such as a dimmer switch???
NO
the auger motor is NOT a varable speed motor and the feed rate is not controlled with speed it is controlled by on and off times.

it needs 110 volts for it to have full torque

Does this model have the ability to adjust the timer to make the on/off times further apart?
Depending on control board the TRIM adjust is for the low setting and for the Thermostat Keep fire mode.

Thanks for the input. How's the stove maintenance business going Rod?
 
Thanks for the suggestion-- looks like there is a pellet feed timer adjustment-- i will try decreasing that-- hadn't noticed it before.
 
rap69ri said:
hearthtools said:
rap69ri said:
hearthtools said:
morses said:
Is there any way to slow down feed such as a dimmer switch???
NO
the auger motor is NOT a varable speed motor and the feed rate is not controlled with speed it is controlled by on and off times.

it needs 110 volts for it to have full torque

Does this model have the ability to adjust the timer to make the on/off times further apart?
Depending on control board the TRIM adjust is for the low setting and for the Thermostat Keep fire mode.

Thanks for the input. How's the stove maintenance business going Rod?
could be better but enough to keep me going from day to day.
I let my old Phone # go because I could not afford the $500 PER MONTH for the Old yellow page ad so a lot of people call the number and find it is disconnected and think im totally out of biz. The good new is I get it back the fist of the year and they will forward it to my new voice mail number for $9 per month.
 
Thanks for the input. How's the stove maintenance business going Rod?[/quote]
could be better but enough to keep me going from day to day.
I let my old Phone # go because I could not afford the $500 PER MONTH for the Old yellow page ad so a lot of people call the number and find it is disconnected and think im totally out of biz. The good new is I get it back the fist of the year and they will forward it to my new voice mail number for $9 per month.[/quote]

Most of my family and friends in the service business are finding it tough in this economy. I'm one of the lucky one's in the healthcare IT industry, and we're going full bore. Here's hoping things improve for you and all the other people in a similar situation.
 
The "trim" setting can really change the amount of fuel, so give it a try.
 
Tried the trim adjustment and it worked (actually a little too well-- ran out of pellets this morning and the fire went out-- will put the setting halfway between. Adjusting it all the way down changed it from about every 7 seconds to just over 8 between rotations. Thanks very much for the help!
Tim
 
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