Avalon Astoria Performance Degradation

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Gizmo18

New Member
Feb 26, 2007
3
I am hoping that someone out there in “pelletland” can help me with a stove problem that started to manifest itself just a few of days ago. A little history, I have been using pellet stove technology as my sole heating source since we bought our first Whitfield Advantage in 1988, and as such, have had to deal with a all sorts of performance issues and parts failures. Now I currently own a Travis Industries, Avalon Astoria. It was new in the fall of 2003 and has worked perfectly since I installed it, that is, until recently. It is starting to exhibit many of the problems another stove owner described on this forum; lazy flame, excessive sooting throughout, short burn time, and, it extinguishes itself within fifteen minutes or so. I performed a major clean out of the stove, inside and out, this past summer using both vacuum and air. I thoroughly brush cleaned the vent run at the same time. The vent run has a horizontal path of less than 2 feet straight out from the back of the stove, one 90 degree turn with a clean out, then a straight shot up an existing masonry chimney using 4 inch Simpson vent pipe with a 5 foot flex pipe to get through the old damper offset.
On 2/24/07, I did a repeat cleaning performance, thinking that there might be an exhaust/combustion airflow blockage somewhere, mostly because I was forced to change brands of pellets from my normal this winter. This other brand, I thought, had an abnormally excessive amount of ash build up. It took me most of Saturday to do a thorough job, and afterwards, I started the stove up in manual mode as usual. The combustion airflow starts out like normal, the auger feeds pellets into the hopper and the igniter lights the fire…great! The fire burns vigorously, as it should, the row of heat output LED’s on the right of the control panel are all lit and finally go out to the preset feed rate setting when the temp switch cuts in/out. Then the stove starts to take a nosedive and the combustion motor slows down to a crawl. In fact, I watched it almost stall to less than 1000 RPM’s at times. Since I had just cleaned the stove and went back to my previous pellet grade type, this inability to keep the stove going has me completely puzzled.

At first, I thought it must be the exhaust/combustion motor that was the culprit, but now I am not sure that is not the control board (maybe, both)? The airflow starts out fine in the start up mode, but then diminishes to almost nothing when the electronics switch out of their start up settings. I am used to replacing parts and performing maintenance based on the manufacturers recommendations. This would not be foreign to me. So, does anyone have any thoughts, recommendations, possible solutions? Any help will be eagerly anticipated, considered and much appreciated.

The stove S/N, is 2303-926404, with all it's original parts and electronics

Thanks
Sierra Smoker
 
Are there any code lights that would indicate problems? Have you checked the voltages to the coupler
 
I think Shane knows these stoves not 100% sure though..

Anyhow.. When you say that you cleaned the flue describe how. It sounds like you have a direct connect, so first question do you clean from the tee to the chimney? And if it does not go all the way to the top of the chimney have you checked the chimney (unlined part) for othe possible obstructions leaves, animals, fly ash?
If I'm incorrect as to the direct connect have you cleaned the vent cap on top of the flue?
Local temps when this started? Even pellet stoves run better when it's cold...
Is there a way to draft check these things?
Do you have outside air hooked up? In no have you checked the air inlet? If yes have you checked the air inlet?
Combustion blower fins clean?
Door gaskets good?
 
It could be the control board has gone south. I've never had one do what yours is doing but I have had it do the opposite where it ran on high no matter what. I would actually lean towards the control board. Check all your gaskets make sure your door is sealing tightly, sometimes with a bad gasket or mis-adjusted door the thing will run good on the med/hi setting but lag on the low due to lack of pressure. I'm not sure what your dealers specific policies are but If you were my customer in my area I would be willing to sell you a control board and return it if it didn't work out. It is also possible that the combustion blower has gone bad. Sometimes they run ok when cool but as they heat up the performance lags. Your ser# indicates you have the older model that doesn't require an airwash upgrade.
 
elkimmeg said:
Are there any code lights that would indicate problems? Have you checked the voltages to the coupler

Hi,
I know of no code lights that I can look at other than the red LED fault indicator, which comes on after it shuts itself off. Specifically, where is the coupler located an typical voltage that I should expect to see?
SS
 
GVA said:
I think Shane knows these stoves not 100% sure though..

Anyhow.. When you say that you cleaned the flue describe how. It sounds like you have a direct connect, so first question do you clean from the tee to the chimney? And if it does not go all the way to the top of the chimney have you checked the chimney (unlined part) for othe possible obstructions leaves, animals, fly ash?
If I'm incorrect as to the direct connect have you cleaned the vent cap on top of the flue?
Local temps when this started? Even pellet stoves run better when it's cold...
Is there a way to draft check these things?
Do you have outside air hooked up? In no have you checked the air inlet? If yes have you checked the air inlet?
Combustion blower fins clean?
Door gaskets good?

Sorry GVA for the delay in getting back to you. My satellite internet service went south for a few days. In answer to your question about the pipe run. It is a straight shot direct connect from stove/cleanout to chimney cap. I did clean the cap thoroughly when I did the PM this summer. Up until it started to degrade, I had probably run about 1.25 tons through it. The temps have been generally cool when we run the stove. No need to run it when it's over 65 degrees. I ran into no animals dead/alive during my cleaning, nor did I find any leaves, etc. It is a pretty closed system, I intended it to be that way. The only thing I noticed was a more than usual amount of fly ash during my regular weekly cleaning cycles. I attributed that to what I considered to be less that premium pellets I was forced to buy because of the supply shortages in California. Actually, I do not draw air in from the outside, but it made no difference in prior burning seasons. I could put it in but just didn't think it was that necessary. I did a thorough cleaning inside and out this past weekend, as I mentioned in my initial post. Cleaned the blade fins and the entire exhaust passage ways, for the exhaust/combustion blower, including the vent pipe all the way to the cap. The door gaskets are good as I adjusted the latching using the old dollar bill method. I'm leaning more and more to a blower control board combination.
 
Here's some suggestions from our Customer Service Department.

Hello Sierra,

Thanks for the email. The symptoms you describe points directly to a lack of air flow to the burn pot. Air flow can be affected by many things. But in your case, I think you either have a air leak around the door or the ash dump slider plate. An air leak like this will defiantly rob the pellets of combustion air which will eventually cause the pellets to get smothered by the incoming pellets. First, I recommend you check the door for air leaks. Do this with the dollar bill test. Simply take a dollar bill, open the door, place the dollar bill in the opening and close the door over it. Then try to pull the bill out. It should be very tight and hard to pull out. But, if it comes out easy and with little resistance, there may be a air leak. Do this test in several spots around the door, especially at the corners. To correct a door leak, check the door gasket. It may be time to replace it. Also, check the door alignment. The door must be straight and level left to right and up and down. If it is not, a air leak will be present. The other possible source for a air leak is the ash dump slider plate. The plate is held in place on the under side of the firebox by a spring-tensioned bracket. If the springs have loosened take a 1/4 to 1/2 a turn on each of the lock nuts. This will put more tension against the slider plate. Finally, I recommend contacting a authorized Avalon dealer and order a new control board. The new style board has new programming that keeps the Combustion blower spinning faster when the feed rate is set to a lower rate. The faster blower speed will increase air flow (combustion air) to the pellets. I have included a few pages from a service manual that will help you further understand how to perform each of these trouble shooting steps.
 
Welcome GA! Great to hear from you.
 
Hello, curious if the problems described in this thread were resolved? I have an Astoria Bay insert and have experienced the same problems for quite some time and have done similar troubleshooting.
thanks,
bob
 
Lulac,

Have you contacted your local Avalon Dealer?

If you cannot get a satisfactory answer from them, plese call our Customer Service Dept at 425 609-2500.

Gary Webster
 
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