BIXBY MAX FIRE

[MSmith66]

CAN SOMEONE HELP MY HUSBAND AND I FIGURE OUT WHAT'S WRONG WITH OUR BIXBY MAXFIRE?? THE NUMBER 2 & 3 ARE FLASHING AT THE SAME TIME-PLEASE HELP

THANK-YOU!!

 

[jtakeman]

The iburncorn forum has loads of info on the Bixby stoves and there is a wiki about them. http://forum.iburncorn.com/wiki/index.php/Bixby

I checked for the 2-3 light error and found this info:

Lights #2&3
Empty hopper or potential blocked flue warning. Check hopper for fuel. If fuel is present, flue (exhaust) may be blocked. Clean the exhaust portion of the Room Heater and the attached venting. See Maintenace and Cleaning Procedures for details. If problem continues, contact your Bixby Dealer.
From Corny http://forum.iburncorn.com/viewtopic.php?t=5157 : "A failure with the 2&3 lights blinking usually indicates that you were running too lean if the flue isn't blocked and the hopper isn't empty. Solution would be to turn up the feed rate or back off the exhaust fan rate. If your pellets are very long, it could be that the feed wheel pockets aren't filling completely and you aren't getting the proper amount of fuel, hence too lean. If this is the case, smaller pellets would help. If the 2&3 lights are blinking (with the new 2.06 or later firmware) but the stove is still running, then that indicates that the stove is trying to compensate for a too-lean condition by increasing the feedrate. Thus, there are fewer shutdowns for this condition when running the new firmware. " A 2&3 shutdown can also occur when running too rich as the flame is snuffed from an overfilling burnpot. See Bixby Adjustment for details and advice on optimizing the setting of the air and fuel trim pots.

If the exhaust fan speed was irregular before the 2&3 shutdown, you could have a loose flue thermocouple connection at J18 on the top half of the motherboard, as explained at http://forum.iburncorn.com/viewtopic.php?t=9976 . If the stove shut itself down because of this, the Bixcheck Flue Monitor would likely show a sudden zero thermocouple reading as the connection is broken at J18.

Check it out and see if it helps. Rona is a member here and has a bixby. I am sure he will chime in to assist you in the issue!

jay

 

[rona]

Looks like Jay has you covered. I can only add by asking a few questions and narrow down the possibilities.
How long have you had the stove? Has it ran good before? When did you notice the problem? as in it worked fine until we cleaned it then it started acting up or it always has done this.
What software is in the stove? Does it hesitate three times when it is doing the prestart checkout. If it does not hesitate that means you have the old 202 software and you should upgrade to the 2.71 software which is easy to do.
Most of the time a 23 blink means the stove is trying to increase the feed rate as it senses it is running lean. This can be caused by a number of reasons. Two common ones are a kernel of corn or piece of pellet gets between the floor plate and the gasket under the floor-plate when you cleaned it and as a result it is leaking air is opposed to all the air going into the pot.
The second reason could be the wheel has a lot of fines under it and isn't feeding the correct amount of fuel as it turns.
If the stove was working good before and just started to act up check both the items mentioned. It is ok to see a occasional 23 blink but it shouldn't be doing it all the time.

 

[newf lover]

I know nothing about Bixby stoves, but after reading j-takeman's post about the possible causes, one being a blocked flue, I was wondering if you had sealed the flue up for the summer and haven't taken that out yet? I did that myself (duh) and couldn't understand why the stove wouldn't work.

 

[rona]

A fellow called me last spring with problems and it turned out a "wren" built a nest in the exh during spring and when he got some cold weather had problems with stove working. Cleaned out the pipe and stove worked great.
I also sent you a E-mail about fines etc.

 

[smwilliamson]

Last but not least...faulty vacuum switch. Not very often, but it does happen.

 

[Fsappo]

I HOPE YOU FIND SOME HELP DID YOU TRY CALLING YOUR DEALER GOOD LUCK FRANK

 

[Pellet-King]

Possibly the "Bixby" burned into the Hulk!!