Breckwell Big-E madness

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cmeyer001

New Member
Dec 9, 2013
1
Elbert, CO
Hello, first time poster, please go easy.

I purchased a house with a Breckwell Big E pellet stove last March.

Since then I have replaced.
  • Convection Blower (Fasco B24220)
  • Combustion Blower ( Breckwell Factory Part )
  • Auger Motor ( From Amazon , Pellet Stove Auger Gear Motor, 1 RPM, 120 volts, 0.51 amps)
  • High Limit Switch (Breckwell factory part, the switch inside the casing by the control panel.)
In terms of maintenance, I clean out the burn pot daily, weekly I open up the ash panels, clean out the back side ( combination of dryer vent brush and ash vaccuum), the open interior, brush / vaccuum the heat exchange tubes. then wipe out the box and glass with wet paper towels.

I have the thermostat switch set to manual as I have no thermostat connected.

I run with the damper fully closed ( pushed in ) and the flame still has what many have referred to as a "blow-torch" appearance. Can't close it off any more.

The Issue:

The stove wont run reliably on any setting over 2. If I switch to setting 3 in the first couple of hours the stove will run for anywhere from 20 mins to 2 hours and then shut off. If I run the stove on setting 2 for 2 - 3 hours and then switch to setting 3 it seems to run (Sometimes). Setting 4 the stove wont run at all.

The Question :

How do I reliably troubleshoot the current issue? If I can get the stove to run on 3 reliably I would consider it a success. We are out in a pretty rural area, so pretty hard to get a trained tech out to look at it.

Thanks for any guidance.

EDIT :

Tonight I cleaned out the exhaust as well as the tube which leads to the vacuum switch. The vacuum switch tube was nearly plugged and the exhaust stack had a fair amount of creosote / ash buildup. After cleaning out those two areas, the stove has now been running for 2 hours on setting three and is still going strong. Hopefully that was the ticket.

EDIT 2 :

As of 10 Dec 2013, the pellet stove had run almost 12 straight hours on setting 3 with no required intervention on my part. I am calling it good.

Moral of the Story :

Make sure everything is really clean if your stove isn't working properly. I suspect the main culprit was the vacuum switch tube, but the clogged flue probably wasn't helping either. My weekly maintenance will include the vacuum switch tube, and the flue will get every ton of pellets or so.
 
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