I turned on my pellet stove last night for the first time. I was a little nervous since I recently took of the exhaust pipe, swep the flue etc. It started fine but I seemed to smell some smoke which I only do at initial start up so I backed the thermostat so it would shut down then I turned off a wall switch which shuts off the power. Today I pulled the unit out to check for tightness of the stainless steel clamp to the exhaust manifold near combustion blower. When I went to turn it on, the call light came on and the element heated up, but the combustion blower didn't turn on. I attempted to test for voltage at the blower with both connectors disconnected and there was current as it welded my tester, sparked and tripped the fuse which I later reset(rocker type fuse). I looked at my manual and found the disc3 and pressed the little red reset button, but still nothing. Is it possible the blower died? This year will be the stove's 6th season and it has been flawless until now. My thought was maybe the combustion blower was weak last night and not forcing the exhaust with enough pressure up the chimney. The blower is not stuck and spins easily by hand. The blower has two connections, one with a blue wire and another with a two white wires. The connector on the blower going to the blue wire pulled out but I was able to snap it back in. Could this be a source of the problem? THanks for your help. Greg
Combustion motor not working Q Fire 1200i
- Thread starter gregpiro
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your exhaust blower probably is gone, but try this first; connect it to 120v direct and see if it works because there is a chance the control board is not sending full voltage to the blower. Or you could measure the voltage with a multimeter at the connector (make sure the heat output switch is on the hi setting)
And BTW, if snap disc 3 had tripped you would have no power to anything.
And BTW, if snap disc 3 had tripped you would have no power to anything.
How do I measure voltage with multimeter. There are two connections one with blue wire and one with 2 white wires, also there is a green ground I think. Should I tap the connector to the 2 white wires then to green for ground? I but the meter between the blue wire connector and white wire connector and it tripped the fuse and burned the volt meter testor tip Thanks
gregpiro said:
That should not have tripped the fuse because white is neutral and blue is hot, you should be able to get a voltage reading that way. Another way is to put one lead from the tester to the blue wire and another to the stove's frame (ground).
Is it possible your tester had a short? That would cause the fuse/breaker to trip.
I'm thinking the blue single wire is for the 3 different blower speeds and the double white wire is the hot, I could be wrong. The male portion of the connector attached to the blower pulled out of the blower motor. I was able to push it back in. Maybe I should pull it out again and try a dab of dielectric grease incase it is not making contact. Maybe this is the problem. Any thoughts? thanks :-S
gregpiro said:
Dielectric grease is not going to make an electrical connection "all better".....it is for connections that need to be lubricated so they can be taken apart easily, and still have good connection (like the rubber boot on a spark plug). If the male end pulled all the way out of the motor, and there wasn't any wire connected...there's your problem, I think.
BTW, as for the voltmeter (multi-meter) you were using....not to insult anyone's intelligence, but was it set for AC Volts, and not DC volts? And don't ask me why I mentioned it!! LOL
I did have it set to AC volts and connected between the two female clips, one with one blue wire, the other with 2 white wires and poof! How can I fix the male electric plug that maybe seperated from a wire on the motor. Do I have to take the motor off? It's kind of hard to see what you are doing unless you use a mirror and a flashlight. Maybe some solder somehow, not sure.
I would say that you DO want to remove the blower to try fixing the connection....trying to attempt that while it's in the stove would be difficult, at best.
And if you can do it, solder the connection for sure. Make sure you're using electricians solder and flux, not plumbing (it's corrosive).
And if you can do it, solder the connection for sure. Make sure you're using electricians solder and flux, not plumbing (it's corrosive).
gregpiro said:
Trust me on this; the white is the common or neutral and the blue is the hot. If they were both hot, you would have no neutral and the motor would not work with two hots and no neutral. The control box sends different voltage levels thru the blue wire to control the blower speed.
Also, if they were both hot you would not have gotten any spark, blown fuse etc. A blown fuse occurs when you have too much load, like when something is shorted to ground. Maybe your tester was at fault, because the only way you should be able to get that spark is if you touched the two wires directly together ( hot to neutral)or touched the blue wire to the stove body creating a short to ground.
I took the combustion blower off today and upon further inspection I noticed one very fine copper wire connected to the white male plug and a thin silver wire that was broken off and not making contact with the male plug to the blue wire. I pulled the wire with tweasers and bent it to contact the male plug. After doing this the blower worked. Now I have to solder it per your suggestion. I had some solder, not sure what type and tried a magnifying glass-did't work. I will have to borrow or buy a soldering gun to fix. I can't believe how small guage the wires are on this blower. Thanks for your help. I can't wait to get it back and running since it's getting cold outsid.
You tried soldering with a magnifying glass? Now that is a first lol. I would make sure your are using the correct solder and not the plumbing stuff. The stuff you want to use is really thin like twice the thickness of a piece of dental floss.
Well my stove works now after soldering the fine aluminum wire where the blue wire connects. The problem I now have is that the blower motor runs continuously and never shuts off unless I unplug the unit(I have mine hooked up to a heatolator outlet inside the fireplace and can luckily just turn off a wall swith to shut off). Could it be from the white wires being burned some from me shorting it out and tripping the fuse? Maybe I need to buy a new female connector and spice and crimp the two white wires to it. My other thought is that I fried something in the control box when hooking up my voltmeter which burned the white wires and tripped the fuse. I can live with turning the stove off and on manually with the wall switch but it would be nice to have the blower automatically shut off like it did before. Thanks for your advice. Greg
When the Stove shuts down, the exhaust blower runs for about 20 minutes. Also does this when power is interrupted. If it is running longer, most likely the control board is the culprit.
Part # SRV7000-205 msrp=$208 3speed Control Box (make sure you set the dial for the appropriate # for your stove!)
Yes, it just plugs in, make sure you unplug the stove first.
Yes, it just plugs in, make sure you unplug the stove first.
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