Country Stove Winslow Pi40

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base45

New Member
Feb 12, 2010
6
New Fairfield, ct
Dear Members, Hoping I can get some help with this problem.

Last week my pellet stove was shutting down. When I put the pellet stove on, after about 15 minutes, the ignitor light goes off. Little by little, it stops feeding pellets and eventually the red light on ready goes on. We get two fast blinks on the ready light.
I called up the dealer and was told the fire snap switch might be bad (I replaced the fire snap switch but still having the same problem). He then told me to connect the two wires together for the vacuum switch and see if it still shuts down. It still shuts down. Then in the back of the stove, I noticed that when the feeder light came on, sometimes the auger didn't move so I took out the auger and had it tested. It's working fine so it's not the auger. Can anybody give me any solutions to this problem?

Thank You,
Anthony
 
Welcome to the forum Anthony,

Does the stove light and then die?

When was the last time it was cleaned and how many bags of pellets have been put through it?

Where is that fire snap switch located and have you ever cleaned the area behind it?
 
Dear Saranac FS,

Thanks for the welcome.

We've had the stove for 5 years so many bags have gone through and this is the first time I've had trouble with it.

All the lights go on in the beginning but then the flame dies and the Ready light blinks red twice.

I cleaned this in October 2009 (the flue and the stove). I just cleaned the stove again yesteday and I've changed the fire snap switch which is located on the combustion blower.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Anthony
 
Anthony,

Have you ever removed the combustion blower fan assembly (make certain you have a new gasket) and cleaned the cavity it is in and the fan blades etc ..? You should be able to see the area behind the snap disc, that entire area can be sooted up to the point that the proof of fire switch doesn't close then just before the stove exits start up it will check and see there is no fire and shut down.

In addition there can be soot in the vacuum tube but you already bypassed that.

Remove the vacuum switch bypass and bypass the fire snap disc and see if it lights and runs.

Let us know how this turns out.

BTW, the handle on this end is SmokeyTheBear the Saranac FS is the stove I'm roasting my pellets in.
 
Dear Smokey the Bear:

I took out the fire snap switch and checked. It's all clear. I bypass the fire switch and I bypass the vacuum switch. It stayed on for about a half hour and then there was no flame. While it was on, I put it on #3 and the flame isn't like it was before this happened. We got a decent flame on #3. Now it's very, very low-barely over the pot.
 
Is there anything in the auger flight like a lot of pellet fines?

If you bypassed both of those switches and the fire actually lit, then something in the auger flight is a possibility or you might have hit the switch that changes the stove into being operated by a thermostat, there are several modes when running on a thermostat, if there is no thermostat installed the stove will shut down or go to maintain fire mode which is the lowest burn mode on the stove. By any chance did that switch get accidentally changed and there is no thermostat hooked up?
 
If you have a manual reset one it might be possible that it is the over temperature snap disc, but I don't think the stove would be able to deliver any pellets in startup mode.
 
I can't get to the lennox site at the moment so I can't download the manuals for that stove. I'll try again later.
 
its me again when i took out the auger motor i turned the flight going up to get the pellet out and in move ok only at one part it seems like it scrapes but very light. why its like after the igniter goes off that is when the flame gets low and then in time no flame at all. what can it be. no thermostat .it has a wire jumping it so no thermostat hook up.
 
Ok I finally was able to download the manual for your stove, it appears that the problem is with your pellet feed system. That is what is left after removing the snap disk from consideration and assuming that you have a full hooper of pellets.

Now I've seen pellets bridge at the very top of the flight and if there is a fuel restricter plate they can bridge there so if the flight was full you would get a start but another pellet might come along and prevent others from feeding .

I've also seen a buildup of fines in the flight prevent pellets from being carried up the flight.

This is what the two short flashes are saying once you remove the empty hooper and the dad proof of fire switch.

It is getting late and my eyes have seen enough of the manual. I'd pull the flight cover and make certain the flight is clear of fines and then reload the flight with pellets, while reloading the flight I'd look to see if I had any long pellets. Long pellets tend to cause problems.

I also noticed that they mention that if the stove runs out of pellets it may take several attempts before you get a steady pellet feed.
 
Try running the auger motor off a jump cord out side the stove. Try to stop the auger by hand. Let auger run 5 mins and try again to see if theres a change I have seen auger just get weak. If the input shaft isn't spinning fast the motor needs cleaning or replacement. I think the output is around 2 rpms and around 75ft lb of torque.
 
I have a question based on a similar problem. Had the double flashing light this morning. Somehow, and this hasn't happened before, there are plenty of pellets in the hopper and the stove has run enough that it is hot to the touch, but has run our of pellets in the burnpot. I reset the stove and it fired up. Immediately there were pellets being dropped into the burnpot, so it didn't technically run out of pellets. Later I noticed the stove going through its ignition sequence again, i.e. the ignitor went back on even though there was a fire going in the stove. Why would the ignitor go back on after there was a fire going in the burnpot?

Any help would be appreciated...
 
mlobitz said:
I have a question based on a similar problem. Had the double flashing light this morning. Somehow, and this hasn't happened before, there are plenty of pellets in the hopper and the stove has run enough that it is hot to the touch, but has run our of pellets in the burnpot. I reset the stove and it fired up. Immediately there were pellets being dropped into the burnpot, so it didn't technically run out of pellets. Later I noticed the stove going through its ignition sequence again, i.e. the ignitor went back on even though there was a fire going in the stove. Why would the ignitor go back on after there was a fire going in the burnpot?

Any help would be appreciated...


The igniter would be on because you reset the stove and hit the start button and the stove wasn't to the point of looking for POF (proof of fire).

The fact that the burn pot was out of pellets when you first saw the flashing lights is the key here.

Something shut off the pellet feed which lead to the burn pot not getting pellets.

You have high temperature shut offs, loss of fire, loss of vacuum, power fluctuations, bridging in the auger flight, cavitation in the auger flight, too much draft blowing out the fire.
 
SmokeyTheBear said:
mlobitz said:
I have a question based on a similar problem. Had the double flashing light this morning. Somehow, and this hasn't happened before, there are plenty of pellets in the hopper and the stove has run enough that it is hot to the touch, but has run our of pellets in the burnpot. I reset the stove and it fired up. Immediately there were pellets being dropped into the burnpot, so it didn't technically run out of pellets. Later I noticed the stove going through its ignition sequence again, i.e. the ignitor went back on even though there was a fire going in the stove. Why would the ignitor go back on after there was a fire going in the burnpot?

Any help would be appreciated...


The igniter would be on because you reset the stove and hit the start button and the stove wasn't to the point of looking for POF (proof of fire).

The fact that the burn pot was out of pellets when you first saw the flashing lights is the key here.

Something shut off the pellet feed which lead to the burn pot not getting pellets.

You have high temperature shut offs, loss of fire, loss of vacuum, power fluctuations, bridging in the auger flight, cavitation in the auger flight, too much draft blowing out the fire.

Hmmm...I reset the stove which required me to unplug it and then plug it back in, then I dialed it back to "4" and hit the button. Within about 5 min. or so I had a flame and then off it went. Later...25-30 mins. I came back to check on it, the stove was running on low even though it should have been running on "4" since it hadn't heated the room up to temp. yet. It is on a thermostat. I noticed that the ignition light was blinking and the ignitor was on. Not sure why it is doing that...1)running on low when the room is not up to temp. and running the ignitor when it has a fairly good flame going and has had one going for 25-30 min. Hmmm...could be a bad switch or sensor. The stove is 7 years old with a new ignitor and board. Everything is original. Will clean today. I usually keep it VERY clean. Usually do a mid-year clean out of the flue just for fun even though I'm using Atlas pellets, which IMO are a very low ash pellet.
 
I can't speak about your stove when it comes to doing a reset and dialing it up to 4. But on mine the stove has to exit start up before any heat range button pushing actually has any lasting effect. The default state is maintain fire mode which is 1 and that is where it will be when the stove first exits start up after a reset. Your mileage may vary.

Take Dave Gault up on his offer of the service information.
 
Is the convection blower coming on? If you adjust the blower speed on the convection blower is there a change in blower speed?

How long did you test the auger motor for? Bench test the motor for 15 minutes and you may find your problem...if I'm correct that would be 30 revolutions or so. My guess is a slipped gear in the casing of the auger motor. Also, test your auger motor leads or connections.
 
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