*Edit* Convection Blower not working properly. Pleae Help? Drolet Eco 65 Issues and Observations?

[DV]

I fired up the stove this morning in an attempt to burn everything off and "break her in"
So everything was going fine. Started off on setting 2 for a half hour then went to 3 for a half hour then bumped it up to setting 4 out of 6. Let the stove chug away here for about an hour and decided to get the wifes "pampered chef" meat thermometer out and check some of the temps on stove. I hung the thermometer in the front vent so it was suspended in the air and was getting readings from 318 to 340. Seemed pretty hot to me but I'm new. Then the stove went into error H. And shut down. This is the heat sensor located above the auger in between the hopper. Is this normal? Am I doing something wrong? One other note is the stove is located next to my basement slider and the morning sun was also beating down directly on the stove. Another note is I do not have the oak connected yet. I was running the stove with the slider open next to it.

Next issue..... The auger is rubbing against the housing. I can see exactly where it is scraping. Its about an inch inside the housing. It only makes noise when the stove is in shutdown mode and there are no pellets in the auger. It gives the classic 3 second scream every rotation. Its very annoying. I applied some powdered graphite to it but that did nothing. Looks like I'm gonna need to take out the auger and file down the side thats chaffing. Kinda sucks for a brand new stove.

Any advice? Thanks.
*Edit* After running the stove again this morning here is what its doing. After starting up and heating up for about 10 minutes the covection blower comes on full blast for about 3 seconds then goes off? Its the first time i realized this. Dust was flying out of the heat exchanger. Stoves been on for about an hour and the blower has yet to turn back on. Need help please???

 

[DV]

It seems to me that the convection fan is not blowing hard enough as the stove temperature increases? I would think as you move the stove setting up and the temp rises the fan should also increse in speed to move the hotter air out of stove? After researching on here 318 to 340 degrees is to hot of an air temp coming through the baffles. The air was blurry coming off the stove. Any tips?

 

[DexterDay]

Does the.operator have to increase the convection blower speed? Some stoves step up with heat levels. Other stoves the ooerator controls the heat and blower levels.

With a 500 CFM blower, that thing should blow the door down in that basement.

 

[DV]

Does the.operator have to increase the convection blower speed? Some stoves step up with heat levels. Other stoves the ooerator controls the heat and blower levels.

With a 500 CFM blower, that thing should blow the door down in that basement.

No the operator does not select blower speed. The only option is a button that reduces the blower speed to a minimum but will return to a higher blower speed when a certain temperature is reached. The blower speed is supposed to change as the pellet feed rate changes. I'm just not sure why the internal airspace in my stove reached 340 degrees. Am I right to assume this is to hot? and I'm with you on that 500CFM blower should be screaming!

 

[DexterDay]

If its affixed to the metal, then your not reading air temperature. So seeing that temp wouldnt shock me. Then again, its placement dictates how much heat from the steel it gets also.

Not knowing where its located and not owning the stove makes me a bad judge. But seeing steel temps as high as 500° and beyond, is what I get on my Old Englander.

Is there a big change in CFM from 3 to 6 (heat setting). One would think that it would blow about half the CFM's on 3 as it does 6.

Not being able to independently change the blower setting on a stove that large kinda sucks.. Because you cant change it, I would have hoped that it stayed at a very high CFM rate for circulation purposes. Because its a ducted stove, on level 1,2, and maybe 3, the ducts prob wont be seeing much flow??

 

[DV]

The thermometer was "floating" in the heat exchanger. Was not touching metal. Just in the air about an inch or 2 from the metal. I'm gonna fire her up again in the morning and do some more investigating. Your right. I wish you could control the blower yourself. I just dont think its blowing hard enough. setting 4 is as high as I've gotten so far so I can t really compare blower speeds yet.

 

[DV]

SOB! I got it. Had a loose connection at the blower motor. When it kicked on the vibration lossened it and it turned off. So I was running stove on setting 4 with no blower motor. I just retemped the stove and I'm getting a steady 108 degrees coming out. Much better than 340. Guess I need to go in and check all my connections. Good news is the stove functioned properly and shut down when the temp was to high. Man its always something.

 

[DexterDay]

108° is much better... Glad you got it fixed.

340° air temp is Way High I get about 140°-150° on level 3 (of 5) out of my Fahrenheit. So those #'s are reasonable. Altgough comparing the 2 isnt fair. But just as a guideline, thats much better than 300° something. Highest I have seen is about 200°… But my stoves blower shuts off completely when it falls below temp (115°) and kicks back on when it hits (175°). Those temps are set by the user. So when it calls for heat and kicks up to level 3 from the pilot burn, the air is stopped by a in-line backdraft damper. When the blower 2)1st kicks on, the air temp is about 190°… 200° is where my overtemp is.

 

[DV]

Thanks Dexter. I knew when the air above my stove was blurred something wasnt right. Its rocking some heat now. Here's two pics. One from yesterday and one from today. The meat thermometer tip is hanging in the same place for both readings. Not touching metal.

 

[jtakeman]

Glad you got it fixed and was somethig simple. Keep us posted, I got a friend interested in one. If you hit any hiccups, I'd like to know JIC he needs help! ;-)

 

[DV]

Glad you got it fixed and was somethig simple. Keep us posted, I got a friend interested in one. If you hit any hiccups, I'd like to know JIC he needs help! ;-)

Will do. The other issue is the bottom auger scraping the auger housing. About an inch inside from the burnpot. I believe it is on a seam but I'm not sure. It only does it when no pellets are in auger ie. start up and shut down. At any rate I may post that as another topic after I talk to Drolet/SBI.

 

[Fsappo]

Havent had any of those issues with the Euromax, but then again, I'm not sure if they use the same components.

 

[DV]

Now that the convection blower is functioning I do not hear the auger screeching. The first time I ran the stove I had no convection blower so when I shut it down it took a long time to cool down and the auger just kept turning for about 45 minutes or more and screeched the whole time. Now when I shut it down the blower cranks up and cools the stove in a short time and the auger stops. I can see in the stove where the auger is rubbing. I dont know if I should just leave it alone and eventually it will wear down to fit or attempt to remove it and file it? I'm leaning towards just letting it be for now.

Not sure if the Euromax uses the same parts as well but from the pics i have seen on this forum they look to be the same.

 

[DexterDay]

Seeing how they are both built by SBI, its gotta be like the Vista Flame 170 and the Enviro Maxx.. Same stove, made by the same Manufacturer. Sold under a different name. They look exactly alike.

 

[Fsappo]

They do look exactly alike, but knowing how SBI does business I'm sure they wouldn't load up a specialty retailer with product A and then sell the same exact product under product B for these online warehouses simply to undercut the retailers.

Fyrebug will probably chime in and explain why one sells for $1k less than the other.

 

[DexterDay]

I dont want to compare it to pellets, but, Hardwood heats go for $197 (or cheaper) and Hamers go for much more.

Quadrafire and Heatilator (although they do use different heat exchange sytems). .

Downloading the manuals now. I already have the Euromax manual. I have PM'd Fyrebug extensively over the Euromax. Im highly interested in buying one. But I was gonna get the Eco, just because of the price point.

Investigations begin...... :lol:

 

[DexterDay]

Other than the control panel looking different and some trim on the Enerzone.

They appear to be exactly the same. Both have 2 blowers for the exhaust. One for combustion (pre pot) and one for exhaust (post pot). The same huge clean-outs on the side, etc..

 

[DV]

The manuals are pretty much the same. I checked them both out before I bought the Drolet. I think the eurozone has more "jewelery" on it to dress it up. Maybe part of the reason for the price difference? To me the stoves are very similar if not the same.

 

[Love the Heat]

DV....just saw your post....temperature is more in range now.
If the stove was getting in the 300, maybe with the metal expansion was causing the rubbing????

 

[DV]

DV....just saw your post....temperature is more in range now.
If the stove was getting in the 300, maybe with the metal expansion was causing the rubbing????

The issue was actually the male side of the male/female connector wire at the blower was broken at the soder. I had to cut out the fitting and replace it. It was actually working randomly because at certain times it was close enough to complete the circuit. This is how I figured out which wire was bad. I jiggled it and it kicked the blower on.