Fan Thermostat Died

[Pavesa]

Hi

Now it's warmed up a bit I only put the woodstove on in the evenings.

This evening I noticed a rather singeing smell and dashed around our (wooden) house on the lookout for problems and found none but decided that the smell was coming from the woodstove. The stove temperature seemed normal but I noticed that surprisingly the fan wasn't on. I switched the fan to manual from auto and it came on immediately so it looks like the thermostat died and the firebox was getting over heated causing the singeing smell.

I was wondering if anyone has any experience at replacing these. The fan's fine mechanically, I clean and oil it before every burning season. It's the fan that came with my Pacific Energy spectrum.

Thanks for any thoughts.

Pavesa

 

[DougA]

Probably the smell was from a circuit in the thermostat, not the stove unless your stove temperature was well over 700.

You probably need to contact a PE dealer to find the cost of replacing the thermostat. It could be the sensor but not likely. Replacing it yourself should be fairly easy but I'll let a PE owner guide you on that.

 

[begreen]

If the stove got over 700F for the first time you can get a unique smell that is a combination of dust burning off and rebaked paint. The snap disk thermostat is an easy replacement. Get one from your PE dealer and ask about installation. If it is like our stove you unplug then remove the blower (4 screws?) The snap switch should be exposed then. Replace and reattach the blower.

 

[Woody Stover]

My Buck was doing the same thing, but it would sometimes work, sometimes not. I replaced the thermostat, and just a couple months ago I noticed the fan wasn't working again, so now I'm thinking it's the auto/off/manual switch. Unless the brushes in the motor are low...

 

[Pavesa]

Hi

thanks for all the thoughts. The smell was the singeing like when you first light it in the fall - sort of like the dust burning off, it wasn't a plastic burning smell you would get from a failed component. The stove didn't really get that hot, the thermometer on the flue pipe was at 350C which is pretty much normal operating temperature. I can only think that the area where the fan blows had some dust in it and normally the fan keeps it from burning off and with the thermometer failure the temperature there rose and it burned off.

I spoke to our local PE dealer and they also thought it's probably the snap switch and is about $20 to replace and in stock so that's not too painful. I know the fan unit is really $$$$$!

Thanks again for the thoughts..

 

[Grisu]

the thermometer on the flue pipe was at 350C

Is that an internal temp probe or a flue thermometer on a single-wall pipe? 350 C are ~650 F which would be ok as internal flue gas temp but not really as surface pipe measurement, at least for a "normal operating temperature".

 

[Pavesa]

Hi,

I just checked the guage and that's fahrenheit not centigrade (got it wrong - in Canada I thought everything would be centigrade!) - right in the middle of the "best combustion" band on the external single-wall flue pipe..

 

[DougA]

350 F on a single wall pipe is not that hot.

 

[maverick06]

you can bypass the thermostat snap switch. never liked mine.....

 

[Grisu]

Hi,

I just checked the guage and that's fahrenheit not centigrade (got it wrong - in Canada I thought everything would be centigrade!) - right in the middle of the "best combustion" band on the external single-wall flue pipe..

Good, I should have thought of that. 350 F external temp is certainly not too much.

 

[Pavesa]

Hi Maverick06

How do you bypass the thermostat snap switch. Put it on manual? Thing is, I burn overnight so by morning it's just glowing embers and the fan isn't necessary so the thermostat is useful in wasteful fan usage. Maybe I'm misunderstanding you? Oddly, the fan on auto came on again yesterday evening so maybe its got an intermittent problem.

 

[begreen]

Hi Maverick06

How do you bypass the thermostat snap switch. Put it on manual? Thing is, I burn overnight so by morning it's just glowing embers and the fan isn't necessary so the thermostat is useful in wasteful fan usage. Maybe I'm misunderstanding you? Oddly, the fan on auto came on again yesterday evening so maybe its got an intermittent problem.

The fan won't come on until the lower part of the stove has warmed up. If it is intermittent, with the power unplugged, I would pull the fan off and check the wiring to make sure the connectors on the snap switch and on the fan power switch are firmly in place.

 

[maverick06]

if you bypass the thermostat it does run the fan anytime the switch is on. I wake up to a cold stove with the fan running. It is wasting the 70 watts the fan uses, but only for a little while. Better option for me, stove took way too long to have my fan turn on (literally an hour and half - 2 hrs, probably was a bad thermostat).