FPX Elite 33 - fan taking a long time to start

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We've been enjoying our Travis Industries Fireplace Extraordinair Elite 33 fireplace insert for several years now and it has been perfect for us. There are a few things going on with it now that I feel it could use some maintenance from me.

The primary concern I have is that the past three days the fan has taken overly long to come on. In the past it would come on within 30 minutes at the most, often it would be less, closer to 20 minutes. The past three days it has taken over an hour for the fan to come on. I know the stove is getting hot because the tinkling of the metal stopped about 30 minutes before the fan kicks in.

Is this a user servicable item that maybe got knocked out of place, or a brick shifted or something? I checked all the bricks and they are intact. I am pretty sure the sensor is somewhere in the right front corner of the stove. Thoughts on what might have changed to create this behaviour? I do have a build up of ash to 2" in the bottom, but this is nothing more than usual at the end of my cycle for cleaning.

Once I get this solved, I'll work on my other issue - sticking bypass lever and air control. But I have to figure out this fan issue now. Thx!

 

[DAKSY]

We've been enjoying our Travis Industries Fireplace Extraordinair Elite 33 fireplace insert for several years now and it has been perfect for us. There are a few things going on with it now that I feel it could use some maintenance from me.

The primary concern I have is that the past three days the fan has taken overly long to come on. In the past it would come on within 30 minutes at the most, often it would be less, closer to 20 minutes. The past three days it has taken over an hour for the fan to come on. I know the stove is getting hot because the tinkling of the metal stopped about 30 minutes before the fan kicks in.

Is this a user servicable item that maybe got knocked out of place, or a brick shifted or something? I checked all the bricks and they are intact. I am pretty sure the sensor is somewhere in the right front corner of the stove. Thoughts on what might have changed to create this behaviour? I do have a build up of ash to 2" in the bottom, but this is nothing more than usual at the end of my cycle for cleaning.

Once I get this solved, I'll work on my other issue - sticking bypass lever and air control. But I have to figure out this fan issue now. Thx!

The actuator for your blower should be a snap disk that's held against the stove body. It may be in a bracket the's screwed on or it may me held magnetically. You'll have to trace the wiring from the rheostat or rocker switch to the snap disk in order to locate it. It may be that the bracket has distorted over time & the actuator surface may not be making solid contact with the stove body. You should be able to bend the bracket to once again make good contact...

 

[Brewmonster]

...or just bypass the snap disk and control the fan manually.

 

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So to post an update, had an inkling that perhaps my ash level was too high. Actually it was a full bucket too high, about 3 inches in the bottom. So I took it down to the recommended 1 inch, and lo and behold the fan started right up exactly at 15 minutes. So it is user error for sure. Thanks for the assistance!