Hello everyone,
Our circa 2008 (bought by previous home owner) Accentra insert worked fine until last week when I discovered a blown fuse was the cause of why it randomly (and instantly) shut off. I ordered the specific fuse online (for those who don't know, the replacement is a 120V/250V fast acting 6A glass fuse that measures 6mm x 30mm; the more common 20mm size will be too short). While waiting for the fuses to arrive, I took the time to thoroughly clean out the insert- including taking out the medallion and side plates and cleaning out the ports/vents in each corner. I discovered the left plate was rusted shut and found, once I pried it off, wet gunk and a lot of rust packed around the port/vent. It looks like this side of the insert was not properly venting for a long time.
Once I put everything back together and replaced the blown fuse, I turned it on and discovered a problem. The power light will come on and when I turn up the temperature, the activity light and combustion motor light turn on. However, the actual combustion blower/fan does not power on. The insert remains silent and the feed motor never powers on (nor does the light turn on). Oddly enough, when I put the feed rate
controller in the test mode to force the feed auger to turn on, it does not actually turn on, but the combustion blower/fan does finally turn on. FYI, I was not using a surge protector and the norm is for me to turn off the insert abruptly by disconnecting it from the outlet via a remote control. I know, probably bad practice.
My hypothesis are the following:
1) A surge caused the fuse to blow, but somehow not fast enough causing damage to the controller PCB. Visually, I see no signs of shorting or overheating.
2) In order for me to get to the fuse, I had to disconnect the controller board from its various connections and wiring bundle. I noticed the two blue wires with spade connectors had very little slack. The wire bundle was also tight. Perhaps me tugging at it caused a wiring issue?
3) Maybe the severely blocked and strangely wet port/vent caused a sensor to go bad or a motor to burn out?
I would love to get this running sooner than later, but I'm not sure how to troubleshoot it. What could have caused this issue? If anyone has an ideas what I should do or check out next, please share. Thank you!
- Łukasz
Our circa 2008 (bought by previous home owner) Accentra insert worked fine until last week when I discovered a blown fuse was the cause of why it randomly (and instantly) shut off. I ordered the specific fuse online (for those who don't know, the replacement is a 120V/250V fast acting 6A glass fuse that measures 6mm x 30mm; the more common 20mm size will be too short). While waiting for the fuses to arrive, I took the time to thoroughly clean out the insert- including taking out the medallion and side plates and cleaning out the ports/vents in each corner. I discovered the left plate was rusted shut and found, once I pried it off, wet gunk and a lot of rust packed around the port/vent. It looks like this side of the insert was not properly venting for a long time.
Once I put everything back together and replaced the blown fuse, I turned it on and discovered a problem. The power light will come on and when I turn up the temperature, the activity light and combustion motor light turn on. However, the actual combustion blower/fan does not power on. The insert remains silent and the feed motor never powers on (nor does the light turn on). Oddly enough, when I put the feed rate
controller in the test mode to force the feed auger to turn on, it does not actually turn on, but the combustion blower/fan does finally turn on. FYI, I was not using a surge protector and the norm is for me to turn off the insert abruptly by disconnecting it from the outlet via a remote control. I know, probably bad practice.My hypothesis are the following:
1) A surge caused the fuse to blow, but somehow not fast enough causing damage to the controller PCB. Visually, I see no signs of shorting or overheating.
2) In order for me to get to the fuse, I had to disconnect the controller board from its various connections and wiring bundle. I noticed the two blue wires with spade connectors had very little slack. The wire bundle was also tight. Perhaps me tugging at it caused a wiring issue?
3) Maybe the severely blocked and strangely wet port/vent caused a sensor to go bad or a motor to burn out?
I would love to get this running sooner than later, but I'm not sure how to troubleshoot it. What could have caused this issue? If anyone has an ideas what I should do or check out next, please share. Thank you!
- Łukasz
About the only thing that IMO should be controlled with a remote are solid element items like lightbulbs and my cars block heater. Ugly power surge arc etc.
