I am on my second year with my winslow ps 40 stove. It has been a great stove up until about a week ago. I do regular cleaning since it is the only heat source for my house. I noticed my pellet consumption was decreasing and finally my heat was also decreasing. The stove used to burn about 40 pounds in 8 hours of use on high setting, now it is burning about 20 pounds in 8 hours on high setting. I have done a very thorough deep clean of the entire stove and still no change. The stove has 5 different settings and with the setting on 5 everything acts as if the setting is on 3. The blowers seem to be working perfectly, the flame looks proper, it just doesnt seem to be getting the amount of pellets it requires to operate on a high setting. Is it possible the auger needs adjusted? My understanding is this can be done with an diagnostic tool that is plugged into the circuit board. Any info is greatly needed. If I can avoid a service call that would be great.
lennox ps 40 weak flame
- Thread starter hi-liner
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heat seeker
Minister of Fire
A similar thing happened to my stove. It turned out the auger motor needed oiling. It was dragging and running slow, so feeding fewer pellets. The oil holes were inaccessible and in an unusable position. I didn't find them until I took the motor out of the stove.
I found out by timing the auger rotation speed, and found it was running slow, not up the the 2 RPM is was supposed to.
I found out by timing the auger rotation speed, and found it was running slow, not up the the 2 RPM is was supposed to.
Are you suggesting to remove and repack the grease inside the gear box? Or lube the electric motor?
heat seeker
Minister of Fire
My problem was with the motor bearings/bushing themselves. The motor itself produces negligible torque, so gummy bushings can easily slow it down. I can stop my motor with my fingertips on the shaft. All that gear reduction gives the torque necessary to run the auger.
While it would be a good idea to repack the gear housing, I doubt that's your problem. You could use 20 weight non-detergent oil, or 3-in-1 in the blue can.
To directly answer your question: I would oil the motor bushings themselves. If you have bearings, you could try oil, but getting some grease into them would be much better. There are threads on here about how to do that.
While it would be a good idea to repack the gear housing, I doubt that's your problem. You could use 20 weight non-detergent oil, or 3-in-1 in the blue can.
To directly answer your question: I would oil the motor bushings themselves. If you have bearings, you could try oil, but getting some grease into them would be much better. There are threads on here about how to do that.
Since everything was under warranty I took my stove to the nearest dealer, 200 miles later I have a new auger motor and gearbox assembly. The stove is working great again. He also reset the altitude and bumped up the auger speed. I have a total of 8 tons of pellets through the old auger. I hope this isnt a repeat issue.
I asked the dealer what I could do in the future to avoid this problem from repeating and he explained to me it is mechanical and a wearable item. They will break and no maintenance wouldve prevented this failure.
Bioburner
Moderator
I know of gear motor assemblies that are decades old, sometimes one can get one that was compromised from the get go. Usually something jammed and messes them up.
In motors and drives, nothing has changed for decades, if anything, they have gotten better, not worse.
Your dealer is partially FOS. Partially, not fully. He just wants to sell you replacement parts when, in fact, if you make a half hearted attempt at maintaining the drives by lubricating them and keeping them clean, you'll be rewarded with longevity. Everything eventually wears out but why aggrivate and shorten the useful life by ignoring them. What will happen is, they will let you down when you are depending on them.........for heat.
And you still havent told me where I am to squirt the lube. Do I lube the little brass bushing at the bottom of electric motor? Do I disassemble the gear box and repack with somesort of grease? Be specific you have done no more than beat around the bush. Dont hold out on us we are all awaiting your godly knowledge.
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