I could use a little help from anyone familiar with this model stove.
First off, last year in March I was watching a stock car race by the stove when the flame started to fail. Upon closer inspection I noted that the auger wasn't turning and in fact had melted halfway back into its shaft. "Foresookth" sayeth I or words to that effect and I yanked the plug. Since it was late in the season and I needed to spend all my hours in the garage to finish restoring the Trans Am I went back to fossil fuel with plans to fix the stove this summer. Shamefully late in the game I am getting to it.
What I did determine over the summer is the lower auger motor is bad. Foresookth, sayeth, I or word to that effect. Knowing that mechanical stuff doesn't fix itself, I'm an old car guy, I ordered up the auger motor, the retaining collar, the bearing, the bearing gasket and the lower auger. When in doubt with a mechanical device throw money at it.
The Englander site has some pretty good articles on repairing these things (considering they fail in less than two years perhaps that is wise) so I print out the article, grab a hold of the toolbox and prepare to join battle.
Step number one: Loosen the set screw that that holds the auger and auger motor. Yeah, OK, 5/16th ratchet in hand I attempt to do so. One minor problem. There's no set screw where the color picture says it should be. I am an old car guy. I am used to the manual being wrong and having to search around. After scratching my puzzler until my puzzler was sore I still couldn't find the dang set screw. Introducing a five cell maglight and a Coors Light to the problem yielded no better results. So, I decide, there's teh issue, the set screw fell out and thus the auger won't turn. But to confirm my theory I turn to the upper motor to find it's set screw. There's none there either. And that auger works fine. (Englander uses common motors and augers top and bottom.)
Well obviously I can't get to step two without completing step one. So does anyone know where the @##$)$@# set screw is actually mounted on this dang thing? The motor is rectangular and I will call the left top corner, A, the right top B, the left bottom C and the right bottom D. (Looking at the stove from behind)
Secondly, am I to expect to have to throw two hundred bucks worth of parts at this cursed thing every two seasons or was this a freak meltdown? I burn wood pellets to offset the environmental footprint of my driving old cars with huge engines and motorcycles in various startes of tune, but if owning a pelllet stove means spending more time wrenching on it than the cars I'll just club baby seals and burn the fat in lanterns for heat.
First off, last year in March I was watching a stock car race by the stove when the flame started to fail. Upon closer inspection I noted that the auger wasn't turning and in fact had melted halfway back into its shaft. "Foresookth" sayeth I or words to that effect and I yanked the plug. Since it was late in the season and I needed to spend all my hours in the garage to finish restoring the Trans Am I went back to fossil fuel with plans to fix the stove this summer. Shamefully late in the game I am getting to it.
What I did determine over the summer is the lower auger motor is bad. Foresookth, sayeth, I or word to that effect. Knowing that mechanical stuff doesn't fix itself, I'm an old car guy, I ordered up the auger motor, the retaining collar, the bearing, the bearing gasket and the lower auger. When in doubt with a mechanical device throw money at it.
The Englander site has some pretty good articles on repairing these things (considering they fail in less than two years perhaps that is wise) so I print out the article, grab a hold of the toolbox and prepare to join battle.
Step number one: Loosen the set screw that that holds the auger and auger motor. Yeah, OK, 5/16th ratchet in hand I attempt to do so. One minor problem. There's no set screw where the color picture says it should be. I am an old car guy. I am used to the manual being wrong and having to search around. After scratching my puzzler until my puzzler was sore I still couldn't find the dang set screw. Introducing a five cell maglight and a Coors Light to the problem yielded no better results. So, I decide, there's teh issue, the set screw fell out and thus the auger won't turn. But to confirm my theory I turn to the upper motor to find it's set screw. There's none there either. And that auger works fine. (Englander uses common motors and augers top and bottom.)
Well obviously I can't get to step two without completing step one. So does anyone know where the @##$)$@# set screw is actually mounted on this dang thing? The motor is rectangular and I will call the left top corner, A, the right top B, the left bottom C and the right bottom D. (Looking at the stove from behind)
Secondly, am I to expect to have to throw two hundred bucks worth of parts at this cursed thing every two seasons or was this a freak meltdown? I burn wood pellets to offset the environmental footprint of my driving old cars with huge engines and motorcycles in various startes of tune, but if owning a pelllet stove means spending more time wrenching on it than the cars I'll just club baby seals and burn the fat in lanterns for heat.
