need help for my avalon!

[dhungy]

ok... at the end of march we had a heat wave in upstate ny. I stopped running my astoria (my only source of heat) for about two weeks. A couple weekends ago it got pretty cold so we started it up. We noticed that the combustion air (draft) was pulsing on high and low. A vibrating noise could be heard as it seemed the air flow decreased and the flame would get lazy, then the noise would stop and the air flow would return to normal. I was concerned about this as it continued so I turned it off. I asked my stove shop and they suggested a thorough cleaning of the exhaust motor and pipe. I did that and the stove ran this past week with no problems. Last night I didn't need to use it so kept the stove off all night and all day. Tonight I started it up and it started acting the same way again. I believe it is a combustion air problem. I do not have a OAK hooked up. Does anyone have any idea what the problem is? With the high temp only supposed to be around 49 tomorrow I am not sure if the stove repair guy will get out here. Being my only heat source if I can't get it fixed will it harm anything to run it like this?

thanks for the help!

 

[lmjr]

Add a couple drops of 20wt oil or turbin oil to motor.

Sounds like you have a little drag on it.

 

[dhungy]

I am not even sure where the motor is that pulls the air into the burn pot they make no mention of it in the manual

 

[lmjr]

Actually it's the exhaust/draft motor that pulls the air into the burn pot.

You said you cleaned it as dealer suggested.

Did you pull motor/fan out from the exhaust housing?

If you did you would find a accumulation built up on blades and trapped flyash in there maybe...leaf blower may have got flyash.

And when you did leaf blower, did you perhaps damage your pressure/ vacuum switch from excessive pressure?

You can gently blow or suck on tube and hear a click.

 

[dhungy]

ok I will try to call the stove shop in the morning hopefully they can come look at it.

 

[dhungy]

i did remove the fan and clean. I did not use a leaf blower

 

[lmjr]

I'd pull motor again and spin blades by hand...see if oil improves it.

After put back together and it acts up...put Volt meter across leads to see if voltage is steady or pulses.

 

[smwilliamson]

It shouldn't harm the stove at all to run it this way, if you can bear the noise. When performing a cleaning, such as the motor, take the time required to clean the entire exhaust system. Fans make vibrating noises when the impeller is out of balance. This can happen when cleaning it. If you run the stove on high for a few minutes the heat and centrifugal force of the motor should help balance it back out. Also check to see if a screw around the gaskets may have turned loose. One last thing to look for, that motor will have a metal casing around the coils. It has a bearing or brass sleeve on the back to stabilize the post and is held to the cast motor body via crimping. If you can hold the casing and the noise stops, hammer the crimping points tighter onto the motor body.

 

[dhungy]

THE VERDICT

The stove guy came out and took a look. He said that I have to clean the convection fan out. He said that it is using more current than normal to function this is causing a fluctuation in the current running to the exhaust fan. It makes sense to me. I am going to let it run till it gets to a warmer day, then tear it apart and clean it up.

 

[lmjr]

A 5-10 minute convection fan outage would allow a *Quick* cleaning w/ much improvement.

Then, later do the more thorough cleaning, as you say, when you have longer time to do.

You can put it off till later, but not good to put a strain on the whole electrical system of the stove in the mean time.

 

[dhungy]

even a quick clean means having the stove off for a significant time period considering it will require unbolting the motor and so on. As I have not done this before I will be taking my time and being very careful.

 

[imacman]

even a quick clean means having the stove off for a significant time period considering it will require unbolting the motor and so on. As I have not done this before I will be taking my time and being very careful.

Removing, cleaning, & re-installing the convection blower shouldn't take more than 1 hour, tops. Don't forget to look for 2 small plastic (yellow?) plugs on the motor housing that can be removed for oiling. New stoves may or may not still have them. 3 in 1 oil will do in a pinch.....no more than 2-3 drops in each hole.

 

[lmjr]

A 5-10 minute convection fan outage would allow a *Quick* cleaning w/ much improvement.

Then, later do the more thorough cleaning, as you say, when you have longer time to do.

You can put it off till later, but not good to put a strain on the whole electrical system of the stove in the mean time.

To be a little clearer,

I was suggesting, not to remove, but to do a quick bottle brushing w/ some vacuuming

to clear lint on screen or from inside squirrel cage fan impeller till more time allows better cleaning.

Your screen or impeller is probably loaded up w/ lint/dust.

 

[dhungy]

Update... after cleaning my convection fan I had no problems for a week or so. This week I have not had to use the stove at all (quite Balmy here in the Finger Lakes). This morning it was quite chilly in the house so I fired the stove up. It began to do the same thing as it did before I took a video this time http://s736.photobucket.com/albums/xx9/dhungy/?action=view&current=DSCN0994.flv

 

[imacman]

Having had the exact same stove, I NEVER had any issue with the convection fan affecting the combustion blower. I'm surprised that the dealer claimed that a "dirty" convection fan was the cause, especially with the short amount of time you've had yours.

From watching your video, I have a couple of questions:

Did you ever remove the combustion blower (left side of stove connected to exhaust pipe), and clean it and the air box it mounts in? See picture in post # 7 above)

How is your exhaust set up outside? Is it facing the prevailing winds (north, northwest, or west side of house)?

Is it possible that the wind is blowing down the exhaust pipe, causing the pulsating in the flame?

 

[dhungy]

The scenario I described in post #8 seemed plausible to everyone I spoke to.

I did remove the combustion and clean as directed.

The exhaust faces downward towards the ground if I remember correctly the wind was calm this morning.

If wind is the culprit how do you explain the loud vibrating noise that corresponds?

 

[imacman]

.....If wind is the culprit how do you explain the loud vibrating noise that corresponds?

I can't....I'm just trying to throw different ideas out there.

Good luck. Let us know how it runs after you do the complete cleaning. I'll be curious to know what it was.

 

[dhungy]

Started the stove up tonight. Same problem vibration seemed louder tonight. No wind.. havent heard back from my stove guy... pretty irritated I purchased a more expensive stove from a local dealer hoping to avoid problems like this.

 

[dhungy]

Tried it this morning, seemed fine for the first 10 minutes than began the vibrating noise... someone has to have an idea what this could be.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

smwilliamson had a couple of good suggestions did you check them out?

Also if you took care of that convection blower does it allow oiling, did you oil it, and if you did what did you use?

It is possible that it needs to be oiled and that if you did oil it you only got enough oil into the bearings to last a little while. It is possible that the bearing were run dry, the recommended procedure in that case is to oil each bearing and hand turn the blower until it is running free, once it is free add two more drops to each bearing. This may or may not recover the blower as it is possible that the bearings are now shot.

 

[jtakeman]

IMHO I would say if the clean and lube did not fix the issue, It's time to swap out the blower. Vibration may be from a bad bearing/sleeve bushing or blower is out of balance. Stove is under warr, So should be covered and replaced by local dealer.

Keep us posted!

 

[dhungy]

There dosent seem to be a problem with the convection blower Its the combustion/exhaust fan.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

There dosent seem to be a problem with the convection blower Its the combustion/exhaust fan.

So did you check what smwilliamson suggested to check?

 

[dhungy]

How do I get the exhaust fan to run on high?

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

How do I get the exhaust fan to run on high?

There are two ways to do it.

1. Turn the stove to its maximum firing rate.
2. Assemble a patch cord so you can plug the exhaust blower directly into your 120 volt house outlets after disconnecting the blower from the control panel (if you have never done this kind of thing before don't try it now as you could be exposed to 120 volts of good ole knock you on your hind quarters or far worse kill you electricity, and for anyone else looking at this make certain your blower can run on 120 volt 60 Hz AC, not all blowers are 120 Volt AC).