PB105 5 Blink

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.

AndrewChurchill

Minister of Fire
Mar 31, 2008
686
Vermont
So yesterday morning I woke up to a 5 blink error which means the boiler didn't sense ignition after 40 minutes. I opened the hopper up and I expected to see a burn pot full of pellets, but instead it was full of ash.

So I cleaned the pot thoroughly and started the boiler up again but after 15 minutes the boiler hadn't started up. Typically it usually only takes about 4 minutes to light. So I went to the store and bought a new ignitor and installed it. It took about 10 minutes to light but that's not uncommon when the boiler is stone cold.

Right before I went to bed I noticed the house temp was low so I checked the boiler and again I was greeted with a 5 blink error and an empty burn pot. I was beginning to think the exhaust probe might be bad so I started the boiler up in manual mode and let it run. The boiler was still running this morning. If the exhaust probe was bad I would have expected to have been greeted with a 6 blink error which indicates incomplete combustion.

So now I'm a little confused. If anyone has any thoughts I'd be interested.

Thanks,
Andy
 
hmm...large pellets? maybe some material built up in fines box limiting the total amount of pellets in burnpot during ignition, preventing the min temp from being reached. if you have reduced the initial startup feed from the default it could be right on the cusp but just not quite to run temp.
 
Nope, nope, and nope.


Delta-T said:
hmm...large pellets? maybe some material built up in fines box limiting the total amount of pellets in burnpot during ignition, preventing the min temp from being reached. if you have reduced the initial startup feed from the default it could be right on the cusp but just not quite to run temp.
 
figured you'd say that......phantom? stove gremlins? Banking on gremlins.
 
Apparently the PB105 is a self healing boiler.....

I ran the boiler in manual mode for a few days because I didn't have time to tinker with it during the week. I put it back into auto mode this morning and it's been running fine every since.

Go figure!
 
I finally figured out what was causing the 5 blink error. The feed motor is getting jammed. Now to figure out why the feed motor is getting jammed.

I emptied the hopper and verified there was nothing causing a jam there.

Next I removed the cover to the auger and the slide plate and vacuumed out the fines and pulled the slide plate out and thoroughly cleaned that area out and reassembled the slide plate, put the cover back on and fired the boiler up.

It ran fine for a few hours and then the feed motor jammed again.

In order to clear the jam I have to spin the feed motor backwards a little bit and then rock the slide plate back and forth a few times. I fired up the boiler again and once it started I put in in the manual mode and it has been working ever since.

My suspicion is the feed motor is getting weak and when the boiler shuts down sometimes the pellets will fall into the slide plate area vertically so when the boiler starts up again the slide plate gets stuck instead of cutting the pellets.

Unfortunately, I don't think there's a way to test my theory without buying a $170 feed motor.

Any thoughts?
 
So I bought the new feed motor and low and behold no more jams! Hopefully I'll get at least 4 years out of this motor!
 
I had the 6 RPM motor and I replaced it with another 6 RPM motor.

katman said:
Did you have the 6RPM motor? Were you able to replace it with the 10?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.