St Croix Afton Bay help

[LuvMyPellets]

I have this in the unfinished basement so it did not even get started last year.. I cleaned it up pretty well and fired it up. All perfect. Fed pellets until it filled the basket and started right up. From that point it would not feed another pellet. Auger light comes on momentarily but does not feed. I tried several different heat levels and no feed. Turned it off. Unplugged it for awhile and restarted. Filled the hopper and started right up. No more pellets after that. I hit the manual feed and it does feed but it literally takes 5 mins holding it to get any decent amount. No blinking error codes etc. I am guessing its the board.. Any opinions?

 

[heat seeker]

Make sure that your auger motor isn't binding. Mine was, and while it would feed, it was running way too slow, and I got very little heat. The motor had two oil points that were not very accessible. I didn't see them until I took the motor out and replaced it with a ball bearing motor. A little oil, and now I have a spare auger motor.

I would mark the auger near the motor, and hold the feed button until the auger makes at least one complete turn. It should turn at 2 RPM, so one rotation should take 30 seconds. Time it.

See if the auger motor shaft turns very freely with your fingers (stove unplugged). Also, see if the auger itself is binding. It is possible that the upper bearing is seized from sitting idle so long.

 

[LuvMyPellets]

Make sure that your auger motor isn't binding. Mine was, and while it would feed, it was running way too slow, and I got very little heat. The motor had two oil points that were not very accessible. I didn't see them until I took the motor out and replaced it with a ball bearing motor. A little oil, and now I have a spare auger motor.

I would mark the auger near the motor, and hold the feed button until the auger makes at least one complete turn. It should turn at 2 RPM, so one rotation should take 30 seconds. Time it.

See if the auger motor shaft turns very freely with your fingers (stove unplugged). Also, see if the auger itself is binding. It is possible that the upper bearing is seized from sitting idle so long.

. Thanks I will check the feed rate!

 

[jzm2cc]

Good tips from heat seeker. When ever i work on an old St Croix i automatically remove the auger and lube the upper and lower bronze bushings.

If fire starts and no more pellets are fed it could be the proof of fire snap disk located on exhaust housing. This needs to trip to tell control board fire going ok, feed more pellets.

 

[heat seeker]

If the proof of fire switch isn't made within a certain time (I'm not sure, maybe 5 minutes) it will stop feeding and give a #3 blinking code.

 

[heat seeker]

Any news???

 

[LuvMyPellets]

I finally got time to check the things suggested. When the stove starts it puts a lot of pellets in the pot however when I got to thinking about it I don't believe it is as many as it did when things were working well. After it starts it simply does not feed enough pellets to keep it burning properly. I did notice right away the versa grate was stuck. That's freed up and working now. Holding the auger button down I am getting two revs per minute. I ran it on Level 3 and if my timing is correct I was getting 3 secs of auger time and 7 secs off repeatedly. Bumping it manually every couple minutes or so keeps a nice fire going. I have emptied the hopper and now letting it cool down. Just want to make sure nothing fell in the hopper and is restricting the pellets dropping. Did not see anything but when it cools off I can see better. How do I lubricate this upper bearing you folks were talking about?

 

[heat seeker]

You need to pull the auger out, clean up the bearing surface on the auger's end, and put some high-temp grease there.

 

[LuvMyPellets]

Pulled the auger and serviced. Figured I may as well replace the motor as I bought one several years ago and never used it.. Back to burning pretty good. Now waiting for the other shoe to drop. Room fan pulsates and does want to keep a steady rpm until it runs a few minutes on startup.. Always something. Thanks for the advice...

 

[heat seeker]

Glad you're running, thanks for the feedback!