St Croix Warranty

[kserr]

Can someone please answer me this question? My stove is still under warranty and were having a shut down problem so I contacted my dealer and he wouldn't even come up to my house unless I gave one hundred dollars for his service call and any additional time would be sixty five dollars an hour. Excuse me but I just assumed when something is under warranty that labor was included. When you buy a car or any other major appliance labor is usually covered for a certain amount of time. wouldn't the dealer be reimbursed by Even Temp?

 

[woodsman23]

Go to the web site and e-mail them about your issue. www.stcroix.com

 

[Estarrio]

I've found that they are very quick to return emails FWIW

 

[Xena]

I've found that they are very quick to return emails FWIW

I agree with this! There is also a rep. from St Croix
who monitors this forum but I'm not sure how often
he is able to check in.

 

[kserr]

St Croix dealer sent somone up after I gave him the 100 dollars and then an additional half an hour labor cost of 32 dollars. My stove would just go into a shut down mode for no reason and the #2 light would blink. Also the level buttons would jam you couldn't go up or down. Well this is what I got for my 132.00 dollars was there is nothing wrong with your stove, its your outside air kit bringing in too much wind causing the stove to go out. He suggesting putting a dryer flap on the vent to stop the gust of wind. Gee thats funny this didn't happen last year and I do believe we had wind gust here in New England last year. Again my stove is still under warranty but my dealer makes you sign this contract when you give him the one hundred dollars. Has anyone experienced this kind of service with their dealers?

 

[woodsman23]

St Croix dealer sent somone up after I gave him the 100 dollars and then an additional half an hour labor cost of 32 dollars. My stove would just go into a shut down mode for no reason and the #2 light would blink. Also the level buttons would jam you couldn't go up or down. Well this is what I got for my 132.00 dollars was there is nothing wrong with your stove, its your outside air kit bringing in too much wind causing the stove to go out. He suggesting putting a dryer flap on the vent to stop the gust of wind. Gee thats funny this didn't happen last year and I do believe we had wind gust here in New England last year. Again my stove is still under warranty but my dealer makes you sign this contract when you give him the one hundred dollars. Has anyone experienced this kind of service with their dealers?

Thats a new one to me. Did you get ahold of St Croix?? if not send them an e-mail over and over until someone responds. I know i would have never paid that dealer a dime if my stove is under warranty.

 

[hossthehermit]

Do you have a manual for your stove? Checked the troubleshooting section? A lot of dealers seem to have no idea of how to do anything with a pellet stove except sell them. Not all, but many. What model stove? Manual will tell you what #2 blink means, things to check.

 

[kserr]

yes we have the manual. Its a prescott exp. Nothing about the #2 light blinking made any sense because once you started the stove it would be fine, sometimes for a week then it would do it out of the clear blue. The repair man said it was the outside air-kit bringing in gusts from the wind and causing the stove to shut down. I had wind last year so I don't know if this is really the problem. I'm just ticked off at the dealer getting one hundred dollars to look at a stove in warranty. :snake:

 

[hossthehermit]

Just checked your manual, check your door gaskets, vacuum switch and tube, clean your stove, including the vent. Take two martinis and call me in the morning.

 

[ChandlerR]

Wait a minute.....He wants you to install a dryer vent with a flap????? Correct me if I'm wrong, but the combustion fan draws the air IN so the flap would seal the vent preventing ANY air from getting in. Unbelievable!

Chan

 

[jtakeman]

Take two martinis and call me in the morning.

Best advice I have heard all day!

Wait a minute.....He wants you to install a dryer vent with a flap????? Correct me if I'm wrong, but the combustion fan draws the air IN so the flap would seal the vent preventing ANY air from getting in. Unbelievable!

Chan

Good catch Chan, I don't think the stove would even start once the fan suck the flap shut and maybe even wreck the vacuum switch. I wouldn't let this guy change a hub cap on my old pickup let alone work on my stove. I suggest you find another dealer.

Or post some more info so one of the members can assist if you are mechanically inclined. Here we pretty much all work on our own stoves as much as possible.

How long have you owned the stove and How much fuel have you burned so far?

jay

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

yes we have the manual. Its a prescott exp. Nothing about the #2 light blinking made any sense because once you started the stove it would be fine, sometimes for a week then it would do it out of the clear blue. The repair man said it was the outside air-kit bringing in gusts from the wind and causing the stove to shut down. I had wind last year so I don't know if this is really the problem. I'm just ticked off at the dealer getting one hundred dollars to look at a stove in warranty. :snake:

I could see a wind gust causing loss of vacuum if it was strong enough and came in your vent but not in the air intake, now if you had an extremely high wind gust going across the face of the air intake then it would be possible (but I sure as h e double toothpick wouldn't want to be standing in that gust).

But to suggest putting a flapper on the intake is off the wall, maybe he meant a guard.

I'll bet that blinking #2 is the all catching error that means something stopped the pellets from making it to the burn pot.

You know loss of vacuum, auger failure, out of pellets, hi temperature snap disc, hooper lid open, etc ... etc ...

 

[kserr]

O.k. now I have to do some damage control on what I said. Just talked to my husband about useing the dryer flap and he said no not a flap just a shield to block the wind. Something like a dryer vent shield. You know how you men are you don't tell us the whole story until we start really digging. Also he neglected on telling me that one of the vacuum hoses did have some fly ash in it. It wasn't clogged though. My husband did say that the repair man did offer some helpful tips, I'm just ticked that the dealer got one hundred and thirty dollars from me. Oh by the way we burnt 4 tons of pellets last year. We used Lignetics, this year we probably went through 2 tons of cornith and Pennigton we mix them and vac them. My husband cleaned the vent system and took the fans out and did everything to spec. We shut the stove down every nite and clean and vac the stove. I say we because I do it also, and don't say o.k thats your problem ,lol . Thanks for all the input I love this forum. :lol:

 

[woodsman23]

3. The Vacuum Switch - For the stove to
operate, the Firebox needs to be sealed.
During the first 30 seconds after the stove has
been turned on the Control Board will check
if the switch senses negative pressure
(Vacuum) in the Firebox of the stove. If there
is no negative pressure, the stove will shut
down and the #2 LED will start blinking.

 

[kserr]

I don't buy the wind gust theory either, because like I said before we had no issues last year. I guess all I can do is cross my fingers because I'm not calling that dealer again so he can get another 100 dollars from me, I'm 5 minutes up the road. My stove is still in warranty grrrrrrrr I love the stove don't get me wrong heats my whole house usually 78 degrees every nite :coolsmirk: Thanks guys your the best

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

A wind gust of sufficient strength directly into your vent can in fact cause a loss of vacuum.

 

[magsf11]

I have the same stove and mine was shuting donw also. traced the problem to the exhaust blower, was working. I am still wating from the place that i baught it from to call about a replacement motor. its been 2 weeks now, but after a day with on call from them i found a dealer 35 miles away. he said that their has been broblems with the exhaust motors and has repalced, as he calls many. my stove is only 3 years old. just seems like some dealers dont want nothing to do with you after you leave and/or they just want big $ to just walk in the door. they wanted 130 to walk in my door. good luck.

 

[kserr]

Just wondering if the dealer charged you to diagnose the problem or did u just tell them thats what it was? My stove is only on its 2nd season. Did your heat level button ever stick at one level and you couldn't move it up or down? Mine does that also every now and then. How often did your stove shut down?

 

[ChandlerR]

A wind gust of sufficient strength directly into your vent can in fact cause a loss of vacuum.

Smokey, I think on mine (and maybe others) there is a delay of 10 seconds before the auger shuts off and the stove goes into shut down.

Chan

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

A wind gust of sufficient strength directly into your vent can in fact cause a loss of vacuum.

Smokey, I think on mine (and maybe others) there is a delay of 10 seconds before the auger shuts off and the stove goes into shut down.

Chan

Likely there is a delay, however I've seen sustained gusts that last longer than 10 seconds, there were a number of folks out in the midwest earlier this winter that were having issues with wind induced vacuum loss. So it does happen, further if there is already a compromised air flow for whatever reason it takes even less wind to do it.

This is also the reason why you never vent into the prevailing wind at the installation site.

Not saying this was the cause, just that it does happen.

 

[krooser]

I think your stove is plugged with ash... have you cleaned out the ash traps? Remove the ash trap flaps and use a small hammer to dislodge the ash from behind the burn chamber... use a bottle brush or coathangar to loosen it up. Better yet use a leafblaoer to suck out all the ash after given the stove a through cleaning... a clean stove is a happy stove.

 

[Lousyweather]

what krooser said......also, has anyone investigated the fact that MAYBE your pellets are bridging in the hopper? Which pellets are you using, and where were they manufactured? (if its New England Pellets, from Schuyler, NY, might be an issue of "long pellets"

 

[kserr]

Hi
We are using corninth and Penningtons we usually mix them and vaccum them before we use them. The stove has shut down twice again since the repair man came and told us it was the wind gusts from our fresh air intake and to put a shield on it which my husband did. Well that wasn't the problem but I knew that. I don't think are vent system is clogged because we just checked it. We are vented up through our roof about 16 feet of stove pipe. We also went with a 4" pipe because of our evl being 16feet. When the repair man came up he tested our vaccum pressure and said it was low and cleaned out one the hoses and rechecked the pressure and it was back to normal. So I guess it couldn't of been the vaccum hose either. The flame is lively and not sooty our glass just gets the brown haze so I know its burning properly. When it shuts down you can hear the combustion fan shut right off so I'm wondering if their is a fault with that? Someone posted earlier that St. Croix was having problems with the combustion fan. I really don't know what you mean by bridging in the hopper? All I can figure is you mean that the long pellets are causing the auger to stop there for causing the stove to shut down. Anymore advice would be great I'm still waiting to hear from St. Croix. >:-(

 

[kserr]

Hi
We are using corninth and Penningtons we usually mix them and vacuum them before we use them. The stove has shut down twice again since the repair man came and told us it was the wind gusts from our fresh air intake and to put a shield on it which my husband did. Well that wasn't the problem but I knew that. I don't think are vent system is clogged because we just checked it. We are vented up through our roof about 16 feet of stove pipe. We also went with a 4" pipe because of our evl being 16feet. When the repair man came up he tested our vacuum pressure and said it was low and cleaned out one the hoses and rechecked the pressure and it was back to normal. So I guess it couldn't of been the vacuum hose either. The flame is lively and not sooty our glass just gets the brown haze so I know its burning properly. When it shuts down you can hear the combustion fan shut right off so I'm wondering if their is a fault with that? Someone posted earlier that St. Croix was having problems with the combustion fan. I really don't know what you mean by bridging in the hopper? All I can figure is you mean that the long pellets are causing the auger to stop there for causing the stove to shut down. Anymore advice would be great I'm still waiting to hear from St. Croix. >:-(

 

[Xena]

I have the same stove and agree with Krooser. Check/clean the ash traps.
The best way I have found is to remove the refractory panels inside the stove,
then take a hammer and tap the back wall of the stove above each ash trap
and continue tapping until no more ash falls down then vacuum it all up.
A bottle brush will get the light stuff but it's far simpler to use the hammer
to break loose anything stuck up in there and just vac it out.
Every other cleanout I go one step further and I duct tape a small, flexible
piece of garden hose to the end of my shop vac and snake it into the ash trap ports.