Sticky Convection Blower?

[clindert]

Newbie here to posting on the forum, but have lurked on this board for a long, long time. Lot's of great info regarding the care and feeding of our pellet stoves, so thanks in advance for any help/info/advice you can provide me. I have my Breckwell P24i, late 2003 model, down for cleaning and repair (lost the augur motor) and in pulling out the convection blower for cleaning I noticed that the cage fan take a lot of effort to turn. There is no heavy buildup of dust or gunk in the blades, the fan spins smoothly with no mechanical noise, and the motor has no external ports for oiling the shaft bearings. Should the fan spin freely with little to no resistence (which I'm guessing that it should)? If the resistence should be minimal, is it possible to dis-assemble the fan/motor for cleaning the shaft/bearings, or is it too far gone now and should be replaced?

 

[imacman]

The fan should spin very freely with just a flick of the finger. Sounds to me like gummed up/dust filled bearings. I wouldn't disassemble it unless you're mechanically inclined, but if you decide to tackle it, then you could clean the bearings out with WD-40 or something like carburetor cleaner, wipe/blow dry, lube w/ light 20w oil, and put it back together.

All that said, make sure you can get a new blower fairly quickly if the above fails to improve the motor.....6-7 years is a decent amount of life for the old one.

 

[clindert]

Macman

Many thanks for the advice and suggestions. I got to thinking that the fan/motor should spin freely as well. Soaked the the motor-end shaft last night in oil and let penetrate. Removed the fan and did the same for the fan-end of the shaft. This morning the fan shaft is spinning freely as you described. I'll repeat the process tonight just to be sure. Looks like I may be able to get another season or two out it after all.

Cheers - Charlie

 

[imacman]

.....Looks like I may be able to get another season or two out it after all.

Cheers - Charlie

Glad it seemed to help. Good luck!