US Stoves Forester

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rodbo1967

Member
Mar 5, 2012
45
New Jersey
Good morning all,

New to this forum and have a few questions. Last winter I picked up a US Stoves Forester which for all intended purposes it worked just fine until recently. I have dealt with the company a number of times. Most of the time they are responsive and able to resolve issues. Now however, the stove is acting up yet again. It ran for weeks just fine. Thursday last week it ran all day, when I got home it was shut off and the hopper was near full. I cleaned out the burnpot and the exhaust and refired the stove. It came on (IE: fire) after about 30 minutes or so it stopped working. The auger was not dropping pellets. Easy enough fix, so I pulled the auger and nothing was clogging the system. So I reinstalled the auger and it fired right up. It ran for 2-3 hours. I left the house and came back 2 hours later and the stove was off again. This all happened Saturday night. Sunday morning I removed the auger again and the stove ran fine for hours (3-4). I left came home 3 hours later and the stove was off again.

This morning, Monday, the stove would not ignite fully. I can reach in and feel the auger via the set screw turn in increments. Turn, stop, turn. However the pellets are not dropping enough to create a large enough fire. Now the system goes into full operation maybe 20 minutes into operation. IE: the circulation fan runs, but of course is only blowing cold air since no adequete fire is present.

Any suggestions? FYI, the main board, power panel, temp sensors and a pressure switch have all been replaced.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Running propane at $4.10 a gallon is killing me.

Clear skies,
Rodney
 
I do that.

pen
 
First welcome to the correct side of hearth.com (this should rile up pen) ;-).

When you put the auger back you hopefully got all of the set screws tight.

Since the auger appears to turn at least part of the time lets see what shape the vacuum hose is in. Disconnect the hose from the vacuum switch and blow into the hose you shouldn't have any real resistance. If there is resistance remove the hose at the stove end and run a paper clip into the hole in the barb at the stove end. Look over the hose for any cracks or restrictions, if there are replace the hose. Make sure the hose itself is clean, if clean then reattach both ends and fire up the stove.

It is also possible that the seal between the door and the stove loosens over time this should be checked by doing the dollar bill gasket test. There have also been reports of the door actually changing shape due to heat.
 
rodbo1967 said:
.....It ran for weeks just fine. Thursday last week it ran all day, when I got home it was shut off and the hopper was near full. I cleaned out the burnpot and the exhaust and refired the stove. It came on (IE: fire) after about 30 minutes or so it stopped working. The auger was not dropping pellets.......

Can you tell us a couple of things: How many bags/tons of pellets have been through the stove since new, and when was the last time that the stove was pulled apart and completely cleaned internally? And by that I mean combustion blower removed, cleaned, re-installed with new gasket; ash traps were opened and all ash was cleaned out from behind the firebox; exhaust pipes were completely cleaned, etc, etc, etc.

If the air flow through the stove is "choked" due to excessive ash/non cleaning, there is a vacuum switch that will not close....when that happens, it shuts the auger off.

You might also want to describe to us what your exhaust system is made up of......how many and what angle of bends, lengths and direction of pipes, etc.

In short, it may just need a real good DEEP cleaning. Also, do a search on this forum for "leaf blower trick".
 
Fire god,

Maybe 2 tons total have been through the stove to date. This past weekend everything was completely cleaned. The exhaust comprises of the tee out the back, a straight shot up about 9 feet, a 45 degree elbow, a 45 degree elbow and straight up 2-3 more feet out the roof. The exhaust has been thoroughly cleaned less than two weeks ago. Not much came out.

NOTE: Just got home, tried a few tricks and tips from US Stoves. Now the auger will only turn ever so slightly backwards and then slightly forward. No pellets are dropping since the auger no longer turns.

Thanks,
Rodney
 
rodbo1967 said:
Fire god, Maybe 2 tons total have been through the stove to date. This past weekend everything was completely cleaned. The exhaust comprises of the tee out the back, a straight shot up about 9 feet, a 45 degree elbow, a 45 degree elbow and straight up 2-3 more feet out the roof. The exhaust has been thoroughly cleaned less than two weeks ago. Not much came out.

NOTE: Just got home, tried a few tricks and tips from US Stoves. Now the auger will only turn ever so slightly backwards and then slightly forward. No pellets are dropping since the auger no longer turns......

Given what you supplied for the exhaust, the EVL is marginal for 3" pipe....is the pipe 3" or 4"?

As for the auger "rocking" back & forth, there have been posts on the forum of augers that will try to reverse themselves to clear a pellet jam. But you say that you removed the auger and everything was clean/unblocked.

Have you tried to power the auger by a power "test" cord? Many of us have them out of an old lamp cord. Might be something to try to make sure the auger motor isn't the problem. This is mine:
 

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I have the unit apart, again. When the hopper was full and after I removed the auger motor (which works perfectly) I attempted to turn the auger and it would turn 3/4 of the way. So out came the pellets again from the hopper. Now with the auger in hand, I can put it back in and without the backing plate it spins freely of course. Once I reinstall the mounting plate it tightens up to the point you can not budge it. Is there a torque specs on these mounting bolts?

Thanks,
Rodney
 
That does not sound right.....I have never heard of any pellet stove part that needed to be installed with a torque wrench.

Have you looked up inside the auger flight w/ a flashlight and made sure that there is not something stopping the auger from going in further? Like a wad of pellets, a piece of pellet bag, etc? The auger (without the auger motor attached, and the hopper empty) should spin freely, AFAIK.
 
Is it mounting in the auger shaft straight? Might be binding on the sidewall??
 
It is binding somewhere. It is groaning every 30-60 seconds. More like a growl. It is running for the time being. US Stoves has a new auger heading to me.

I will update everyone in the morning as to the outcome.

Thanks, Rodney
 
If it is a 1 RPM motor, then it grinding every minute makes perfect sense. Can you time it on a watch? That will tell you for sure.

Also look inside the auger shaft the next time you remove it. You may be able to see where its rubbing?? I would call US Stove and see if they have a procedure for aligning the auger inside the shaft. Englander has insructions on there website on how to do so....
 
Morning update. The stove ran all night. Matter of fact it is on right now. So 12 plus hours of operation is a good thing. The groaning noise has gone away and now the distribution fan is making a squeaking noise. If I stomp on the floor the noise goes away for a few seconds. I could not detect any objects within the assembly that would cause this noise.

I plan to leave it on all day today and see what happens next.

Thanks all,
Rodney
 
UPDATE: right after my last post the stove fire went out. The stove kept running for 20 minutes or so. I emptied the burnpot since it was full of pellets and refired the stove. It came right back on and was on when I left. I get home a little after 8pm EST and will update the results.

Thanks again everyone for your insights.

Rodney
 
OK, latest update. It would appear that US Stoves is banging their collective heads against the wall and will be shipping me a replacement stove in the next week or so. That's great and all, but I am still without a working stove. This morning I noticed the auger (looking down into the hopper) would kick backwards 1/8 an inch or so and then kick the proper direction.

It was not dropping any pellets (at first). Once again I removed all the pellets, fired it up and it started with only the pellets in the burnpot. If I added pellets it would staying running. After 20 minutes of feeding the beast the auger appeared to begin turning properly.

I got the auger, as well as the high temp sensor and the (2) 125 temp thermodiscs. I will replace all that tonight and see what happens.

BTW, if there are to many pellets in the burnpot the fire chamber will fill with smoke and make a popping noise and blow smoke out through the door seal. Not a fun thing to watch happen.

Thanks everyone, any ideas would be great.

Rodney
 
rodbo1967 said:
OK, latest update. It would appear that US Stoves is banging their collective heads against the wall and will be shipping me a replacement stove in the next week or so. That's great and all, but I am still without a working stove. This morning I noticed the auger (looking down into the hopper) would kick backwards 1/8 an inch or so and then kick the proper direction.

It was not dropping any pellets (at first). Once again I removed all the pellets, fired it up and it started with only the pellets in the burnpot. If I added pellets it would staying running. After 20 minutes of feeding the beast the auger appeared to begin turning properly.

I got the auger, as well as the high temp sensor and the (2) 125 temp thermodiscs. I will replace all that tonight and see what happens.

BTW, if there are to many pellets in the burnpot the fire chamber will fill with smoke and make a popping noise and blow smoke out through the door seal. Not a fun thing to watch happen.

Thanks everyone, any ideas would be great.

Rodney

That delayed ignition is frequently a sign of crud in the combustion air path anywhere from the intake to the termination cap.
 
.

BTW, if there are to many pellets in the burnpot the fire chamber will fill with smoke and make a popping noise and blow smoke out through the door seal. Not a fun thing to watch happen.

Rodney[/quote]

My stove does that and so does my brothers. I dont think its all that uncommon.
 
OK, got the new auger installed. It was visually much nicer than the old one. After installing it I noticed it would not turn via the auger motor. I backed the screws out a hair and it freed up the auger to turn. Now the stove is running, for now. Will update in the morning.

Rodney
 
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