I think theres a bird in my exhaust fan!

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reallyte

Feeling the Heat
Mar 20, 2013
343
Binghamton, ny
Got home, cleaned it and started like usual. Went up stairs changed clothes and when I got back downstairs something was fluttering around in the pipe making racket. I freaked out turned down thermostat and ran to get a ladder to look down my exhaust through the roof. By time I got back I noticed my stove wasn't venting any exhaust.it built up in the stove and was seeping into the room. At this point I'm confused why it didn't vent anything. Took apart all my exhuast pipe and cleanout and checked for a corpse, just a little ashes. Now I'm getting frustrated and cleaned the mess inside the stove from the brown smoke residue. Got everything back together and tried starting, no go. Checked the snap discs n vacuum tube. Removed augur jus in case, nothing. Near the end of this hellish afternoon I noticed after turnng up thermostat, red call light comes on but all I hear is the hum of the motor trying to turn. I I tried spinng it an noticed it is catching on something and getting very hot at the heat sink.

Long story short, my exhaust fan seem stuck and cannot find any service manuals for my Santa fe. And yes I already rtfm. I read the troubleshooting too. I have a party tomorrow and no heat in our livingroom. Anyone that can help me take apart the box which has the exhaust fan in it would be great. In the meantime my living room smells like smoked bird...
 
dont feel bad, real, we took 5 birds out of an exhaust fan/vent once......all deceased....been in there awhile.....it seems that certainbreeds of brids, due to their size, cant turn around once they are in there.......
 
had the same problem but in my insert had a smell when I started the stove at the beginning of the year and the stove would not fire up did some research and checked the exhaust fan. had to pull it out and found a bird DEAD and stuck in the fan blades had to remove and clean everything. I have a cap on the vent pipe so I went and added a screen so no more dead birds in my pipe. Good luck hope you find the problem
 
Service Manuals here
http://allbasicsstoves.com/SantaFe Free Standing Manual.pdf
Page 33 shows how to remove blower
good luck

Ah, thanks oversight on my part. Either way I figured it out what it was. Bird had plunged to it's death into the fan. I was able to retrieve it by removing the cleanout T with a friend's help. Pics below, what bird is this? I just added 1/4" hardware netting to my exhaust cap for future protection.

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The only good Starling is a DEAD one. I have had 4 or 5 in my t6 this year(none of them fared well) before I made the exodus up on the roof to put some screen on the chimney. I can't believe those damned things were intentionally brought into our countries.
 
Starling it was! Not kfc lol.
 
Glad my Exhaust and OAK came with screens:p Glad you were able to get it out before your party :)
 
Yea luckily I was able to retrieve it fairly easily. To say the least, screens went on all exhaust pipes before I did anything else for the party.
 
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