I recently called the company to get an auger motor for the stove. He told me that there was a list of dealers available to order parts. They want $300 for this auger assembly which is ridiculous. i just need the motor. but he refused to give me any information about the motor. All i wanted was the specs so i could match it up with a compatible motor. He was rude and obnoxious and refused to help me and kept repeating that i should call the dealers which take over 2 weeks to get a part. I blame jay for not putting his company in good hands. what a shame. Im still looking for anybody with info on the specs i could use to replace my auger motor.
THELIN PROBLEMS
- Thread starter THELINMAN3000
- Start date
-
Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.
We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.
We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
- Status
I have a Gnome and I love it. I think you expect way too much and don't clean your stove properly. If you are relying on the clean function on the stove you need to do much more than that. Take the 2 plates off the inside behind the burn pot and vacuum them out every 2 weeks. Vacuum out the burn pot area every other day. Adjust the air in until you get a really brisk flame and you should be good to go. Dirty glass is poor airflow and crap pellets.
Well the company www.multiproducts.com the lady there was very nice and sold me just the auger motor for 95 bucks with shipping. most of the time these motors can be fixed. They have brushes that could be replaced, and the commutators can be cleaned with contact cleaner, but they don't want the customer to know that. they rather sell you a 300 dollar motor than a 10 dollar brush. so im gonna get this motor and match it up at grainger with a similar motor that brushes are easy to get. when i find one ill post it on here. I work for the MTA and we use high voltage DC motors that run for over 30 years because we maintain them. You clean the armature and commutator yearly and change the brushes, the motors will last years and years.
Pellet-King
Minister of Fire
I bought my Thelin Parlour 3000 in 2008. Thanks for the heads up on Multiproducts.com. I have been going through those things at about 1 every 2 tons of pellets. On my 3rd purchased one now. My "backup" was just put in yesterday when the 3rd one failed. I paid aroudn 220 for that 2 years ago and now 300 is what they want and that is just WRONG! I am about to put in a gas furnace since the cost of parts every year on the stove takes a big chunk out of the savings!
Story of my Thelins
My first stove was shipped back to the Thelin plant after many calls and frustrations over the first 60 days after purchase and Jay finally sent me a new one. No more problems, except the darn auger motors won't last for more than 2 tons which for me is about 1.5 seasons.
When I had issues on the first stove it was black soot, could not get the flame hot, the damper seemed to be not working right, it was noisey, and went out a couple times, once it really smoked up the house bad! Jay sent me a new PC board and Auger motor trying to resolve the various issues. After 60 days he said to return it and they would ship a new one off the line to me. I still had the motor and 2 circuit boards from the first stove and he said to keep them as spares. bottom line, I think the first one had some burn chamber sealing issues when it was built. It never should have filled the house with smoke when the fire went out. Prior to talking with Jay the only way I could get a good burn was to leave the lid about an inch open on the hopper which is a no no.
Anyway I had one fail again this week and took it apart. The commutator (part the brushes ride on) was in about 7 pieces I could find. The copper "leaves" came off the commutator shaft! Looked like it had several ounces of black dust from the brushes and then I saw the mini copper leaves in the dust. Well I wonder if Multiproducts could repair that and make it better this time!
Going to call them and see on Monday. I can handle 100 but 300? Seriously its not gold! The stove heats pretty well in my 2000 sf ranch. Hard to reach the bedrooms but even in -25 with 40mph wind it keeps the main part of the house in the low 70's on medium.
Fix them darn motors and its a great looking and working stove in my opinion.
Story of my Thelins
My first stove was shipped back to the Thelin plant after many calls and frustrations over the first 60 days after purchase and Jay finally sent me a new one. No more problems, except the darn auger motors won't last for more than 2 tons which for me is about 1.5 seasons.
When I had issues on the first stove it was black soot, could not get the flame hot, the damper seemed to be not working right, it was noisey, and went out a couple times, once it really smoked up the house bad! Jay sent me a new PC board and Auger motor trying to resolve the various issues. After 60 days he said to return it and they would ship a new one off the line to me. I still had the motor and 2 circuit boards from the first stove and he said to keep them as spares. bottom line, I think the first one had some burn chamber sealing issues when it was built. It never should have filled the house with smoke when the fire went out. Prior to talking with Jay the only way I could get a good burn was to leave the lid about an inch open on the hopper which is a no no.
Anyway I had one fail again this week and took it apart. The commutator (part the brushes ride on) was in about 7 pieces I could find. The copper "leaves" came off the commutator shaft! Looked like it had several ounces of black dust from the brushes and then I saw the mini copper leaves in the dust. Well I wonder if Multiproducts could repair that and make it better this time!
Going to call them and see on Monday. I can handle 100 but 300? Seriously its not gold! The stove heats pretty well in my 2000 sf ranch. Hard to reach the bedrooms but even in -25 with 40mph wind it keeps the main part of the house in the low 70's on medium.
Fix them darn motors and its a great looking and working stove in my opinion.
RockyMtnHigh
Feeling the Heat
Hmmmm. Thelin stoves aren't terrible and they aren't great and you do have to keep up on them. That said, you paid all that money for the look, not the bang. You could have gotten something much more powerful and reliable that was in the shape of a steel box. They actually spend a lot of cash on all the castings etc. that give you that "old time" pot belly look. They also have that niche. That is what you paid for sadly, and I'm sorry you weren't properly informed. When it comes do design, they are a very elementary pellet stove.... Their wood stoves aren't all that powerful either. You expected to get a Rolls Royce but you got stuck with a kit car designed around a Yugo platform.
FYI I did research the stove before purchase and found very positive feedback with little negative from owners. Thelin was a family owned stove and that was a positive in customers service almost unanimous. My stove is fine except for the crap auger motor they use. Up those specs and no complaints.
The thread title would be Thelin auger motors and tech customer service are crap if I wrote it but I am only contributing.
The thread title would be Thelin auger motors and tech customer service are crap if I wrote it but I am only contributing.
They were great , till Jay retired. Look, I know these things break there's a lot of moving parts , high heat and soot. The fact is Jay was selling all those parts over 50% cheaper than what the distributors are selling them for.This new owner just has bad people skills. as far as rebuilding the motor, I think they just sell them. and there were only a few left when i spoke to the lady there, but who knows, maybe if we buy them there they might make more available,,lol
Okay
Here is another reason I would not recommend Thelin - The parts cannot be obtained from Thelin direct. they only sell to dealers. Dealers are nowhere to be found.. Many listed on the website are not dealers for multiple years but still listed. Here is an interesting tidbit one of the former dealers told me. I asked for an auger motor and he said he was not a dealer. I asked if he knew where I could locate one on hand and he said no but prompted me for more info - When he heard of the short lifespan he said thelin had a problem with some of the parlour stoves in that the Feed basket? was mis aligned and needed to be replaced so motors would not wear out that fast. Could it be? I did not see that part could even be misaligned but I do have to wonder because it never seems to go in straight. I have always felt it needed to be tilted a bit when installing to get the front of the auger in the pilot hole. anyone have knowledge of this issue?
Did not have the motors in stock but they can build them in a week and ship for 95.00. Markup at thelin dealers is over 300%. OUCH. Talk about price Gouging!
The auger motor is available from Multiparts.com - By the way, Lori at Multiproducts is the nice lady mentioned in the post above. All They needed the Spec # on the casing which is 3918C if I recall.
Here is another reason I would not recommend Thelin - The parts cannot be obtained from Thelin direct. they only sell to dealers. Dealers are nowhere to be found.. Many listed on the website are not dealers for multiple years but still listed. Here is an interesting tidbit one of the former dealers told me. I asked for an auger motor and he said he was not a dealer. I asked if he knew where I could locate one on hand and he said no but prompted me for more info - When he heard of the short lifespan he said thelin had a problem with some of the parlour stoves in that the Feed basket? was mis aligned and needed to be replaced so motors would not wear out that fast. Could it be? I did not see that part could even be misaligned but I do have to wonder because it never seems to go in straight. I have always felt it needed to be tilted a bit when installing to get the front of the auger in the pilot hole. anyone have knowledge of this issue?
Did not have the motors in stock but they can build them in a week and ship for 95.00. Markup at thelin dealers is over 300%. OUCH. Talk about price Gouging!
The auger motor is available from Multiparts.com - By the way, Lori at Multiproducts is the nice lady mentioned in the post above. All They needed the Spec # on the casing which is 3918C if I recall.
Got the new motor today and installed in short order. I inspected the auger first and the rear bushing is a bit sloppy but not terrible. Also installed auger without motor and spun it by hand. played with it a bit to determine the best place to tighten it down. Seems like there is a bit of a drag on it unless you pull it down all the way on the 2 mounting bolts in the back.
Installed and also noted the electrical connectors on the motor are 1/8" to 3/16" wide spades, but the wires are 1/4" wide from the stove. they actually seemed very loose on the new motor so I crimped them down tighter and wonder if that might have caused the extra resistance and heat to flake off the commutator.
I've discovered the 2 bad motors I have failed due to the same issue. the commutator is sliced into 7 tiles and each one of these had a small "sheet" of copper on it before they flaked off. The motors would work for a short time without these plates but not very long. I found some 1/4" copper foil tape online and am going to try to refurbish the commutators and have these as spare motors before ordering a backup. The tape has a conductive adhesive good up to 130 degrees celcius so I think it should hold. Need to wrap the commutator, slice the single tape strip into 7 pieces following the grooves on the shaft. Will advise if it works and maybe shoot some pictures.
Does anyone know what the replacement brushes are for these motors? Looking for a way to order them to replace and compare to the used ones I have. Multiproducts did not have the brushes, just the motors and gearbox. BTW, Lori sent me the spec sheet on the motor so I will post that info later. seems like it is CW rotation, 7RPM max at 17 volts.
I'd like to see if there is a way to get a brushless motor! That would be a much better solution. anyone know where to get one custom made since multi-products does not do it.
Mt Bob
Minister of Fire
Well I got to another year but my yearly auger motor replacement came around 2 weeks short of a year and roughly one ton of pellets used. The problem is, the motors are not available ANYWHERE except Thelin dealers or Thelin online. Turns out the reason multi-products sold last year to me was they thought Thelin was out of business. Now that a new owner is in the picture they have rights to the part distribution. I wish I had bought a dozen of the motors last year... I could have made some money and saved Thelin owners some cash in the process.
The big problem is there are No dealers and online the motors are now even more than last year...
Hold on to your shorts!!#$%^&*$#%! $360 for the Motor and Auger assembly!
That is over a 400% markup. The new company that bought Thelin, I guess they want to make some money!
Its not all bad news though, The new motor is supposed to be a brushless motor! DC brushless motors should have a 10,000 hour life or more so I might finally get past the one major pain in this stove! Of course the price is about 300% markup but if it works for 10 years I don't care! I just read another post where a guy said his blower fan motor was raised from 95.00 to 430.00 in one year's time. Unfortunately the parts are going to force me into another stove if they are all this much.
My recommendation, Thelin is a great looking stove. Better than any other I have seen. It heats well and at 20-30 below keeps the inside of my 1900SF house warm enough. The parts and service need to be severely upgraded and prices cut in half or less to be competitive. Until that happens, I would not recommend the Thelins for more than a conversation piece.
The big problem is there are No dealers and online the motors are now even more than last year...
Hold on to your shorts!!#$%^&*$#%! $360 for the Motor and Auger assembly!
That is over a 400% markup. The new company that bought Thelin, I guess they want to make some money!
Its not all bad news though, The new motor is supposed to be a brushless motor! DC brushless motors should have a 10,000 hour life or more so I might finally get past the one major pain in this stove! Of course the price is about 300% markup but if it works for 10 years I don't care! I just read another post where a guy said his blower fan motor was raised from 95.00 to 430.00 in one year's time. Unfortunately the parts are going to force me into another stove if they are all this much.
My recommendation, Thelin is a great looking stove. Better than any other I have seen. It heats well and at 20-30 below keeps the inside of my 1900SF house warm enough. The parts and service need to be severely upgraded and prices cut in half or less to be competitive. Until that happens, I would not recommend the Thelins for more than a conversation piece.
thelin has the market cornered on this auger motor though. I wish I could get one elsewhere along with every other parlour 3000 owner.
HEy dude. I never saw the replacement motor you were going to find at grainger... What was the part number?
When i bought it I didn't really buy it for looks. I live in a small bungalow and this stove had the smallest footprint so it fit really well in the house where wall space is limited.
In the end, it doesn't matter. They will keep selling their product and people will pay whatever for the parts.
The new company is Sierra Products. They already make a line of stoves called Easy Fire using the same technology as the Thelin's. According to my dealer they are going to start making the Thelin models again. I had replaced my fan motor last February and the new one died a month ago, my dealer called them and they said Thelin's warranty on replacement motors was one year and they would honor the warranty. The new motor works great and I was happy with how they helped me. My understanding is that they are currently supporting the old Thelin dealer network so it might be worth a call to your dealer.
After replacing several parts such as the fan motor and auger motor assembly on our Thelin 3000 parlour stove we were frustrated when the auger motor failed again (the third time) and this time
after less than 3 months use. We decided to open up the auger assembly to see if we could tell what was going wrong. This was easy as there were 4 screws to unscrew in the corners of the silver cage shown in the photo. Then we could see that the allen screw holding the auger on the shaft was slipping. As soon as we tightened that back up and we reassembled it and hooked it back up the auger went back to working fine.
after less than 3 months use. We decided to open up the auger assembly to see if we could tell what was going wrong. This was easy as there were 4 screws to unscrew in the corners of the silver cage shown in the photo. Then we could see that the allen screw holding the auger on the shaft was slipping. As soon as we tightened that back up and we reassembled it and hooked it back up the auger went back to working fine.- Status