bought thus stove used new auger motor an control panel. We cleaned it throughly it’s getting plenty of air. The problem is no heat. It seems the pellets feeds really slow. We pulled auger shaft our checked everything for blockage. Checked the shoot can’t find a problem. I set pellet feed on 5 like instructions say. Auger turns an everything seems to be working fine pellets barley drop. Not getting enough pellets to get hot enough to put out good heat. It feeds just enough to keep a fire. I’m not sure what else to do I don’t want to put money in new parts till I got some input from some of you that have this stove. Getting very frustrated.
St Croix scf-050 year 2006
- Thread starter TLMcCoy
- 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.
Ssyko
Minister of Fire
you have it in auto or manual? auto has to have thermostat. probably not many in here have this stove but i found your manual http://stcroixstoves.com/pdf/SCF-050-Manuals.pdf
Last edited:
jzm2cc
Minister of Fire
Count the auger on time on setting 1, do the same with 5. Note it takes about 90 seconds for control board to move up each level. You should see a considerable difference in time, like 1.5 sec and 5 seconds.
If not, try manual mode vs. Thermostat mode, also check for thermostat wires hooked up on outside and inside of stove at red and black terminals. Older stoves may need a jumper wire installed in thermostat connector if using manual mode.
If not, try manual mode vs. Thermostat mode, also check for thermostat wires hooked up on outside and inside of stove at red and black terminals. Older stoves may need a jumper wire installed in thermostat connector if using manual mode.
We’ve been running it in manual mode. But each time we start it we put it on heat level 5. Maybe that’s the problem we never let it get fully started on heat setting 1. So
As each heat level moves up the pellet speed does to ? I’m so new to this stove. I bought it for my son in his new house which is a old house. I have a comfortbilt hp50 in mine an it blows this St Croix outta the water.
rona
Minister of Fire
have you tried unplugging it then start over. Similar to rebooting a computer. I had the same problem with a Auburn which runs the same way. that fixed it. but another thing is I think you should put a jumper wire in place of your thermostat wires then run it manually. give it time to adjust itself.
Truthfully you only get 50,000 btu out of it so expecting it to blow hot air up through ductwork isn't going to heat a large house at all. But it sounds like it is on level one and hasn't moved so there should be a proof of fire switch. If the auger works at all then that switch is working.
As I remember we started it on level one and after we seen it augering fuel we went to two then three etc .
So try starting on level one give it time to make sure it feeds itself then after you see the auger turn and feeds the fire go to two. If you think about it starting on five would flood the pot with pellets so its like starting a fire use a little at a time building up the flame to the next heat level.
I couldn't make it work at first and had to ask for help but once I found out how it worked fine. But as I said earlier if you have a large old fashioned two story house with no insulation and try to heat it through duct work you won't be happy. A friend of mine just bought one for 500.00 so they aren't a popular model.
Having said that I will say they are more efficient at capturing the heat and putting it in the house rather then out the exhaust pipe.
Truthfully you only get 50,000 btu out of it so expecting it to blow hot air up through ductwork isn't going to heat a large house at all. But it sounds like it is on level one and hasn't moved so there should be a proof of fire switch. If the auger works at all then that switch is working.
As I remember we started it on level one and after we seen it augering fuel we went to two then three etc .
So try starting on level one give it time to make sure it feeds itself then after you see the auger turn and feeds the fire go to two. If you think about it starting on five would flood the pot with pellets so its like starting a fire use a little at a time building up the flame to the next heat level.
I couldn't make it work at first and had to ask for help but once I found out how it worked fine. But as I said earlier if you have a large old fashioned two story house with no insulation and try to heat it through duct work you won't be happy. A friend of mine just bought one for 500.00 so they aren't a popular model.
Having said that I will say they are more efficient at capturing the heat and putting it in the house rather then out the exhaust pipe.
Thank
thank you for the reply. We do not have it plumed into duct work. We was just trying to heat a small basement an it really don’t even warm it up. So I’m gonna try the recycling thing u talked about. But I’m not fully understanding the jumper wire. We don’t have it ran to our thermostat either. We only had it on manual. Do I still need some type of jumper wire?
Ssyko
Minister of Fire
are you getting any trouble code's? the link i posted above has the tech manual and flow charts for troubleshooting.
One of the manuals will tell you the on/off cycle of the auger so you can confirm it's turning like it should. Have you emptied the hopper of all pellets and made sure the auger isn't packed with dust? I had a bunch of dust that prevented pellets from being augered up. All so measure your air temps at the inlet and the outlet, I ran mine yesterday in my pole barn and was getting a 65 degree difference, not sure what would be optimum, would need to do an energy balance. lastly are you running the outlet blower at high or low speed, low will give you higher heat, high speed will be less. Did you really clean it out? These have some hard to reach passages. How are the door seal s and did you adjust the air inlet damper? I'm still adjusting mine but found that a pencil diameter open from closed is a good starting point.
Yes we cleaned it well. We tore it all apart. Empty it an took auger all the way out. Put hanger up pellet shoot. Can’t seem to find any blockage. I shut it down last night then restarted it. Let it go through it’s cycles. Then I slowly turned heat up every like 10 min. It is now cycling great ay 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 seconds auger on time running perfect great flame an all when it gets pellets. The problem is that pellets dont drop every tine the auger turns which does not seem normal to me. I have adjusted the air. An the outlet blower is on low. The door seals seem fine. We had the whole burn put out an cleaned all the passages I pretty sure it’s clean. Like I said when it gets pellets it burns great an hest is better. I just feel it’s not getting enough pellets. I think I need to get that little mirror an try an look up the pellet shoot. I appreciate an other input you may have. Thank you
Ssyko
Minister of Fire
Auger timing will be in seconds on to secons off. Check in the tech manual and compair the timings for each setting. If the timing doesn’t change the control board may be damaged
jzm2cc
Minister of Fire
Possibly long pellets are preventing smooth delivery of pellets every auger cycle. Try shorter ones or a corn mix if that's available.
Assume you already checked auger set screw is tight to motor since you tore it down once. Did you oil the auger upper and lower brass bushings?
Note, you can start stove on #5 without fear of over flowing burn pot since stove ramps up slowly at each heat level.
St. Croix stoves usually have a jumper on the control board that can be repositioned to change the auger time period which raises or lowers the feed rate for each heat level. Recall it being 11.5 seconds nominal, 10.5 for high feed and 11.5 for slow feed. Time yours to see how many seconds from auger light ON / OFF to ON again to determine how your stove is configured.
Assume you already checked auger set screw is tight to motor since you tore it down once. Did you oil the auger upper and lower brass bushings?
Note, you can start stove on #5 without fear of over flowing burn pot since stove ramps up slowly at each heat level.
St. Croix stoves usually have a jumper on the control board that can be repositioned to change the auger time period which raises or lowers the feed rate for each heat level. Recall it being 11.5 seconds nominal, 10.5 for high feed and 11.5 for slow feed. Time yours to see how many seconds from auger light ON / OFF to ON again to determine how your stove is configured.
rona
Minister of Fire
You should find a place where there is two screws for the thermostat wires to connect to. use a small wire to connect the two screws together. once you do that it will run on manual.
Right now the stove is running on the idle position and it needs a closed circuit before it can run manually. when you connect the two screws with a jumper wire that closes the circuit.
I did the recycling you said an by the time I got to 5 I could count to almost 7. An on 2 I counted to 3. So that’s working. The auger turns properly but pellets don’t fall every time auger is on. I will try the jumper also. We cleaned the pellet shoot with a hanger but nothing came out. I’m gonna get a mirror an try to see up the shoot
jzm2cc
Minister of Fire
If control panel switch is set to MANUAL you don't need a jumper, if on Thermostat mode and you are not using a thermostat you need a jumper wire.
If control board doesn't have a switch on it to change modes you need a jumper wire.
A paper clip straightened out and bent into U will work on the black/red connector block as a wire
If control board doesn't have a switch on it to change modes you need a jumper wire.
A paper clip straightened out and bent into U will work on the black/red connector block as a wire
I forgot about the jumper like jzm2cc says, I think mine is in the middle setting. I have the same issue with pellets not dropping with every cycle, again like jzm2cc says it might be long pellets. Maybe this weekend I will change mine to the shorter setting and see. I've noticed that if I don't put enough pellets in the burn pot at startup, it never seems to be able to catch up. In one instance, it seemed that I almost lost the flame. I normally put in a cup full and then a handful wrapped in a 1/2 sheet of newspaper with liberal amounts of gel starter fluid. I checked my auger speeds using the stopwatch on my phone, after timing it a few times it did appear to be accurate. I also read in a manual about checking the outlet chute for blockage, you already said that was on your agenda. i'm hoping to attach two pdf files, one is about the jumper on the board and the other is the standard timings for all the different settings. If it doesn't attach correctly let me know and I can email it.
Yes got them thank you We don’t have any blockage we just installed it a few weeks ago. I’m so ready to give up. I’ll chuck out these files. May be long pellets. We’re planning on trying different ones.
No ...... don't give up, there has to be a reason. While this is my first pellet stove, I thought it should have more output until I really thought about it. In my case, I'm trying to heat up a pole barn, last Sunday it started out at about 28 degrees inside. Had I just used my pellet furnace, it would have taken a day to heat it up, instead I fired up my torpedo heater for a bit and lit the furnace. In about an hour, I had it around 58 and the furnace was running nice and stable. The key point is it's all about temperature difference, in my case I got about a 65 degree difference between inlet and outlet temps. If I started at say 30 degrees inlet, my outlet would be about 95. While I've forgotten all my thermodynamics from college, it will take a long time for that 95 outlet air to make a difference. I believe that a pellet furnace or stove is great if you run it all the time and want nice gentle warm temperature, if you want to heat it fast you need a lot of btu's like a torpedo heater or a wood furnace or stove. My reason for a pellet furnace was that I felt it is a little safer than a wood stove in a pole barn where I'm working on cars, boats etc all with gasoline tanks. I would go through the stove part by part and make sure everything is clean, lubricated and running as it should. You can get the manuals from the St Croix webpage, I think that was where I got the service manual as well. Hang in there, I'll help you out as much as I can -
Thank you. I’m
Just trying to heat a small basement an it didn’t even warm it up on a 48 degree day. The room temp never changed. It’s at my sons house so I’ll be going over Saturday an Sunday try the things you told me earlier an clean it real good again. I myself have a comfortbilt hp50 in my home an it puts out so much heat. Maybe I’m just use to that heat. This furnace is much different may not be what we was looking for. I’ll give it one more weekend if I can’t get it will try an sell it. Lol. My comfortbilt is so simple I love it.
Just trying to heat a small basement an it didn’t even warm it up on a 48 degree day. The room temp never changed. It’s at my sons house so I’ll be going over Saturday an Sunday try the things you told me earlier an clean it real good again. I myself have a comfortbilt hp50 in my home an it puts out so much heat. Maybe I’m just use to that heat. This furnace is much different may not be what we was looking for. I’ll give it one more weekend if I can’t get it will try an sell it. Lol. My comfortbilt is so simple I love it.
I think I mentioned this but are you putting in enough pellets to start it up? I found if I didn't then it really seemed to struggle to keep the flame going even with it set on 5. One other question, is your room fan on the stove even turning on? I won't turn on until the outlet air reaches something like 100 or 110 I think. Without the air movement, I could see that you're not feeling anything other than radiant heat rather than having it blowing; Remember this is a furnace and is sort of meant to be plumbed into an existing heating system rather than a stove which is more radiant heat even with the small fans they have.
I have 2 Auburn's and the same scf050. All the same control board. The have been the most reliable stoves I've used. Sounds like you tried everything, the jumper wire would have been my first suggestion. Make sure the wires are running from the control board to the terminals for the thermostat. . You mentioned the timing changed so it may be working. It is possible the pellets are too long. Also on the control board there are 4 pins. And a jumper on the middle of the 4 pins. This can be moved to change the timing of the auger for each fuel. . You say it is barely keeping the fire going so it sounds like you are running at idle. . Level one. In which case the green light on the board would flash occasionally. Not the sidea light but the light under that. It indicates idle. If it's not flashing then it's running at the level it's set to. . In that case it's either the pellets are too long or the auger isn't turning so much as it should. Maybe the motor or the set screw on the auger shaft.
Here is my report with changing the jumper on the backside of the board. I checked the time before making a change and it was right on the money, timing it from when the auger light went on to when it went on again gave me 11.5 seconds, using the stopwatch on my phone is real easy and you just use the auger light as the start and stop marker. I then changed it to run the shorter cycle, this time the cycle lasted 8.5 seconds. I then checked the auger run time, initially it was only about 2.5 seconds on when I had the heat set at 5. A few people here stated that the controller ramps up so I came back a few minutes later and sure enough it was running for 3.5 seconds, a few more minutes and it was at the full 4.5 seconds on. I also checked my temperature difference, last weekend the outlet temp was 65 degrees warmer, today it was running about 75-80 degrees warmer. I also noticed it really started eating pellets! My pole barn has about 4" of insulation in the ceiling, bare metal walls, heated area is 30x30 with an 8.5 foot ceiling. It's fairly air tight and I have closed off the rest of it with a tarp, surprisingly the tarp is sealed off pretty good. Today it was 27 outside, with my torpedo heater helping to start, and the pellet furnace on 5 with the shortest cycle, I was able to maintain about 62 inside with only the pellet furnace. A basement should be much easier to heat than my pole barn. I would change the timer to the shortest cycle and check all your times after about 30-45 minutes, that should be enough time to let it all stabilize. You never mention if you have any unburned pellets, do you? If so, then it has to be either dirty or your air setting is wrong. If your times are good, and your auger is not slipping you should be able to get that basement warm in a few hours. Let us know how your experimenting went -
Similar threads
