10-CPM Pellet Stove Stops Feeding Pellets

[Litzner]

I have a Englander 10-CPM stove, and it just stops feeding pellets from time to time, often shortly after I fill the hopper with pellets, but not always. I thought it was maybe the hopper open/closed switch, but playing with that didn't seem to resolve the problem, sometimes it will start feeding again on its own. The only guaranteed way I have found to re-start the feeding is either hitting the "on" button and getting it to go through a Start Up cycle, or un-plugging the stove and plugging it back in real quick.

Any ideas on where the problem may lie?

 

[Connecticut Yankee]

Sometimes pellets get jammed together at the bottom of the hopper, just out of reach of the auger, but that doesn't sound like your problem. Have you checked the wires from the auger motor to the control board, to see if the connection is good and the wires are in good condition? Ditto for the connection to the hopper switch? It's possible you have an intermittent short somewhere.

 

[Litzner]

Sometimes pellets get jammed together at the bottom of the hopper, just out of reach of the auger, but that doesn't sound like your problem. Have you checked the wires from the auger motor to the control board, to see if the connection is good and the wires are in good condition? Ditto for the connection to the hopper switch? It's possible you have an intermittent short somewhere.

I have looked at and messed with the wires to the augur and the hopper switch when the problem occurs, no amount of playing with them seems to get the augur back in motion. It seemed like messing with the hopper switch itself helped at one point, but that may have just been coincidence. Do we know if that hopper circuit is open or closed when the lid is close? Thinking maybe I will wire them together as a test and take the switch out of the equation. If the stove isn't smart enough to notice I haven't opened the hopper in days anyways.

 

[Ssyko]

With the lid open the switch will not let power go to the auger. When it is closed it makes contact and powers the auger. Doing what you plan will confirm the switch is either bad or not adjusted properly. When the hopper switch is open for a few seconds it will tell the control board its open an stove goes into shutdown.