4 am Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-Whinnnnnnne

[Snowy Rivers]

Arrrrrgh, about 4 this morning I wake to two things, needing to hit the head and this GAWD Awful Whine coming from the living room.

I make a pit stop and then go to investigate the terrible noise,

The little Prodigy is burning fine,but the draft/booster is making a whiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnne

I poke round but don't see much.

Sooooo, shut it down to cool and fire the big whit.

Within 30 minutes I can get after the beast, and see wassssup.

Well, the booster fan blade is nasty dirty with carbon, so I scrape that off and start the fan up, Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, same stufff, so dig deeper.

I got into the fan motor compartment and the noise is coming from the cooling blade.
I mess with that and discover that there is just enough dirt/crud build up on the blades to cause a harmonic to set up in the blade.

A quick blast with a computer duster took care of most of the issue.

Some looking revealed the fan had a couple blades that were tweeked.

After three runs and shut downs I finally got it running quiet again.

The newer fan motors have a 5/16 shaft diameter in place of the stock 1/4"

Always something eh ????

Snowy

 

[tjnamtiw]

'Hit the head'????? You were in the Navy, Snowy??? I haven't heard that one in many moons except out of my own mouth!

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Nope, Father in law was, and we used to go hunting with Dad and that was common camp talk in the wee hours.
I asked some young sweety at the mall a while back, " Ahhhh, excuse me, wheres the head" ???

I got the deer in the headlights stare.

Snowy

 

[Bridgeman]

I was the son of a Marine. Doesn't everyone call the toilet the head? As in " hit the head before we shove off, it's a long drive"

 

[tjnamtiw]

That's one of the common phrases in my house along with the infamous 'Pass the f****ing butter'.... ha ha ha

 

[BrotherBart]

Dang Sailors and Marines don't know a latrine when they see one. HooYah!

 

[Don2222]

Arrrrrgh, about 4 this morning I wake to two things, needing to hit the head and this GAWD Awful Whine coming from the living room.

I make a pit stop and then go to investigate the terrible noise,

The little Prodigy is burning fine,but the draft/booster is making a whiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnne

I poke round but don't see much.

Sooooo, shut it down to cool and fire the big whit.

Within 30 minutes I can get after the beast, and see wassssup.

Well, the booster fan blade is nasty dirty with carbon, so I scrape that off and start the fan up, Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, same stufff, so dig deeper.

I got into the fan motor compartment and the noise is coming from the cooling blade.
I mess with that and discover that there is just enough dirt/crud build up on the blades to cause a harmonic to set up in the blade.

A quick blast with a computer duster took care of most of the issue.

Some looking revealed the fan had a couple blades that were tweeked.

After three runs and shut downs I finally got it running quiet again.

The newer fan motors have a 5/16 shaft diameter in place of the stock 1/4"

Always something eh ????

Snowy

Did you put any light machine oil right on the motor shaft where it counts Snowy?

This is what I use now to quiet these motors down.

 

[jmart]

"This is what I use now to quiet these motors down."

latrine lube?

 

[Lake Girl]

Don't have to be Navy to call it a "head" as it is the term used for larger sail and pleasure boats too. My sister had a J28 sailboat with a "head". Must be nice to have lots of money; we had lots of kids instead

PS - Snowy sorry to hear about the early wake-up call but glad to hear it wasn't more complicated that a clean...

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Thanks

The bearings are fine (sealed too)
The issue is the design of the assembly. Most exhaust fans have the blade mounted on a fair sized shaft, and the blade is close to the bearing.

This stove uses a spindly little 1/4" shaft, then hangs the fan quite ways away from the bearing.

The motor is mounted in a sheet metal housing, then the shaft runs through a hole in the exhaust casting with the fan blade inside.

The cooling blade is mounted on the same shaft just outside the casting.

The entire assembly is delicate, as compared to most exhaust fan/motor units, and any imbalance or ??? can cause a harmonic to set up.

The thing can act like a tuning fork

Here is a picture of the assembly
(broken link removed to http://woodheatstoves.com/whitfield-exhaust-booster-motor-13546210-p-9536.html?cPath=95_262)

The joys of maintaining a pellet stove eh ??

Snowy

 

[tjnamtiw]

Dang Sailors and Marines don't know a latrine when they see one. HooYah!

LATRINE???? Isn't that a ceramic thing you put gravy in? Dang mud rats crap in their gravy bowls???

 

[tjnamtiw]

Thanks


(broken link removed to http://woodheatstoves.com/whitfield-exhaust-booster-motor-13546210-p-9536.html?cPath=95_262)

The joys of maintaining a pellet stove eh ??

Snowy

Wow, that IS a nightmare waiting to happen! Must have been designed on third shift! I can see that any amount of buildup would have that fan whipping around like a lasso. The outboard end of that shaft needs to be running in a bushing, at least.

 

[Jags]

Latrine? Isn't that reserved for land lubbing, pollywogs?

 

[chamas]

Here is a picture of the assembly
(broken link removed to http://woodheatstoves.com/whitfield-exhaust-booster-motor-13546210-p-9536.html?cPath=95_262)

Hey that looks like the setup for the main combustion blower in the Jamestown!



It started complaining and rattling earlier this season. Managed to get some oil into the bearings and we are limping along until end of heating season and then will send it out for rebuilding.

Wish me luck with getting the exhaust fan blade off! Its buried pretty good in the exhaust housing, and was designed in the days before they figured out how to include the clever exhaust blower housing removable side plate that allows you to remove the motor w/ fan blade intact by unscrewing the (6? 8?) circumference screws.

 

[Snowy Rivers]

The big issue is that the unsupported end of the shaft is inside the exhaust housing and there is no real way to have a bushing in the HOT area,.

The new motors have the 5/16" diameter shaft, sooooooo, larger bearings, overall larger motor too.

Here are some pixs I snapped with the stove running a bit ago

The round hole is a clean out access to clean the fan blade. Getting the fan out is a convoluted proposition that requires removing the entire exhaust casting assembly.

Not all that hard, buttttttttttttttt, it requires more than a couple screws.

A rather interesting design though. The first Gen Prodigy did not have this fan. and required a tall stack and could not be direct vented as there was not enough draft.

The exhaust fan blade is very much like most pellets stoves use, but the plate seen as a divider in the round access hole divides the casting and has a hole in the center right in line with the center of the fan.

The smoke/gases come out from the fire box via a passage above the heat exchangers and pass into the center of the fan, then go out.

The long shaft is a rather shaky design, but the entire assembly is very light.

Snowy

 

[stellep]

That's one wild looking stove Snowy. Looks like fun!

 

[Snowy Rivers]

It's a lovely little beast.

We are heating 2400 ft with it today.

It is our mild weather work horse and cold weather helper.

It is a 1991 model, but is in very good shape.

 

[Pellet-King]

Very weird has 2 pellet hopper's?

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Actually it has only one hopper, but the hopper splits down the middle to allow the exhaust casting to go out the back.

The way it's made you just have to fill both sides is all, and they both come together below the channel that the exhaust sits in.

This is the baby Whitfield (Prodigy 2)

Very similar to all the larger Whits, with the exception of the exhaust blower arrangement.

 

[tjnamtiw]

That is amazing that you have to remove that huge hunk of metal just to change the fan! THAT is a labor of love! And a stove that's still doing it's job 23 years later is SOMETHING TO LOVE!

 

[Snowy Rivers]

The motor can be removed by loosening the set screw in the fan through the access plug, then sliding the motor shaft out, but, to get the blade out you need to remove the casting.

Actually, it's not that hard to do.

With a cold stove (unplug the 120v)

Remove the 4 nuts on the quick connect flange at the vent.
Slide stove away from pipe
Remove 4 small sheet metal screws and remove stove top cover.
Remove 1 screw and remove booster fan cover
Remove 6 bolts on the exhaust casting
Unplug two wires to to booster fan motor.
Lift the entire casting assembly out of the stove

Once removed, the casting has a sheet metal housing on the bottom the comes off to expose the fan blade and the inner exhaust housing.

Actually it's a very ingenious design, that's quite compact, simple and works well.

As you said, it's 23 years old and still going.

I replaced the fan blade last April due to a vent fire and that resulted in the blade getting pretty well cooked.

The previous many years had likely seen the area above the heat exchanger become clogged with a clinker/carbon deposit that almost totally choked off the exhaust passage completely.

When we bought the stove, I did not tear it down completely as it was clean, neat, and appeared well cared for. Buttttttttttttttttt, time revealed the upper chamber had a large accumulation of crud that had resulted from the unit running on low and building up a huge volume of combustible residue.

After the fire in the vent system, all that remained was just a huge clinker type thing.

The portal leaving the main chamber that leads to the exhaust fan is only about 1-1/2 inches or so in diameter, and was plugged to less than a 1/2 inch

The fire got lazy and the window would totally soot up in an hour or less.

Removing the casting revealed the issue.

Here is a piccy showing the heat tubes and the built in tube scrapper. (very nice touch)

The view also shows the split hopper well and the insulated notch the vent/fan housing sits in.

Whitfield did a remarkable job on making a tiny stove that worked well.

After having this little unit now for a few years, I have become well acquainted with it's innards.

The Prodigy was not well liked from what I have heard, but IF you understand the little creature, it's a great little stove.

Little is the KEY WORD here. 21"wide 21"deep 30" tall

This unit does not have reverse flow ash baffles and extended passageways that use a lot of physical space in the cabinet and the convection fan is situated in the pedestal area to use all available space.

The exhaust is all right up on top.

The convection fan has a shunt tube that connects from the air plenum to the fire pot air inlet to provide combustion air.

This is why the unique and compact design.

With the fact that there are no real ash traps, the use of a direct vent is ideal, and a once every two weeks SUCK with the old leaf blower takes good care of all the crud.

Vent is less than 2 feet long., including a 45 tip down on the end.

A total clean after a cold shut down can be done in 15-20 minutes max and a fire rekindled.
This is removing all the ashes, vacuuming the fire box and sucking with the leaf blower.

A "Hot Swap" as I call it, with just the live coals out and only removing the fire pot (gloves needed) and clearing the ash pan and pot can be done in 5 minutes.

We do this when the weather requires all "Boilers lit and full on"



We originally installed it as a helper for cold weather, and a moderate weather "just need a little fire"
stove.

Once temps get into the mid 50's this little fellow will handle the 2400 foot house by it's self.
This morning the outside temp was 48 F and I fired the big Whit to bring us from 67F up to 70 ish

AS soon as the house is warmed up, I will shut off the big unit.

Since cleaning things good, all is quiet with the fans just making a WHIRRRRRRR, as they should.

A clean stove is a happy stove, and a happy owner at 4 am I might add

Snowy

 

[tjnamtiw]

That is an interesting little gal! I can see why you like it. Really small, too! I understand why people will snatch them up when they become available.
Stay warm!

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Right now warm is not too tough, DRY is

It's been raining sideways since the wee hours and still pouring.

I would buy another one of these little stoves in HEART BEAT

We got the prodigy in Winter 2009/10 and I had posted a want ad on Craig's list and a local fellow answered it with this stove.

Stove, hearth pad and all, $200

Such a deal

Snowy

 

[tjnamtiw]

OMG! $200 for 24 years of faithful service! I ALWAYS hear about such deals but never get them Wrong place - wrong time. Although one time I had a chance to buy a 1953 Corvette basket case on the North Shore of Oahu the week before I was being transferred to Bremerton, Washington. There was no way I could afford to ship it on a sailor's salary. It was all there. Just in boxes with a clean body! (

 

[Mt Bob]

No

OMG! $200 for 24 years of faithful service! I ALWAYS hear about such deals but never get them Wrong place - wrong time. Although one time I had a chance to buy a 1953 Corvette basket case on the North Shore of Oahu the week before I was being transferred to Bremerton, Washington. There was no way I could afford to ship it on a sailor's salary. It was all there. Just in boxes with a clean body! (

If you had bought more beers for the machinists mate you could have had that vette! Sorry,couldn't resist