Room blower comes on after initial heat up. But does not change speed when heat settings raised. What could cause this and how to fix
Ashley stove.
- Thread starter William Callahan
- Start date
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tlc1976
Minister of Fire
What model Ashley stove do you have? I apologize if you have it in a signature because they don’t show on my phone.
Also is this a new install? Or has it been in service awhile and working fine until now?
Also is this a new install? Or has it been in service awhile and working fine until now?
tlc1976
Minister of Fire
Are you just starting it up after purchasing it used?
Which control panel do you have? Does it have round buttons? Or square buttons with a bargraph display?
Square button's and I have ran 3 or 4 bags threw it. I also have had 3 or4 stoves in the past
tlc1976
Minister of Fire
Just throwing out ideas here. I’d save the board as a last resort and I don’t know your experience with this model.
Has it done this since you got it or just started on this 3rd or 4th bag?
Ok my stove uses that exact same board. By any chance you’re not in thermostat mode? You need to be in manual mode to change heat settings and increase the feed and fans.
Does heat range actually change? Does the bargraph light more bars, does the exhaust increase and do the pellets feed faster when you increase heat range? My stove you push the buttons and the change is instant. But I remember someone last year I think who said he had to hold the heat range button for a second or so before the change took effect.
Also you need to wait till the leds stop flashing then it’s fully out of startup mode. In startup mode the room fan will stay on low no matter what. Then you’ll hear the snap disc click and the fan will speed up if you’re on a setting above 1.
On mine it’s not super obvious the difference in the room fan on settings 1-3, they sound pretty similar. Settings 4-5 the room fan really jumps up. On 4 or 5 it still doesn’t speed up? Also once you’re out of startup and running normal, when you hit the button to shut down the stove the room fan is supposed to run on high until the stove cools. Does it do this?
This happened to me once so I would pull the side panel and make sure the room fan rotates very freely. If it drags at all then it might not be letting itself go fast enough to make a difference. You can also disconnect the fan wiring and temporarily connect it to a lamp cord and plug it in and see if the fan runs full speed on direct wall power.
What happens if you try to run it on a higher range? Does it get too hot and shut down because it can’t remove the heat? Not a good idea to do this deliberately, but just wondering if it’s done it.
If all the above checks out there’s a definite possibility it could be one of the boards. There are two. The keypad I believe has all the programming in it and tells the larger board what to do. The larger board below has the semiconductors and relays to control the motors and igniter. I’ve been running mine for over 4 years and no board problems but there’s always a possibility yours has an issue. Like garbled programming or the semiconductor for the room fan.
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Ok
Everything your telling me it is doing properly. Maybe it is just me and I'm used to being able to run fan at higher speeds. I am going to pull small tube off what I believe is a switch and clean out. And try jumping fan as you state. I am ok with electric..
Thank you for all your help.
Had stove for a bit and it never seemed right that room. Lower never seemed to run faster. Top of stove gets too hot to touch. Has not shut down due to overheat. Have never heard switch Click. Going to try and clean rubber tube next
tlc1976
Minister of Fire
Do you have a manual? Here is a link.
Some stoves do but I don’t think this one is supposed to get hot to the touch on top. Does it do this even on the low heat range? If so then either there is something wrong with the room fan or board or maybe the room fan and passages are full of pet hair. If it’s stuck on low then low heat range would still evacuate the heat properly if all else was good.
The rubber tube is the vacuum switch. That shuts it down if it can’t breathe or if the door is open.
At least in my experience a dirty stove will reduce the heat from lack of air before it will overheat. Others experience will vary. So I would still clean the stove good. They say there is a heat exchanger clean out handle in front. Also the side ash traps that have 2 bolts each. Mine has these and they do fill up. Also remove the exhaust fan and clean that area out, that fills up too. Remove the temperature switch near the exhaust fan and clean that off if it’s all crudded up, that can give false readings. And clean whatever passages you can get into. I use a thin flexible dryer lint brush. The pipe of course too if you haven’t.
Look for the high temperature cutoff switch with 2 wires that’s probably attached to the back wall of the heat exchanger. It shuts the stove down if it gets too hot as a safety. Previous owner might have bypassed this. If it’s bypassed I would not run the stove unattended.
About 1/4 the way down this page you’ll find a board test sequence. Since your stove uses the same board it should work. You can run this and check things. Unfortunately it doesn’t check the ramping up of the room blower. Also are auger timing values you can check, to see if it’s overfeeding.
www.hearth.com
Just throwing stuff out again. Always hard telling what a previous owner did.
If it turns out the board is shot and the room fan itself works along with everything else, then to get you by for the moment you could just run the fan on high from a wall plug.
Some stoves do but I don’t think this one is supposed to get hot to the touch on top. Does it do this even on the low heat range? If so then either there is something wrong with the room fan or board or maybe the room fan and passages are full of pet hair. If it’s stuck on low then low heat range would still evacuate the heat properly if all else was good.
The rubber tube is the vacuum switch. That shuts it down if it can’t breathe or if the door is open.
At least in my experience a dirty stove will reduce the heat from lack of air before it will overheat. Others experience will vary. So I would still clean the stove good. They say there is a heat exchanger clean out handle in front. Also the side ash traps that have 2 bolts each. Mine has these and they do fill up. Also remove the exhaust fan and clean that area out, that fills up too. Remove the temperature switch near the exhaust fan and clean that off if it’s all crudded up, that can give false readings. And clean whatever passages you can get into. I use a thin flexible dryer lint brush. The pipe of course too if you haven’t.
Look for the high temperature cutoff switch with 2 wires that’s probably attached to the back wall of the heat exchanger. It shuts the stove down if it gets too hot as a safety. Previous owner might have bypassed this. If it’s bypassed I would not run the stove unattended.
About 1/4 the way down this page you’ll find a board test sequence. Since your stove uses the same board it should work. You can run this and check things. Unfortunately it doesn’t check the ramping up of the room blower. Also are auger timing values you can check, to see if it’s overfeeding.
Vogelzang VG-5790
I'd have to know what the auger voltage was and hook up an external supply to push it. Neither of which do I have, though I could probably borrow a supply from work. @IHATEPROPANE: What would you recommend for sealing the gap?
www.hearth.com
Just throwing stuff out again. Always hard telling what a previous owner did.
If it turns out the board is shot and the room fan itself works along with everything else, then to get you by for the moment you could just run the fan on high from a wall plug.
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Thank you for your input it is very helpful.. I am not aware of anything previous owner may have done . I am about to do a thorough cleaning inside and out. And the room blower idea with direct to wall plug is on the list of things to try.Do you have a manual? Here is a link.
Some stoves do but I don’t think this one is supposed to get hot to the touch on top. Does it do this even on the low heat range? If so then either there is something wrong with the room fan or board or maybe the room fan and passages are full of pet hair. If it’s stuck on low then low heat range would still evacuate the heat properly if all else was good.
The rubber tube is the vacuum switch. That shuts it down if it can’t breathe or if the door is open.
At least in my experience a dirty stove will reduce the heat from lack of air before it will overheat. Others experience will vary. So I would still clean the stove good. They say there is a heat exchanger clean out handle in front. Also the side ash traps that have 2 bolts each. Mine has these and they do fill up. Also remove the exhaust fan and clean that area out, that fills up too. Remove the temperature switch near the exhaust fan and clean that off if it’s all crudded up, that can give false readings. And clean whatever passages you can get into. I use a thin flexible dryer lint brush. The pipe of course too if you haven’t.
Look for the high temperature cutoff switch with 2 wires that’s probably attached to the back wall of the heat exchanger. It shuts the stove down if it gets too hot as a safety. Previous owner might have bypassed this. If it’s bypassed I would not run the stove unattended.
About 1/4 the way down this page you’ll find a board test sequence. Since your stove uses the same board it should work. You can run this and check things. Unfortunately it doesn’t check the ramping up of the room blower. Also are auger timing values you can check, to see if it’s overfeeding.
Vogelzang VG-5790
I'd have to know what the auger voltage was and hook up an external supply to push it. Neither of which do I have, though I could probably borrow a supply from work. @IHATEPROPANE: What would you recommend for sealing the gap?
Just throwing stuff out again. Always hard telling what a previous owner did.
If it turns out the board is shot and the room fan itself works along with everything else, then to get you by for the moment you could just run the fan on high from a wall plug.
johneh
Minister of Fire
tlc1976
Minister of Fire
I did just catch what you said here. This is the only stove I’ve had so it’s what I’m used to. But on both our stoves, the only thing you can do is change to heat setting 1-5 and adjust the damper in the back. That’s it. Everything is programmed and fixed. Many other stoves you can independently adjust feed rate, room fan and exhaust fan settings. If that’s what you’re used to, you can’t do that with this stove. Unless of course you mod it with controls from a different stove or your own.