Brand New Avalon AGP - combustion blower problem

[skydmark1]

Hi there everyone!

SO at the beginning of this season I bought a brand new Avalon AGP pellet stove. It's been a pretty good stove all season up until now. The stoves combusion blower won't stay on. It comes on for a few minutes when it starts up then shuts off. I gave it a good cleaning this morning, found some built up ash on the snap disc so I cleaned that off and figured that was the problem for sure.

I just tried starting it again and it did the same thing. It's shutting down right now, I guess I can try pulling the combustion blower and cleaning it. What other problems could I have? Do I have a bad blower on my $3k stove I just bought? I didn't even have problems with my Englander in the first 2 years so I'm not real impressed right now.

Ideas? Suggestions? Not much oil left in my tank so I'd like to get this thing running (besides I hate hearing the furnace run...it's like watching money fly out the chimney)

 

[skydmark1]

Stove shut off, I pulled the combustion blower....wasn't that dirty. I cleaned the nozzle for the negative pressure tube....wasn't a little bit black in there, and Vacuumed some caked on dust bunnies off from some other components. Gonna try to refire now......if it doesn't work I guess I'm calling for service....blaaaa

**EDIT** - Still didn't work, blower comes on for 2 minutes then shuts back off. Fire starts just fine......ugh.

 

[heat seeker]

If you have a meter, monitor the voltage going to the motor. If there's voltage when the motor quits, you have a bad motor. No voltage means the problem is elsewhere.

You could also wire the motor to house current with a jumper (if yours is a 115 volt motor) to see how long it runs.

There are also voltage detectors that resemble a pen that you could check for voltage with, such as this:
http://www.amazon.com/Fluke-1AC-A1-II-Volt-Alert-Non-Contact-Voltage/dp/B000EJ332O/ref=sr_1_1?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1363448002&sr=1-1&keywords=voltage detector

ETA: you could also try jumpering the vacuum switch to see how long it runs. Don't run the stove unattended with it jumpered, as it is a safety feature.

 

[Defiant]

I gave it a good cleaning this morning,

Did this include your exhaust system?

 

[skydmark1]

yes, I cleaned the exhaust as well

I was going to try jumping the vacuum switch and see how long it ran but the schematic doesn't list one.....instead is has 3 snap discs

 

[skydmark1]

Ran the stove with a meter on it.....blower kicked on and I got 120volts.....it ran a bit longer this time, maybe 6 or 7 minutes then blower kicked off and back down to 0 volts. So i'm guessing it's a safety switch of some kind causing the problem.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

yes, I cleaned the exhaust as well

I was going to try jumping the vacuum switch and see how long it ran but the schematic doesn't list one.....instead is has 3 snap discs

It is what is called a flow switch.page 45 of the installation manual.

 

[skydmark1]

ahh flow switch.....I'm wondering if it could be a snap disc though? There's one that sits right on the plenum above the combustion blower...maybe try jumping that and see if it runs?

On reason I think the snap switch is because the stove doesn't go into shut down mode...just the blower shuts off.

 

[Defiant]

He is

smarter than your average bear!!

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

What are the lights that are on and are any flashing on the control panel just after the blower quits. A couple of minutes is way too soon for the POF switch to be checked but the other safeties can be.

 

[skydmark1]

Start light stays green after the blower shuts off, no other lights come on.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

But pellets drop and the fire starts then the blower quits and there are no pellets being feed so the fire goes out? If that is the case you might have a loose connection on one of those molex plugs or the controller has issues or the combustion blower is overheating and shutting down.

I'd do a patch cord routine and directly power it (combustion blower) from a wall outlet after disconnecting it from the stove's wiring harness and see if it will run for more than a few minutes. Remember stove off, cold, and unplugged that live 120 stuff isn't nice.

The the flow switch just disrupts the power to the push auger.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

I just want to make certain that the combustion blower will run long enough to rule out those other two safeties.

 

[skydmark1]

I actually just tried running the stove again and watched it more closely....combustion blower ran for over 10 minutes this time, but once the stove was out of startup mode for maybe 5 minutes or so.....it shut off. A minute or two later all the lights on the control board went out.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Those lights went out about the time I'd be expecting the proof of fire switch to close and the convection fan to turn on on my stove.

 

[skydmark1]

So I'm going to hazard a guess taht my POF switch is the one labeled as Ceramic System Disc 120 degree NO. The other two say Hopper and Safety and are 200 degree NC

 

[Don2222]

I worked on two stoves where all the lights went out. In both cases it was a bad AC cord. Both stoves used a computer type AC cord that plugged into the back of the stove. When the stove heated up, one of the contacts expanded and opened the circuit shutting down all power to the stove. So check the incoming power line.

 

[skydmark1]

Don2222 - I don't lose power though...exhaust blower stays running until stove completes shut down process.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

I worked on two stoves where all the lights went out. In both cases it was a bad AC cord. Both stoves used a computer type AC cord that plugged into the back of the stove. When the stove heated up, one of the contacts expanded and opened the circuit shutting down all power to the stove. So check the incoming power line.

That would do it.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

So I'm going to hazard a guess taht my POF switch is the one labeled as Ceramic System Disc 120 degree NO. The other two say Hopper and Safety and are 200 degree NC

Yes, you can jump the switch or test it if you have a multimeter.

 

[skydmark1]

Jumped the switch...as soon as I turned the stove on the blowers came on. I'm going to let it run a while but my gut is saying that switch is the issue.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

After this runs for awhile and you turn the stove off etc. .. , you really should check that AC cord because it could go blip for an extremely short period of time and you wouldn't notice it watching the combustion blower. When the power came back on the combustion blower would be on and heading to shutdown on a good number of stoves.

 

[skydmark1]

Stove runs flawlessly with the POF snap disc jumped. Gonna pull it out make sure it's good and clean and test it with my meter and a hair dryer. Looks like I'll be off to the stove shop on monday to see if this is covered by my warranty.

 

[DexterDay]

Some good trouble shooting in this thread. Good job skydmark1, Heat Seeker, and Smokey

 

[LOPI AGP]

It is the snap disk. I have the Lopi version on the same stove. The auger motor died after a few hours of use. There is a replacement unit which is double the size as the stock one. Make sure you have that one before your warrentee is up. Also when the repair man was here he said that the snap disk are faulty and replaced it.

Robert