Castile Insert Not Feeding

[Daryl Cook]

Ok, so I replaced the feed motor 2 weeks ago becasue it was loud and jamming often so think it was on it's last leg. The new motor worked great for a week (it was so much quiter then the old one..loved it). Then I turned it on in the morning and the exhaust fan went on and call light turned red but no pellets. Here's what I've done so far:
*Cleaned exhaust pipe
*Vacuumed out pellets and confimred no jam on auger
*Nothing blocking the drop tube
*Burn pot is fine
*Snap disk reset button is fine
*Resealed around the vacuum switch and cleaned vacuum tube that goes to switch
*Jumped the wires going to vacuum switch
*Swapped another feed motor from dealer

Still no feed. I'm seeing if I can set up a service call with dealer . . . I don't know what it could be at this point. Am I right in thinking that if any of the snap disks were tripped that the stove wouldn't turn on at all? The exhaust fan and call light go on so it can't be a snap disk issue right? And if I jumped the vacuum switch it can't be that...the feed motor should run even with door open with it jumped right? Very frustrated so any help would be appreciated. I'm not great with testing electronics (I have a multimeter but couldn't tell you resistance from continuity). Thanks.

 

[tjnamtiw]

You're right. The feed motor would run with the wires going to the vacuum switch connected together if the door is open IF everything else is OK! You've done the other things I suggested over on the other forum, I see.

If snap disk #2 trips, the stove will still turn on but the feed motor will not run! It is in line with the vacuum switch. This disk, I believe, has a manual reset button between the two prongs. CAREFULLY WITH THE STOVE UNPLUGGED, push in on the button and see if it resets. Perhaps with the new feed motor, you overfired the stove and tripped that disk, which is on the back side of the drop tube.


When you first plug in the stove, how many flashes do you get on the blue light? See if the dealer can bring along a new control box, just in case the snap disk 2 is OK.

Oh, and put the make and model of your stove in your signature so people know for sure what you have. I know you said Castile Insert in the topic but next time you may not. Trust me, I've done it several times before people finally got it through my thick head!

 

[Daryl Cook]

You're right. The feed motor would run with the wires going to the vacuum switch connected together if the door is open IF everything else is OK! You've done the other things I suggested over on the other forum, I see.

If snap disk #2 trips, the stove will still turn on but the feed motor will not run! It is in line with the vacuum switch. This disk, I believe, has a manual reset button between the two prongs. CAREFULLY WITH THE STOVE UNPLUGGED, push in on the button and see if it resets. Perhaps with the new feed motor, you overfired the stove and tripped that disk, which is on the back side of the drop tube.


When you first plug in the stove, how many flashes do you get on the blue light? See if the dealer can bring along a new control box, just in case the snap disk 2 is OK.

Oh, and put the make and model of your stove in your signature so people know for sure what you have. I know you said Castile Insert in the topic but next time you may not. Trust me, I've done it several times before people finally got it through my thick head!

Thanks for the reply and I was laughing as I read it becasue I spoke to the dealer/tech guy yesterday and he told me to try the same two things...he said to try jumping the snap disk (already tried pushing the reset button) and then said he has a loaner control box I can swap in to check that. He couldn't remember off the top of his head the proper way to jump the snap disk...he said to try taking one of the two wires off the snap disk to jump it first and then try connecting the two wires? Oh, and I'll count the blue light flashes when I try these tomorrow...can't remeber if it's 4, 5 or 6 flashes...I just turn it on/off a few times with remote and the blue flashes stop. I'll report back...thanks for your help! He said that the snap disks can go "bad" so maybe that's it...im also going to look at all connections to make sure they're secure also.

 

[tjnamtiw]

It should be 6 flashes of the blue light. And DON'T turn it on and off to stop the lights! It's a normal start up sequence!
To 'jump' any snap disk, you just put a wire between them and tape it up to avoid shorting to ground. Using an ohmmeter, you would disconnect the wires and measure between the two terminals of the snap disk. It should read zero in this case for snap disk 2.

 

[Daryl Cook]

Ok, blue light flashes 6 times. I tried jumping the snap disks and still no auger movement. I still had the vacuum switch jumped as well. I guess the next thing to try is the loaner control box from the dealer to rule that out. Dealer also mentioned it could be a bad thermocouple but not sure how to test that. Wife is getting anxious as weather is getting cooler and still no pellet stove :-(

 

[tjnamtiw]

If the thermocouple is working, you should see a green light come on inside the clear control box as the fire starts and it should turn red as it heats up more. 200 degrees - green and 600 degrees - red. You can manually put a load of pellets in the burn pot and light them with a torch to test this. THIS IS ASSUMING THAT YOUR EXHAUST BLOWER COMES ON WHEN YOU PLUG IT IN.

To test the thermocouple, set your voltmeter to milivolts DC and connect the meter leads to the ends of the thermocouple wires. Using a propane lighter heat the end of the ceramic tube. You should see indication of some voltage rise as it gets hot. If not, pull out the thermocouple and you would likely see the end broken with a gap between the two wires.

 

[Daryl Cook]

I tried jumping the snap disks and still no feed. I haven't looked at the thermocouple yet...at this point I think I want to see if the delaer can come out with his loaner control box and see what he can figure out. At least I know more about how these things work even if I wasn't able to fix it.

 

[Daryl Cook]

It ended up being the control box. She's back up and running. Thanks for all your help!

 

[Bioburner]

Expensive start to the heating season

 

[Daryl Cook]

Yes, the feed motor was $150 and the control box was another $150 but at least I saved any service call charges thanks to this forum. I've run this stove 24/7 for the last 6 winters and this is the first issue I've had so all in all not that bad. I'm about to do the spring modification to my heat tubes that tjnamtiw posted which will save me at least $300 in pellets so I'm calling it a wash ;-)

 

[Bioburner]

Good luck on fluting your stove. Its done on boilers to raise efficiency.

 

[tjnamtiw]

I'm glad you're back up and running! That was a great deal on the control box! I've never seen anyone buy one for less than $300! Glad to see we have another 'spring' convert on the way!

 

[Daryl Cook]

I think the dealer felt bad that I've been down for a week and half and he couldn't even give me a date to come look at it because he's backlogged with like 85 service appointments. I have the springs and will be cutting/installing them soon so I'll report back. Thanks again for your help!

 

[tjnamtiw]

I think the dealer felt bad that I've been down for a week and half and he couldn't even give me a date to come look at it because he's backlogged with like 85 service appointments. I have the springs and will be cutting/installing them soon so I'll report back. Thanks again for your help!

No problem. Remember on the springs to put a bend in the one end like my picture shows so you can twist it to get it in. It won't (shouldn't) slide in. It's a tight fit, which is exactly what you want for heat transfer.

 

[Daryl Cook]

Hey guys, now I'm having a different issue. I'm not home to witness it my wife is but the stove is shutting itself off and the remote battery box/compartment beeps continuously. I'm almost certain I just replaced those batteries. The only other time this has happened is when I ran it on high setting for hours and it tripped one of the snap disks (overheat) but I thought the beeping came from the control box not the remote battery box. I don't see anything in the manual about beeping at all?

 

[Daryl Cook]

I did some searching and think I figured out this beeping>stove shut off problem. Here's a quote from the thread " seems that the stove wasn't beeping but the SkyTech remote receiver was. You know that little black box that sits near your stove. So reading the instructions at 1am was not fun, but I found out that there is a THERMO- SAFETY feature built into this little device when the RECEIVER is operating where ambient temperatures exceed 130 F degrees it beeps and beeps, forever. Hmm interesting so this little box on the hearth 8 inches to the side of the stove is trying to tell me that its internal temp is over 130? really?" So all this time I thought it was stove that was shutting itself off due to overheating on high setting but it's the remote control receiver!. I'm going to see if I can relocate the receiver farther away from the stove so the heat doen't trip it.

 

[tjnamtiw]

That's interesting! Mine has been sitting next to my Castile for 3 years but to the right of the surround and that never happened. It doesn't even get warm??? I even had it inside the cast side piece for part of a season (lousy range,as you probably found out). Strange........

 

[Daryl Cook]

Hey tjnatiw, I installed the springs...I only had to twist one of them in...the others slid in but I think they are tight enough...I feel a difference in the heat output just by holding my hand in front of it...on high I cant even keep my hand there too long One question, can they go too far down the tubes? I don't know how the air is blown in and don't want to block the entrance...

 

[tjnamtiw]

Hey tjnatiw, I installed the springs...I only had to twist one of them in...the others slid in but I think they are tight enough...I feel a difference in the heat output just by holding my hand in front of it...on high I cant even keep my hand there too long One question, can they go too far down the tubes? I don't know how the air is blown in and don't want to block the entrance...

No, they won't block the airflow, as far as I know. Just keep them flush with the front of the tubes. I'm surprised that they slid in. I had to really twist to get mine in. I'm glad it's working for you! Happy heat!

 

[Daryl Cook]

Thanks, after running it with the springs in they tightened up...even the ones the slid in now are in there good