Castle Serenity Model 12327 Vacuum failure help

[Hawk52]

Hello, I was wondering if I could get any help dealing with a major problem with my pellet stove. The model is a Castle Serenity Model 12327, specifically this:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Castle-1...0-lb-Hopper-and-Auto-Ignition-12327/205397929

We just had a repair technician over on Friday who couldn't figure out the issue, only had guesses on what it might be. I also called Castle themselves and didn't get much there either.

The issue is:
The stove starts up, pellets feed, stove begins burning as regular. However, once the blower begins the stove reports a loss of vacuum and shuts down the system. No pellets drop and the fire goes out. Eventually the machine faults.

I watched the technician use a pressure gauge on the hose coming from the machine into the sensor and the pressure dropped from .30 mbars to .15mbars when the failure took place. There's a leak of some sort taking place, but only after the fire begins and the blower kicks in.

If the sensor is bypassed the stove burns just fine.

There's no problems with the door sealing or the motors or the fans. The blower is loud but the technician said that's not unusual for a machine that's seen heavy use for two years or so.

We'd never had a single problem with this before two weeks ago. The machine went from running just fine to completely non-operational in one single day after a cleaning.

Has anyone heard of this before? The best guess the technician had was a crack somewhere in the vacuum cycle, or a loose gasket, or something to that effect but he had no idea where to look.

Again:
- Stove starts
- Pellets drop
- Fire starts
- Blower kicks in
- Sensor registers a drop in vacuum
- Pellets stop dropping
- Fire dies out
- Stove faults

Thanks for any help.

 

[rich2500]

If the stove burns fine bypassing the sensor then that is your problem.

 

[heat seeker]

Just because you bypass the sensor and the stove works doesn't mean the sensor is bad. The tech demonstrated a drop in vacuum. That is likely the problem.

Is the vacuum hose in good shape - not cracked, the ends still pliable and tightly fastened to their nipples?

Have you unplugged the stove for a few minutes to reset the control?

Does the combustion blower slow down when the room blower starts up? If you have a meter, monitor the voltage going to the combustion blower. It may drop when the room blower starts up, causing a reduction in vacuum.

Other than that, I see no correlation between the two blowers. I suppose that if you had a leak in the heat exchanger, the room blower could be blowing air into the firebox, thereby reducing vacuum enough to trip the switch.

 

[Hawk52]

Just because you bypass the sensor and the stove works doesn't mean the sensor is bad. The tech demonstrated a drop in vacuum. That is likely the problem.

Is the vacuum hose in good shape - not cracked, the ends still pliable and tightly fastened to their nipples?

Have you unplugged the stove for a few minutes to reset the control?

Does the combustion blower slow down when the room blower starts up? If you have a meter, monitor the voltage going to the combustion blower. It may drop when the room blower starts up, causing a reduction in vacuum.

Other than that, I see no correlation between the two blowers. I suppose that if you had a leak in the heat exchanger, the room blower could be blowing air into the firebox, thereby reducing vacuum enough to trip the switch.

Hose seems fine, I tried blowing compressed air through it a bit ago and around the fans/motors/general area but that didn't do much. Stove's been turned off and on a bunch, had factory defaults restored, etc, etc.

The blower I don't know about. It's really loud, so it's hard to really tell if one of them loses power.

The entire process is like clockwork though. It always follows that same procedure that I listed above.

 

[rich2500]

If the tech couldn't find the problem I sure wouldn't put much faith in his findings. A few drops of oil on the motor bushings should quite the fan down then you might be able to hear if the exhaust fan is slowing down when the room fan kicks in.

 

[Deezl Smoke]

Hello, I was wondering if I could get any help dealing with a major problem with my pellet stove. The model is a Castle Serenity Model 12327, specifically this:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Castle-1...0-lb-Hopper-and-Auto-Ignition-12327/205397929

We just had a repair technician over on Friday who couldn't figure out the issue, only had guesses on what it might be. I also called Castle themselves and didn't get much there either.

The issue is:
The stove starts up, pellets feed, stove begins burning as regular. However, once the blower begins the stove reports a loss of vacuum and shuts down the system. No pellets drop and the fire goes out. Eventually the machine faults.

I watched the technician use a pressure gauge on the hose coming from the machine into the sensor and the pressure dropped from .30 mbars to .15mbars when the failure took place. There's a leak of some sort taking place, but only after the fire begins and the blower kicks in.

If the sensor is bypassed the stove burns just fine.

There's no problems with the door sealing or the motors or the fans. The blower is loud but the technician said that's not unusual for a machine that's seen heavy use for two years or so.

We'd never had a single problem with this before two weeks ago. The machine went from running just fine to completely non-operational in one single day after a cleaning.

Has anyone heard of this before? The best guess the technician had was a crack somewhere in the vacuum cycle, or a loose gasket, or something to that effect but he had no idea where to look.

Again:
- Stove starts
- Pellets drop
- Fire starts
- Blower kicks in
- Sensor registers a drop in vacuum
- Pellets stop dropping
- Fire dies out
- Stove faults

Thanks for any help.

Did you take the exhaust blower out when you cleaned? If so, are all the wires connected and in good shape?

The exhaust blower basically dictates the vacuum pull. But since it still had vacuum even though a drop in vacuum, it still had pull, I'd bet the switch is not operating correctly, and likely do to moisture. But the hopper lid I believe is tied to the vac switch too? So make sure the hopper switch is still hooked up after the cleaning, and that the hopper lid is closed all the way.

 

[rich2500]

has the venting been cleaned.

 

[michelles72]

Did you ever find the problem? We have the exact same issue with the sam stove.

 

[JRemington]

Do you guys have the black adjustment knob on your vacuum switches?