Controlling combustion blower speeds?

[shooter64738]

Hello all!

Few weeks ago my control board failed middle of the night, and at 6 degrees outside, I couldn't wait around for parts.

Using a micro controller and some realys I cobbled together something to get me by. Its been 2 weeks now and the stove burns hotter, makes less ash, and uses fewer pellets. Not by a bunch, but I can go 28 hours now between refills instead of 24.

Question is, if I do run the combustion blower via relay, its always on 'high' and the previous dead control ran at a lower speed during ignition and higher apeed after lighting. Is there a benefit to being able to control the combustion fan speed? I can change it out to a triac and vary the speed, but is it neccessary? Will ash build up be worse?

New control comes in friday, but I might just keep tinkering with this some more. Fyi the stove is a heatilator cab50 stove.

Thanks all!

 

[jzm2cc]

Not sure what failed on your control board, but motor triacs are replaceable.

Quads/Heatilator's don't have effective air dampers so they control the exhaust blowers at the 3 different feed rates. With a full speed exh blower on the lowest heat setting I suspect the fire would run lean and flame out eventually.

 

[shooter64738]

Thanks for the info!

Controller wouldnt power on at all, fuses were good. Couldn't find any signals or power to the controller chip, which i think is of the pic variety.

Ive been chaging the duration and frequency of the pellet drops depending on requested temperature. I was just wondering if exhaust speed should be variable, or if full on was appropriate. I may replace the stock controller with this one. Its certainly easier to maintain.