Country Stoves PS40 - auger creaking and groaning like CRAZY

[cptmoney]

I have a 2-year-old Country Stoves Winslow PS40 pellet stove.

(I'M HAVING TROUBLE WITH THE PICS; JUST CUT AND PASTE THE ENTIRE LINK TO SEE WHAT I'M REFERRING TO)

http://i512.photobucket.com/albums/t326/cptmoney/Country Stoves - Winslow PS40/DSCN1855.jpg

It's been a pretty solid little number, save an igniter replacement last spring (which was diagnosed with help from this bunch! Thanks!).

All of a sudden - as in this morning - it has started creaking and groaning every quite regularly and quite loudly.

I thought the auger was jammed, so I emptied the pellet hopper, and cleaned everything out real well. Reassembled her, fired her up, and we're right back where we started.

It's making a loud creaking sound, something like a haunted pirate ship might make in the middle of a dark, foggy, night. What's that all about?! Is this thing possessed? Black Beard's spirit livin' in my pellet stove?

I tried lightly spraying a coat of WD-40 at the base of the auger, where the auger motor attaches, but it's not making any difference. I can adjust/alter the sound if I move the auger motor back and forth here:

http://i512.photobucket.com/albums/t326/cptmoney/Country Stoves - Winslow PS40/DSCN1853.jpg

That's my finger in the middle of the pic, pointing to the auger motor - flash sorta white-washed everything.

If I wiggle that auger motor back and forth, I can alter the sound, but not make it go away. I tried shimming the motor into one position, as it has about 3/16" of play. That made no difference.

Can I empty the hopper and lubricate the auger sleeve/tube/screw? I figured that this might be a bad move, so I've left it alone. The sound is directly related to the auger/auger tube/auger motor, however - so I know I'm close.

Anyone dealt with this before? Mlobitz?

I'd love to get it dialed in soon, before hard core winter rolls in. Sounds like I'm living at the San Francisco pier or something...

Any thoughts?

Tucker

 

[cptmoney]

Try this for pics:

Here's the stove -

 

[cptmoney]

And here's the motor that I'm referring to -

I can alter the sound by moving it around. Can't make it go away, per se, but can change it. It has something to do with the friction of the auger and auger motor. Not sure where to go from here.

Anyone else with a PS40 had to wrestle with this?

 

[Delta-T]

you may have something jammed up in the tube. that auger bolts in there on the top and bottom so thats in there pretty good. its no fun to take that thing out, I tell you.

 

[cptmoney]

That was my first thought as well - but the auger is working fine. Been running all morning, but making noise the whole time.

It's burning right on schedule, so whatever it is, it's not impeding the auger.

 

[SXIPro]

I believe you already diagnosed it correctly. Get an Exorcist in there to scare BlackBeard off.

 

[cptmoney]

Haha!

Call 'em in on Friday the 13th and cast him out?

Worth a shot; my WD40 idea didn't work - so why not?

 

[Delta-T]

with all the reduction gears in the gearbox those auger have fantastic torque. Even if something is jammed in there it may not impede the flow of pellets or the movement of the auger. Maybe if you take the motor off and put power to it you can eliminate the groaning coming from the motor itself. Then at least you know you'll have to pop that auger out. Theres not really much else to it. I'll cross my fingers and pray to my gods that it passes (like a kidney stone).

 

[cptmoney]

with all the reduction gears in the gearbox those auger have fantastic torque. Even if something is jammed in there it may not impede the flow of pellets or the movement of the auger. Maybe if you take the motor off and put power to it you can eliminate the groaning coming from the motor itself. Then at least you know you'll have to pop that auger out. Theres not really much else to it. I'll cross my fingers and pray to my gods that it passes (like a kidney stone).

Well, your kidney stone analogy may have been closer than I thought; after running and grinding and creaking all afternoon yesterday and late into last night, this morning it's running like a champ. No noise (outside of the normal auger sounds).

Not sure what happened, but it looks like we're back on track!

Thanks for all the help and suggestions! Can't really point to the one thing that solved it - it's just....gone.

I'll keep you posted if anything changes...

Tucker

 

[F350R]

The OEM igniter went out on mine as well, interesting. It was replaced under warranty so no problems there. The only other problem I have ever had was a lot of mis fires last spring. I finally figured it out this fall. The vacume switch was overly sensitive I backed the adjustment off about a third of a turn and all is well again. Testing the system by cracking the door still shuts it down immediately as it should.

Mike