Dead short in Northstar blower

[David.Ervin]

Last night, I was getting the usual horrible rattling noise from the blower on my Northstar, so I turned it off via the override switch on the wall. When I turned it back on before heading to bed, all the lights in my living room went out. It looks like there's a dead short in the wiring for the blowers, and I'm not sure where to start looking for it. I checked out the wiring in the wall box with the switch and rheostat this morning and didn't see anything unusual, so I'm looking for advice on where to start on the fireplace itself.

 

[DAKSY]

To access the blowers, you'll hafta pull the firebricks on the floor of the firebox...Underneath them is an access cover with screws holding it in place...
Once you have that out, you'll be able to see the wiring, some of which is attached to the snap disk for the blowers. That snap disk is mounted to the access cover.
Good luck with your investigations. Keep the power off when you're playing around in there. There's not a lot of room & if your hand gets zapped, it's guaranteed that you'll also find a sharp edge & bleed.
BT, DT...

 

[David.Ervin]

I tore it all apart and got into the blowers and wiring this evening. Apart from some stray ashes, nothing out of the ordinary turned up. I may have nailed down the source of a really obnoxious rattle to an aluminum hang tag in there that has all the testing and safety info on it. If nothing else, I've got the unit sparkling clean.

 

[David.Ervin]

Silly question I think I know the answer to.... It's safe to burn this stove without the blower running, yes? I know it won't distribute heat quite as well, but that's nothing a ceiling fan won't fix.

 

[DAKSY]

Silly question I think I know the answer to.... It's safe to burn this stove without the blower running, yes? I know it won't distribute heat quite as well, but that's nothing a ceiling fan won't fix.

Yep...Go for it...

 

[David.Ervin]

I got suspicious of the circuit breaker since it's an Arc Fault interrupter, and I've noticed the others I have being very sensitive. I swapped it with an equivalently rated standard breaker, and the circuit still trips when I try to kick the fan on.

I suppose my next move is to dissect the rheostat and switch.

 

[PLAYS WITH FIRE]

If you a multimeter and schematic I can help you find your problem.

 

[David.Ervin]

I've got a guy from the local dealer / service place coming out tomorrow, and the wife doesn't want me playing with it any more. I was actually walking over to the switched with the multimeter when she stopped me . Hopefully we get this figured out and I can put the box fan away.