Elena Air Convection chirp but ... heat is good!

[Lake Girl]

Hubby loaded the pellet stove this morning and shortly after convection blower started making odd sounds. I figure he dropped a pellet and its rattling in the bird cage. Nope. Try spraying with graphite... Nope. Panic mode sets in as it is one of the colder days this year ... and Hubby was already at work apparently at a house fire (all good ... minimal damage). I hate working on wiring of any kind

Dismantle the majolica on the other Elena, draw a diagram of the wire colours, disconnect the three wires that go to the board taking the capacitor, connector and convection blower. Disconnect the Elena air blower and wires (noting that wire connection slightly different). The hex screws are a pain to get at. Install the spare using the phillips screws that were used on that one, wire up according to the drawing (wire colours agree across connector), and fire it up. Heat is so good!

Time to buy another spare ...

Will check to see if there is anyway to save the old one. Not too many places here that may work on electric motors.

 

[heat seeker]

Probably just a dry bearing. Can be lubed and saved.

 

[Lake Girl]

Figured it was a bearing but no practical experience with the tear down and fix ... guess it's time to learn

 

[heat seeker]

Yeah - what have you got to lose? A motor that you're going to (hopefully not) trash.

 

[Lake Girl]

No trashing it yet ... will see if I can figure it out

 

[heat seeker]

I just looked in YouTube under "stove motor bearing" and got a few hits that might be helpful.

 

[DMKNLD]

Hey LG,

Not unlike having a 'parts' tractor in the garage, it's definitely advantageous to have a same brand 'parts' stove to cannibalize from when you're in a pinch. Particularly given that "Murphy" always seems to be especially good winter company, guaranteeing that your stove will break down on the coldest days of the year instead of the last days of pellet burning in the spring ! With temps well below 0 F for you guys up there I bet - I don't even want to know what that is in Celsius temps - having your stove back up and running is a good thing no doubt !

Here in Maine we've had 80+ mph hurricane force winds and mid 50 F temps with 3" of rain in just a few hours in places last night, with a 12"+ snowstorm predicted tomorrow for the parts of the state hit hardest by power outages from last night's storm. So our bi-polar weather continues here in the NE, though overall much warmer and essentially snow-free up to now compared to last year's brutal winter. But it looks like that might be changing for the 2nd half.

Regards, and stay warm, DK

 

[Lake Girl]

Bought the second stove with the thought to install in second location but the insurance company said they would double the premium if we installed it (insurance shopping is on the list!). It's been sitting in the spare room/weight room/library not installed. Bought it a couple of years after Northland stopped distributing the Ekotecks. Still had that moment of "what if" because of that dang "Murphy's law"... and I really hate electrical. Lost a lot of time and heat having 3 start/stops with the long "final cleaning" phase on these stoves. Then I had majolica sides and tops all over the living room after pulling them off both stoves... GS dog had a hard time finding her spot to nap

Temps here last night were -29C; currently -21C/-6F with light dusting of snow over the last day. Caught the news about lake effect in the Golden Horseshoe/Buffalo, NY area where I used to live ... they never seem to catch a break. I know the east coast is a mess as Nova Scotia got caught bad too (I did catch part of the news this morning before the fan croaked). DK, keep you and the family safe!

Mentioned the possibility of bearing repair to the Hubby and got him curious (not me yet) - squirrel cage is out but don't have a ring pliers that small. Could likely get it off but why mangle as there is no rush. We'll check out that bearing soon.

 

[Bioburner]

Shoot some pictures of the motor etc. I am too lazy and the stove is to warm as it was -14 this AM an not about to tear any stove apart. Just about had a major brain fart last night when trying to reassemble the gas stoves fan assembly. Needed a good dust bunny eviction and did a vibration abatement to make it quieter. Successful but project was three times longer than what it should have been.

 

[Lake Girl]

Got as far as taking a picture of the label yesterday but was planning on taking more to document. There really is very little info out there on these stoves and their parts. Wonder how many were sold before Ecoteck was bought by Ravelli and Northland disappeared as distributor...

-26C/-14F in International Falls, MN ... supposed to be warming up a bit over the next couple of days

PS Dog is back in her favoured spot in front of the stove!

 

[Bioburner]

Well supposed to warm up to low 20's on Thursday before another stretch of cold.

 

[Lake Girl]

Some photos to get you started...

 

[Bioburner]

I would use a pair of good flat bladed screwdrivers or break down and invest in the snap ring pliers. Looks like normal sealed bearings. I have a good bearing supplier in Alexandria. Glad as the other bearings I was feeding the Bixby were not working out. Got the art of taking the fan assembly out and removal of bearings and replacement down to an hour

 

[Pelleting In NJ]

(broken link removed to http://www.ebay.com/itm/ECOFIT-2GDSu15-Centrifugal-Fan-230V-50-60Hz-/151739425528) (this is a 230V, buy it for the bearings if you can't get them anywhere else, they are probably metric size)

ecofit.com

rosenbergusa.com/ecofit/

I think Ecofit was later bought by EBM Pabst, so there may be an equiv EBM part number too.

 

[Lake Girl]

Thanks Pelleting ... got the rosenberg page already opened and I did see that fan on ebay. Any idea how much these fans are worth on the dealer market?

 

[Lake Girl]

The bearings on the Ecofit blower for the Elena are:
NMB 608Z England

Now to see if we can find anything other than the knock-offs.

 

[Bioburner]

608 is a pretty standard bearing #. Just need to get a high grade set.

 

[Lake Girl]

Checked today and local suppliers can get NTN or SKF brand bearing. NTN may be coming in the Monday order at a family owned/run machine shop. SKF are a 3 day ship after ordering. Pricing is $14 vs. $15 Cdn. respectively.

Is there a reason why they are shielded only on one side? 608Z vs. 608ZZ?

What's more relevant - brand name or ABEC rating? Both?

 

[Bioburner]

Both are pretty good. I would lean towards the SKF. A dollar can't buy a decent cup of coffee and you will waste more time having to do it again.
Need shielding on both sides. There are some applications where a grease zerk is used. Some industrial motors have a oil lube system and compressors