Englander 10-cpm auger motor problem

[mithesaint]

Ugh. It's been a bad 24 hours. My favorite team lost a 24 game winning streak, the clothes dryer started falling apart, and I woke up to a chilly house.

My 10-cpm auger motor started making bad sounds last evening, and I figured something was going bad. Around 5 am, I woke up and heard the sounds of silence. Got up, hit the start button, and heard lots of noise from the motor, but nothing happened. Cleaned out the hopper, pulled the auger out, and started it up again. With no resistance, the auger will turn, but as soon as there is resistance on the auger, it just grinds and doesn't move.

I'm planning on ordering a new auger motor, but wanted to check first. Time for a new one right? Nothing else this could be, right?

 

[CladMaster]

Pull the auger out again and make sure there is no blockage, then re-install the auger and line it up so that it turns in the hole without touching the sides of the shaft / housing.

 

[SwineFlue]

With no resistance, the auger will turn, but as soon as there is resistance on the auger, it just grinds and doesn't move.

Is there any gearing in there? It sounds like it could be a gear that is slipping. Sometimes there is one sacrificial gear made of plastic to protect the motor itself.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

check for a jam at the top of the auger sleeve where it transitions to the drop chute easy way to do it is to look up the drop chute with a mirror and flashlight. you should not see any pellet material at the top of the drop chute. its possible also that you have a stripped phenolic gear in the gearbox.

 

[mithesaint]

Thanks for stopping by Mike. On behalf of the rest of the englander owners, we appreciate it.

Pulled the auger and the path is clear. It actually fed a few pellets before the auger got full of pellets and it was too much resistance. I thought it was pretty easy to stop the auger by hand when I had it out of the stove. I had suspected a problem in the gear box.

Ah well. Such is life. Stuff breaks sometimes. New auger motor on order already. New combustion blower too. The bearings had been whining for awhile, and I think I was on borrowed time with that too. Thanks again!

 

[stoveguy2esw]

when you stopped the auger by hand did the electric motor still run? you shouldn't have been able to stop the whole thing that easily. if the electric motor was still spinning its dead bang the phenolic gear is stripped, would have had to be a hard jam to do that,

that said kind of weird to have a bearing issue in the exhaust blower in only two seasons as well. Are you sure its bearings or did the staking's on the motor housing loosen up? if the housing is loose and you push against it the noise should cease, if this is the case you may well be able to re stake it and correct it

 

[mithesaint]

I stopped the auger by hand, but the motor still ground away. Nasty sounding noise, I might add.

My stove was used. It's an '09 model, so it has a few seasons under it's belt. The housing still seems tight, and no amount of messing with it would make the noise go away. It still worked good enough, but I figured it would go out at some point this season. I was starting to get a bit of a dirty burn, so I figured now was as good of a time as any to replace it, rather than wait for it to die and be stuck burning propane for a few days again later this winter. No worries.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

I stopped the auger by hand, but the motor still ground away. Nasty sounding noise, I might add.

My stove was used. It's an '09 model, so it has a few seasons under it's belt. The housing still seems tight, and no amount of messing with it would make the noise go away. It still worked good enough, but I figured it would go out at some point this season. I was starting to get a bit of a dirty burn, so I figured now was as good of a time as any to replace it, rather than wait for it to die and be stuck burning propane for a few days again later this winter. No worries.

ohh ok, saw your "start date" in your sig and assumed (again, as I recall now) that you had gotten it new at that date. still kinda early but I feel a little better knowing its twice as old as I thought it was

 

[mithesaint]

Yep. Bought the stove used because I sorta went into the pellet thing blindly. Not many stoves around here. In fact, even now I've only ever seen one other stove running. It was a little tough at first, trying to figure out what was normal and what was a problem. Without hearth.com I would have been screwed. On the other hand, without hearth.com I'd probably still be burning propane, being cold, and being poor!