Enviro Empress Auger Motor Won't Turn

[fletchtb]

Hello everyone. I am looking for some suggestions.

I am at the tail end of my second season with my Enviro Empress. About two thirds of the way through this season, my auger motor died and I replaced it. About a week ago I shut off my stove one morning and then went to turn it on to take the chill out of a cool night. The auger motor wouldn't turn. I emptied out the hopper and vacuumed all around the auger to make sure it wasn't blocked, but the motor still wouldn't turn. I took the auger motor out, but connected to the control board, but it still wouldn't turn. I was annoyed, but figured I burned out another motor.

I bought another motor and hooked it up to the control board, but the new motor won't turn either. I am now thinking it is a problem with the control board, but I am not sure how to troubleshoot it further. When I turn the stove on, I know the vacuum switch is engaging. I can see the auger light on, but it seems like there is no power to the motor.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Todd

 

[jtp10181]

Use a multimeter to test if there actually is voltage to the motor. If not, try to trace it back and see where the voltage stops. If the board never sends the voltage out then that could be the problem.

 

[seaken]

You can power the motor directly to eliminate it as the problem. Take an extension cord and put spade connectors or aligator clips on the ends. Hook up connectors to motor before you plug into electricity. Also make sure you have only the auger motor connected. (If you are not familiar with electricity don't do this without guidance. You can get quite a shock! You could also fry the control board. Isolate the motor only)

Check your system snap disk, if there is one inline with your auger motor. There should be a wiring diagram on the stove body somewhere.

Also, make sure you can spin the auger by hand and that the auger is not jammed.

 

[fletchtb]

Thanks for the advice. It has taken me a little while to reply, but here is what I found.

When I took out the control board, I noticed a fuse was blown. I went to Radio Shack and picked up a pack of 4 fuses. I installed a new fuse on the board and I was back in business for a few minutes, but noticed that the auger motor stopped turning. I pull out the control board again and the new fuse was blown. Later that afternoon, I happened to be in the area of my stove shop and I stopped in. They guy I spoke with seemed to think the fuse may have blown when the ignitor was in use (same fuse used for the auger motor, ignitor, and one of the fans), which would explain the fuse blowing after only a couple of minutes. He advised inspecting all the wires to see I could see where it might be shorting out.

I went back home and replaced the fuse and repositioned the wires to the auger motor (actually swapped prongs) and then inspected the wires to the ignitor. I made sure none of the wire were touching or crossed. None of them seemed to be frayed though.

Anyway I fired up the stove and all was good. I have used the stove several times since then without problems, so I will continue to monitor for problems. There will be several chilly nights here in VT this week, so I plan to run the stove most nights this week.

Thanks again for your advice.

 

[kinsmanstoves]

If you are blowing fuses you have sometype of electrical problem. It might be the board, wires crossed or the auger motor. I would say it is not the motor but check everything with the two suggestions above.

Eric