Exhaust housing?

[Mike D.]

Good morning all! Long time lurker first time poster here. I have an older Whitfield Cascade that I picked up second hand. That I know of I am at least the 3rd owner of this stove. It's worked fine for 2 year snow but recently the fan motor was locking up. It did this when powered on but would spin freely without power. This would indicate either a bad capacitor or a sliver of metal arcing the coils causing to behave like an electromagnet. I took the motor off and removed the combustion fan and housing but had some issues with the exhaust fan and housing. I couldn't get the set screw out as it was stripped. So.... I applied a little heat and was able to back out the set screw. In the process I managed to warp the housing a little and the fan. If you're still reading this and know where I can find a replacement housing and fan please chime in. Blowing out the motor worked and it runs and runs almost silently now.

Thanks!
Mike

 

[mralias]

Welcome! If you put your general location in your avatar that will help others offer suggestions to places near you. From the sounds of it you have already done a bunch of work on the exhaust fan. If it was me, I would get a new one. The rebuilds on these are just not worth it sometimes. I did a quick search and found this one (broken link removed). $176 is not a bad price and it looks to have everything you need. I'm sure you could find a cheap fan replacement, but I like to stick to with stock.

I am assuming of course that you lubricated the blower as noted in the manual.

The exhaust blower requires lubrication
every 6 months or yearly, depending on use, with not
more than two drops of 30 weight, SAE, nondetergent oil
at the two lubrication points on blower

 

[Mike D.]

Thanks for the reply mralias, I just updated my profile with location. The Cascade uses one motor that runs both fans. This stove is being moved to the basement as an auxiliary stove for power outages. The motor just needed blowing out and down the road if it fails again I'll drop it off at a shop nearby and have it re-wound. I was just looking at the motor sitting on the kitchen table and it dawned on me to just drill out the hole where the shaft passes thru the housing. Just enough to give the extra clearance it needs (like less then a 16th of an inch). This *might* introduce some exhaust gas into the house but I doubt it as the fan will draw air thru the expanded hole. Right? Now to find the fan blade - off to Google I go!

 

[mralias]

My bad. That was for the Advantage II stoves.

 

[imacman]

.....The exhaust blower requires lubrication
every 6 months or yearly, depending on use, with not more than two drops of 30 weight, SAE,
nondetergent oil at the two lubrication points on blower

All correct except the oil weight....electrical motors need 20 weight non detergent, not 30. For example, 3 in 1 oil in the blue can.

 

[Mike D.]

Ok so I took a deep breath and stepped back from the ledge. The housing isn't really an issue, the f'ed up impeller fan on the other hand is. I found a couple of sources online that has just the blade but decided to roll the dice.... I took my bent up broken a$$ impeller fan over to a local dealer and we played matchup with some fans he had in the back. Turns out there is a Harman impeller that fits perfectly. It has one more fan blade and the blades are a little shorter but it will work fine. Now off to re-assemble...

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

All correct except the oil weight....electrical motors need 20 weight non detergent, not 30. For example, 3 in 1 oil in the blue can.

Depends upon the motor Pete the motors on some of the Whit's combustion blowers did indeed call for 30 weight always use what is on the makers plate.

 

[mralias]

All correct except the oil weight....electrical motors need 20 weight non detergent, not 30. For example, 3 in 1 oil in the blue can.

Yeah I plagiarized that from the manual. Did not matter I had the wrong stove anyway.