GCI60 Troubleshooting Help!

[Ssyko]

Not exactly. There isn’t an exact crossover for the btb08. The bta12 is a little more robust at the same voltage. The latch voltage is very close. I have used them in breckwell. Englander, comfortbuilt. Ussc and enviro. (Most of those are appconx boards)

 

[jay0016]

You must have a mansion with all those stoves , I found some chips in NJ I'm getting priority shipped so hopefully I will have them this weekend.

Any good soldering kit you reccomend for replacing board components? I know I will need a very fine tip, but most of my soldering experience is wire applications. Although I've soldered to arduino boards in the past. I'm thinking now is a good time to upgrade from my 20 year old iron with a blunt tip.

 

[Ssyko]

Hakko,weller. I gave up on trying to get a hakko for a hobbyists its not worth the $$$. I think mine is a yihua or something like that and it works good for me. A good pair of flush cut nippers cut the legs off before you try to desilder that way doesn’t tend to pull the pads off the board

 

[Ssyko]

well your board looked familiar so i dug in the parts bin and i knew i had seen one before so i traced them out for ya

 

[jay0016]

Perfect! Thanks for the visualization that was the same spot I traced the combustion to so that's good!

 

[jay0016]

So I replaced the triac the other night, it did help a bit as i was able to start the stove but it was still apparent that the combustion fan was not getting the appropriate voltage as it was a bad flame.

I ordered a new board on ebay for 330 figure I can take the time to diagnose individual components on the board when it's out and possibly have a spare.

In the meantime I put some connectors on some lamp wire and connected to the fan and ran the stove it runs great. I know I lose the ability to adjust fan speeds but I ran the stove for an hour on 4 and just adjusted the dampener to accommodate for the amount of air. Tech manual says the fan runs on >=120 on setting 5.

Can I run the fan like this for extended periods of time if I am around the stove to monitor (3 or 4 hours)? Not too sure what the amp draw on the motor is but the wire did not get hot. I wouldnt run over night but we have some cold days coming up before the board gets here and I would really like to use the stove to warm up the house before I drop the temp at bedtime.

 

[Ssyko]

It wont hurt the fan at all. Definitely don’t leave it unattended

 

[stovelark]

The GCI60 from Regency was the sister stove to Enviro's M55 insert. They made it for Regency with their badging. Don't know if you looked at it, but I remember a few M55's that the cable from the daughter board to the motherboard worked loose and weird things happened. The magnet on the top looks to be in place, that presented issues too. (The top has to be closed for the magnet to close a magnetic switch to allow the auger to turn,) Ensure the housing where the comb blwr mounts into is clean good on the inner side, have seen that jammed with exhaust ash too, not allowing the motor to turn. If you did read the voltage coming over as 4 volts, the board or wiring could be messed up. The stove is well worth repairing, when cleaned and all working, its a nice heater. Yes, the air pump comes on only for ignition, shuts down after about 6-8 minutes. The air control is normally out about 1/2 inch or so, if open too much, it will hang up on the mounting cage when pushed back. Read and use the manual to help you get thru.

 

[jay0016]

Thanks for the info I actually did know about the m55 compatibility, the tech manual for the m55 is actually more helpful than the regency. I pretty much took the whole stove apart checking wiring and components. So if nothing else I know where everything is now and how to clean/inspect everything. I actually just bent the dampener adjuster 90 degrees so it will slide in without interfering with the frame. New board should be here Friday I'm confident that will do the trick, but then again I was hopefully confident about the last 3 attempts to repair haha.

If it fixes it the problem was my own neglect to use a quality surge protector/read the manual, I already have a new good quality one plugged in ready to go. Chalk it up to negligence but I got a lesson on the stove and like to think I have an above average knowledge of the stove and how it works, which should pay dividends down the road.

 

[stovelark]

Hey Jay, good luck with the repair. Good level headed way of looking at things too, sometimes our customers forget that pellet stoves are electrical mechanical devices which will fail us. I will try and remind myself of that the next time mine quits on me, ha. My stoves have been pretty reliable, but they are getting some age on too.

 

[jay0016]

Update since I forgot to post, replaced the board and it is firing on all cylinders, now to just get a pressure gauge to set the stove correctly and I can report how great these stoves are currently burning on heat 3 with outside temps 20 to 30 degrees f keeps the hallway thermostat at about 68 degrees on the other side of a 1400 sq ft ranch. I burn about a bag of pellets every 12 hours. Of course I visually set the flame I hope performance increases once I get it set with a gauge.

 

[jay0016]

Does anyone know of a place to find a #8 to 1/8 hose barb to attach to the hole in the firebox to get a pressure reading. Home depot smallest size they carry is a 1/4 thread.

 

[Ssyko]

Ace hardware in the plumbing section 1/8 npt to hose barb

 

[jay0016]

will take a trip there tomorrow. Thanks!

 

[stovelark]

Glad to hear she is up and heating again.