Harman XXV blower issue?

[Fly By Night]

Hi all. I have an 8 year old xxv and in the last week the blower fan/distribution fan has been acting wacky, doesn't seem to always want to blow at high speed where I almost always keep it set. Everything is original, never needed to replace anything. Now the fan is intermittent in speeds and fire goes out after about 15 mins. I've ruled out most obvious things. ESP is clean, took back panels off and looked at distribution blower had some minimal dust etc but vacuumed good and it spins freely. fines box is empty, ran in test mode and no indicator lights come on. The door seal is matted pretty good and I've noticed this season I do get a light smoke smell during lighting phase. I have ordered a new rope/door seal because that needs to be done, did the dollar bill test and it failed in a few areas. So could it be the leaky door gasket doing all this or is the distribution blower def bad? Where would you suggest getting one, ebay seems to have them for around $129? Any other suggestions would be appreciated or perhaps I just need to go ahead and get a fan coming? Thanks..

 

[Washed-Up]

A very good deep clean, leaf blower trick...with the distribution fan, I take a toothbrush and clean the fan fins individually then vacuum.

Pellet Stove, Fireplace Inserts & Grill Store | Earth Sense

USA's largest pellet stove dealer. Eco-friendly, energy-efficient, low-cost heating solutions. Stoves, Inserts, Grills, Pellets & Parts. SHOP ONLINE NOW!

pellethead.com

 

[SidecarFlip]

additionally, after 8 years and I suspect infrequent maintenance, I bet the bearings in the combustion fan as well as the convection fan are dry as a popcorn fart. You need to give them a drink of light machine oil. In fact you need to do that yearly when you do your spring cleaning, if you do a spring cleaning.

 

[Fly By Night]

Thanks for the responses. My last thing to do on my cleaning list was to vacuum out the 4" exhaust pipe outside. This had only 1/2" or so of ash but in the 90 deg elbow there looked to be some buildup. This was after 1.5 tons of green supreme. I vacuumed that out and the stove has run perfect ever since Sunday. I typically only do that after 1 season and 3 tons or so but I thought I would give it a try. I have taken the combustion fan out before and cleaned ribs and vacuumed the blower fins each spring but never oiled anything. Will be sure to do that going forward..

 

[SidecarFlip]

Commented many times that even the shielded skate bearings that come on many combustion and convection fans that come on stoves today will take light machine oiling. You can either pop the dust shield with a pointed tool like a pocket knife blade or just allow it to soak under the dust seal (which takes a bit of time). if you pop the seal carefully, you can put it back on after oiling. However, if the bearing are really sloppy and rough, you need to replace the motor or buy new bearings from a bearing house or on Amazon. All bearings have catalog numbers etched into them so getting new ones is as easy as matching numbers.

 

[gfreek]

Commented many times that even the shielded skate bearings that come on many combustion and convection fans that come on stoves today will take light machine oiling. You can either pop the dust shield with a pointed tool like a pocket knife blade or just allow it to soak under the dust seal (which takes a bit of time). if you pop the seal carefully, you can put it back on after oiling. However, if the bearing are really sloppy and rough, you need to replace the motor or buy new bearings from a bearing house or on Amazon. All bearings have catalog numbers etched into them so getting new ones is as easy as matching numbers

I know the seal on a plastic shielded bearing can be removed & repacked, what the the metal shielded bearings ?

 

[SidecarFlip]

I know the seal on a plastic shielded bearing can be removed & repacked, what the the metal shielded bearings ?

Same deal, you just have to be careful not to bend the cover when you pop it off. Sealed bearings won't have any cover at all. There will be an inserted hard rubber seal running flush with the outer edge of the body. You can lube them too but it's difficult. You have to carefully drill a small hole in the rubber and use a needle greaser to fill the bearing. Problem is, you don't want to run the drill into the balls or the inner race. Stove builder would never use sealed bearings, way too expensive for them. All the ball bearings used are what I call common skate bearings. Cheap to make. Use them on skate boards.

 

[rickwai]

I know the seal on a plastic shielded bearing can be removed & repacked, what the the metal shielded bearings ?

I just bought the 608S bearings for a dist blower at the local motor shop. They were $2 each. It dont seem practical to try to disassemble the motor and get down to the bearing and try to repack it. I am running the original motors on my 2003 Harman w/ no oiling, I just keep them clean. Now the St Croix dist blower I have put bearings in it a couple times. But it is kind of a pain to get in and out so I just run it until the bearings get loud then pull it and replace the bearings for $4. I get about 5 yrs out of a set.