Harmon Advance not feeding with a new motor. How do I figure out whats wrong?

[bfish]

I've got a Harmon Advance with the chain driven feed system. After burning a single bag of pellets this season, the feed motor stopped turning. Kinda weird, but no problem I had an extra one on hand I bought earlier (I figured it was pretty old). I put it in and it's still not turning at all, doesn't matter if its in test mode or regular operation. Both fans spin and I can manually turn the feeder so I don't think it's obstructed. The gaskets around the doors and ash pan still look alright. My chimney was professionally swept over the summer by the same guy I've been using for a few years.

Maybe something with the pressure switch? Can I check that or should I just try replacing it? I don't really know where to go from here.

 

[DAKSY]

Probably a dumb question, but is the hex head screw tightened securely on the auger?

 

[bogieb]

I don't think you should be able to turn the auger - or at least it shouldn't be very easy. Which makes @DAKSY 's question very relevant. But then again, I could be wrong.

Place it in test (with all doors sealed) and see if the feed light goes on. If so, look behind the stove and see if the arm for the auger is moving. If it moves, then transfer is not happening between it and the auger (probably @DAKSY 's screw thing). If it doesn't and the feed light is on, then there is probably a transfer issue from the board. If the feed light doesn't go on - well, I have no idea but probably a board issue.

 

[bfish]

The screw is tightened but good call @bogieb.

So mysteriously it started working for a few weeks. I simply took everything out and put everything back in and it worked. But today it stopped working again and isn't magically working after resetting everything like last time. The light turns on in test mode with the doors sealed, fans spin, but the motor doesn't move. I guess I need to replace the control board? Anything else it could be before I buy one?

 

[bogieb]

Have you tried wacking the side of the stove like we used to do with the old TV's?

 

[bfish]

Have you tried wacking the side of the stove like we used to do with the old TV's?

lol of course! And no amount of swearing has worked either.


My new hypothesis is maybe the pellets are falling in a weird way and somehow getting stuck/jamming up the little plate that pushes them? Everything will be working fine and then all of a sudden it won't be. But if I stick my hand in and jostle the pellets it'll start working again. 🙃
I figured that out because it got frustrating to take all the pellets out, vacuum up the handful of pellets stuck below out of sight, open & check the fines trap (which has always been virtually empty), and then seal everything up again. But if I just wiggled the pellets directly above the plate, bam, it worked again. Whatever. I'm using super premium pellets instead of cheap Tractor Supply/Lowe's crap for the first time this year, too.

Maybe it's time for a heat pump, lol.

 

[bogieb]

Maybe you are onto something there. That'll teach you to use the expensive stuff.

 

[Northwoodneil]

I'd check the voltage coming into the auger motor. There is no way a pellet or pellets would stop the feed motor on my pc45. At least not without enough noise and growling you'd know it. I hear it shear them off and snap shut on a daily basis.

 

[Washed-Up]

Yeah if you have longer pellets, it can cause this issue.