Heat setting not the same amount of heat anymore! Flame is Low but not Lazy!! Simple Solution Found

[Don2222]

Hello

In the last 2 days I have seen 2 stoves, my Avalon Astoria and my friends Enviro EF-2i , Heat setting 3 has been lower than normal and heat setting 2 has been way to low. The fire is NOT lazy so it does not seem to be a gasket issue although both stoves have the original door and ash pan gasketing. Both stoves are older now 3 years.
Is the exhaust fan slowing down? No manual controls for that.
Is the Auger motor feed frequency less?

Both stoves are quite clean. I know that is the fist Item to check.
The EF-2i has the original very Winey Exhaust blower. The Astoria has the original too.
The EF-2i does not have an OAK, the Astoria Does.
The EF-2i has manual knob controls the Astoria has a newer digital board.

On some stoves the Auger may squeek or Squeal which gives a better indication of what the problem is!

The picture below shows the small flame on heat setting 3. A min before there were just red embers!
It was never that low on Heat setting 3 before??

Has anyone seen this problem? What component failure can cause this??

 

[edwinjk]

Don:

I can only tell you what I ran into on my Enviro Maxx. The air runs behind a plate, took the plate off & cleaned a smaller plate, I used a brush to clean behind. When I put together & started up, my Magnehelic Gage was pegged. I would suggest to follow the air flow & make sure
everything is clean. You also might want to check the exhaust fan. If you have burned a ton or more of pellets, then you definetly need a cleaning. I use the Magnehelic as a maintance tool to tell me when my stove is starting to plug. When the needle is pegged, that is maximum air flow &
when it start to drop off, it's time to clean. Hope this helps - Good Luck

 

[jtakeman]

Is it the pellets or the stove? One quick way to find out is try another brand. Or Its a dirty stove?

Your pellets might be past the 6 month date and need to be disposed of. Check with a local pig in your area from proper disposal. :cheese: See this thread for more info.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/88102/

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Don check the auger to auger motor couplings something could be loose.

The controls could also have slightly different timings.

Check for scraping or warped augers.

Are you running the same pellets in each unit?

Are the pellets being rendered into the proper color ash?

 

[Don2222]

Hello

I just tried edwinjk suggestion of giving the ash trap and ash trap chambers a very thorough cleaning. I even took out the exhaust blower, cleaned and lubricated the blower and installed a brand new gasket. The interesting results of this was that during the start up cycle I did get that nice longer V-Shaped flame that was there when it was new. However after I while it went down and back to the same problem. So it really seems that there is not enough pellets in the burn pot to give that nice flame. Therefore either there is a partial clog in the auger chute or the auger is not delivering enough pellets. The auger cycle seems ok but if the auger is sluggish in starting and stopping then the duration time the auger turns could be less and that would not drop enough pellets. So I will look into that next.

 

[Don2222]

Hello

This is a tough one guys.

I ran the hopper down and cleaned out the rest of the wood pellets. I checked the the auger drop shoot and it was clean and clear. Then I lubricated the auger bushing from the inside and from the back where the Auger motor attaches. See pics below.

In my research I found there is an updated Triac for the EF-2 that increases the Auger Duration time.
That may be part of this 3 second blue Auger Timing control.
(broken link removed to http://www.stove-parts-unlimited.com/EF2_EF3_Auger_Timer_Control_115v_3_Sec_p/ef-036.htm)

Does anyone know what year stoves have the newer 3 second duration timing added?

My Astoria seems to have somewhere of 2-3 seconds on time. When I timed it, it seemed closer to 2 secons.

Does anyone know if 2-3 seconds is standard and how to tell if the auger is on as long as the auger light says it is??

The lube seemed to make it work a tiny bit better but not the fix I was looking for.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

you have to rig up a way to both watch the auger and see the light to find out if the auger is turning the whole time light is on. I'd make certain the set screw that binds the auger to the motor was tight first.

 

[imacman]

Just a shot in the dark Don.....did you change pellet brand recently? If so, are the average lengths longer than the pellets you were using before?

Have you ever removed the auger motor, opened the gear case, and made sure the grease inside isn't old & dried out, and the connection between auger motor output shaft and auger is tight and not slipping?

 

[hossthehermit]

When the setting it's on doesn't do what I want, I change the setting. Kinda like watching tv, don't like what's on change the channel. I thought that's why they made settings so easy to change, shows what a dummy I are.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

When the setting it's on doesn't do what I want, I change the setting. Kinda like watching tv, don't like what's on change the channel. I thought that's why they made settings so easy to change, shows what a dummy I are.

LOL,

I usually clean the stove or operate my heat exchangers scrapper and then increase the firing rate.

I don't know hoss you might be on to something.

But Don will get it figured out and it isn't like augers and their motors haven't caused feed issues before.

 

[Don2222]

Just a shot in the dark Don.....did you change pellet brand recently? If so, are the average lengths longer than the pellets you were using before?

Have you ever removed the auger motor, opened the gear case, and made sure the grease inside isn't old & dried out, and the connection between auger motor output shaft and auger is tight and not slipping?

Thanks Pete
I may try that tomorrow.
This is a tough problem but if we can solve it, then making a stove run like brand new will be easy!!

Please see my thread I just started on GearMotors I.E. Auger Motors
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/88399/

 

[Don2222]

When the setting it's on doesn't do what I want, I change the setting. Kinda like watching tv, don't like what's on change the channel. I thought that's why they made settings so easy to change, shows what a dummy I are.

Thanks for the suggestion Hoss and I really did try that as one of the 1st items. I really do not see it being the fix. Don't get me wrong, I am still getting nice heat from the stove but I really think this is an issue here and solving it may help alot of people get more heat from an older stove.

 

[Frogwood]

Had the same issue with a lazy flame for the last 4 or 5 days. Cleaned everything (twice). Both times the stove would fire up nicely after cleaning but an hour later the flame was lazy again. Earlier this week I did start using Blazer pellets from a stack that was stored in a different part of my basement from where I normally stack my bags. I remember thinking they looked different (much lighter shade) and were much longer than the previous ton I had burned from Blazer. (I'm not bashing Blazer...I actually do like them)

Anyhow, last night I cleaned the stove and cleared the hopper out completely and tossed in a new bag of Bear Mtn pellets cuz it was getting cold and wanted some more heat overnight. Fired up nice and the flame was still looking great this morning. No laziness at all.

My new theory is that the Blazers had a high moisture content and that was the problem. Maybe from where I had stored them or maybe they were like that when I bought them. So I recommend purchasing a new bag/brand from your dealer and trying that and don't use another bag from your existing stash until you can rule that out as the problem.

 

[Don2222]

Hello

The flame has never been a lazy flame so I cannot blame moisture or the pellets. The stove has been running for 5 hours now and the flame has gotten better and better. It is amazing! It really looks like the fines have been getting into the auger bushing and soon after lubricating it I did hear some squeeks and squeels come and go as the lubrication started getting in!! I am much happier with it, I feel it is almost 100% back to normal Whew!!

Thanks everyone, goes to show how important a small auger bushing is in make this darn pellet stove work properly

Periodic Lubrication with Liquid Wrench with Cerflon front and back is Highly recommended

Much more heat now on the same heat setting!!

 

[Frogwood]

Happy to hear your problem has been resolved! I know how frustrating it is when things aren't working right.

 

[Don2222]

Happy to hear your problem has been resolved! I know how frustrating it is when things aren't working right.

You bet!! Thanks

I awoke this morning to a nice toasty house. The stove in the basement was running on level 2, the basement is 78 Deg F, the living room upstairs is 72 and the bedrooms are 71 Deg F and outside is 31 Deg F

See nice V-Shaped Flame in pic below. This should be part of the Yearly Cleaning for all stoves

This is what I am talking about