Hi, new here, and hoping I can find some advice. We have a vistaflame fireplace insert. At the end of last season, the blower stopped kicking on literally at the last bag of the season. It fires up, the auger drops pellets, and the flame gets going with the small fan at the start. But when the big blower should kick on, to disperse the heat throughout the house, it does not any more. It doesn't come on and the fire of course burns itself out cause the stove shuts itself down. Any suggestions? We love our stove but are in KY and there is literally noone I have found who knows a darn thing about these stoves..... GRRR! So I suppose I'm gonna have to try to fix this one myself. We haven't been all that diligent about major cleaning short of vaccuming obvious ash (I know, I know). Could build up be a culprit here? Thanks for the help in advance!
Help for repairing vistaflame update post #5
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I don't know anything about your particular stove but yeah,
crud builds up on the fan blowers and you have to clean
them at least once per season or they will die sooner than
later. The room air blower on my st croix started
making a loud squeeling sound so I pulled it and cleaned it but
it was too late. Still made a loud screech even after the cleaning so I replaced it.
I have to guess that it would have quit completely at some point.
You may want to contact the mfg of your stove to see if you
can get your hands on a diagram if you don't know how to get
at the blowers.
crud builds up on the fan blowers and you have to clean
them at least once per season or they will die sooner than
later. The room air blower on my st croix started
making a loud squeeling sound so I pulled it and cleaned it but
it was too late. Still made a loud screech even after the cleaning so I replaced it.
I have to guess that it would have quit completely at some point.
You may want to contact the mfg of your stove to see if you
can get your hands on a diagram if you don't know how to get
at the blowers.
VF stove needs the blower oiled every 6 months, if you did not do this the bearing is probably seized. I would give the stove a good cleaning and try oiling the blower bearings, then turn by hand to see if it will free up.
Okay new situation now.....
We pulled stove out and cleaned it really good, crossed our fingers and fired it up. Now the blower will come on only if I press the fan button on the control panel once the flame gets going. This is something it used to do on its own. So we know now the blower is at least somewhat functional (it made some slightly noisy clunks when cooling off, like it does need oiling), and now the problem appears to be that it just cannot kick on electronically. Anyone know what that means now? I have found a local place that can try to replace the blower with a similar type, but I'm not sure that's the problem exactly. Any help would be awesome so I can direct the repair people more appropriately. Thanks again!
We pulled stove out and cleaned it really good, crossed our fingers and fired it up. Now the blower will come on only if I press the fan button on the control panel once the flame gets going. This is something it used to do on its own. So we know now the blower is at least somewhat functional (it made some slightly noisy clunks when cooling off, like it does need oiling), and now the problem appears to be that it just cannot kick on electronically. Anyone know what that means now? I have found a local place that can try to replace the blower with a similar type, but I'm not sure that's the problem exactly. Any help would be awesome so I can direct the repair people more appropriately. Thanks again!
There is probably a temperature switch that would tell the board to turn the fan on when the stove is up to temp, This switch has probably failed.
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