gregandamy5 said:
I bought a used whitfield pellets stove. First issues was that the auger would turn off in about an hour and not start up even a few hours later. Now it will start sometimes, but it will over feed. I've heard stories when the pellets over fill than it will start all the stored pellets on fire. I am afraid to keep the stove going after i go to sleep. Pleae help.
Greg
I’ve got an older Whitfield Advantage (the original, but not a fireplace insert) and I’ve already experienced these issues. You’ve got two problems:
1. Auger motor gearbox is probably worn, might also have compromised sleeves on the motor. I tried Mike Butkus’ repair (see the URL in one of the other replies to your message), but I had to buy a new auger assembly, the bottom washer repair trick didn’t work for me.
2. Your controller probably has failed. I discovered a component failure issue within the original controller unit that caused the auger motor to continue to run with the combustion and circulation fans electrically frozen, which caused a small explosion in the stove when I cooled down the controller and got the fans to restart. Don’t try to repair the controller, just buy the latest model and plug it in.
The controller problem, which seems to be common with the older Whitfield stoves (I’ve been in touch with other Whitfield owners struggling with the same issue) appears to be caused by a solid state electronic switch component (called a “Triac”) that partially fails under high temperature, causing a DC voltage to be applied to the fans. Since the stove was equipped with AC fans, applying a DC voltage causes them to freeze, and hum slightly (it’s not pure DC). Since the auger motor is controlled by a different switch than the fans, and the stove can’t cool down fast enough to shut everything down with the low temp switch, the auger continues to pile pellets into the burn chamber until the stove is literally filled with pellets. Since the pellets at the bottom continue to smolder, opening the stove door could be fatal (literally) when a backdraft causes explosive combustion once the smoldering pellets get fresh oxygen. In my case, the door was closed when the fans restarted, and the latch held, but I had a little fly ash snow storm outside and my neighbors were probably puzzled or amused.
One other issue you may experience in the future if your stove’s previous owner didn’t take care of it, is that the exhaust fan motor requires lubrication with high-temp gear grease no less than once a year. The Whitfield dealer here in NJ who were allegedly performing contract maintenance on this system for the previous owner of this house (and stove) apparently missed that little detail, so the incompetent morons caused smoke damage more than once when these components failed and had no solution (other than buying a new stove, of course). Your owner’s manual will have detailed instructions how to lubricate the fans, I’d suggest following them to the letter. As long as you keep moving parts sufficiently lubricated, and keep the stove clean, it should give you many years of good service.
One other thing, be careful when buying replacement parts for Whitfield stoves. Be sure to check the list and/or market prices on the web before ordering from any dealers. In my case, Hearth and Home, in Ledgewood, NJ, wanted to charge me twice the LIST price for a new auger motor, and made it sound like they were doing me a great favor just by agreeing to sell it to me (at 100% profit). Naturally, these were the morons who couldn’t figure out how to fix the stove they had sold and maintained, and had the highest price for wood pellets in this area. I found an honest dealer who doesn’t gouge their customers literally around the corner. I don’t mind a dealer making a profit on my purchase, and I might not mind him making a little more if I’m also ordering service to go along with it, since often service dealers can provide a lot more value, but dealers like Hearth and Home are just a bunch of pigs.
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