Hot Stuff--Flames on heater exchange tubes

[WhitfieldNovice]

Our Whitfield Advantage II pellet stove keeps shutting off. Replaced the low-limit disc and cleaned entire stove. Brand new exhaust installation so we know that's not clogged. I noticed the flames are orange and very tall--dancing all over the place. They are hitting the heater exchange tubes. Could this be causing the stove to overheat and shot off?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Nicholas440]

If the flame is tall, orange, and lazy, it needs more air. I doubt that the lazy flame is causing an overheat although it is possible. A tall lazy flame is not as hot as a shorter active bright dancing flame. I would try giving it more air and see if that does the trick.

 

[firewarrior820]

[quote author="WhitfieldNovice" date="1235638378"]Our Whitfield Advantage II pellet stove keeps shutting off. Replaced the low-limit disc and cleaned entire stove. Brand new exhaust installation so we know that's not clogged. I noticed the flames are orange and very tall--dancing all over the place. They are hitting the heater exchange tubes. Could this be causing the stove to overheat and shot off?

Thanks for your help![
check your gaskets

 

[j00fek]

make sure all openings are air tight, open the damper all the way and tone it out from there

what is the exhaust setup like?

 

[Revig]

Hello WN,
If the low limit ceramic sensor (located on the combustion fan housing) fails it does one of two things: The stove will shut off at about 30 minutes from the startup or, the unit will not shut off even after it's cooled down without unplugging the unit. When you say it shuts off what exactly do you mean? Does the whole stove stop - fans and all, or does it quit feeding pellets?

 

[WhitfieldNovice]

Thanks everyone.

I've never noticed that the pellets just stop feeding. The auger runs as long as we have it activitated. We've experienced a couple of different things when the stove cuts out.

1. Most of the time our flame just peters out. It could happen after 10 minutes or even up to an hour after lighting the flame.

2. OR The flame never really gets going. It stays really small and may even go out and then light back up again. Then the stove cuts out after about a half an hour. (We did replace the low-limit disc before installing the stove.)

3. OR The last time we lit it, which was right after installing the OAK, the flame seemed strong but the stove cut out after less than 10 minutes. The blower stopped and the fire immediately died. We immediately turned the blower back on and let it run until the stove cooled down.

I appreciate your help here and in the other thread, Stove Doctor. Any other info I can provide?

 

[Revig]

Hello,
Still sounds to me like a faulty combustion fan thats either not turning at all or not turning up to speed. When those go bad - it ain't gonna run! How old is the unit - date of mfg? Serial Number?

 

[WhitfieldNovice]

Okay, I took out the combustion blower and wired it to the house voltage and it runs fine. All the limit switches seem to be in the right position. The stove was manufactured in Nov 1990. Serial number is WH-27996.

Here's something else. The stove ran for at least 8 hours the day after installation. It heated the house and never shut itself off. The next day we took the entire thing apart, cleaned and oiled all the motors, cleaned behind the fire brick and baffles, etc. Since then we can't get the flame to stay lit. Do you think we could have knocked something loose or dislogded a gasket?

 

[Revig]

WN,
Here's a few more ideas. If your stove has the old style burnpot and base where the burnpot liner sits down in the base, is there a o-ring gasket on the inlet tube where it buts up to the back of the firebox? If not, there needs to be one in place. And, behind the center firebrick in the lower left corner area, is there a small metal plate that opens up and exposes the exhaust chamber? It is important for this plate to be in place to operate the stove correctly and achieve a proper burn. And one more thought, some of those stoves had ash slide plates that pull forward and dumps the ash buildup from the baffle plate areas down into the ashpan - one on each side , those have to be shut, or pushed in toward the back of the stove when the unit is burning. Or, most importantly, it is possible for the control board to be bad. That serial number indicates that it can be upgraded to the new touch pad style control board, but would require a little re-wiring for compatibility. The original controller on those had a silver colored background - red start button, and two dials for the heat and blower settings numbered one through five. If you are thinking of a replacement control board they are available for $285.00 . I've seen my share of these stoves and as a "hands-on" tech it's really difficult to "see" whats going on, let alone put into words what I know by heart. I really hope this info helps your situation. We'll talk more if needed.

 

[krooser]

Our Whitfield Advantage II pellet stove keeps shutting off. Replaced the low-limit disc and cleaned entire stove. Brand new exhaust installation so we know that's not clogged. I noticed the flames are orange and very tall--dancing all over the place. They are hitting the heater exchange tubes. Could this be causing the stove to overheat and shot off?

Thanks for your help!

How long since this stove had a major cleaning? Your flame makes it sound like you have a plugged stove.

 

[WhitfieldNovice]

I don't want to speak too soon...but I think we fixed the problem. The stove has been running like a champ for 12 hours. Bright yellow flames with very little soot build-up on window. I bet the stove hasn't run this good in years. The solution was a new door gasket and I used a diagram on this site to remove baffle plates and cleaned the heck out of the inside of the stove. I thought I'd gotten everywhere but there was tons of ash and clinker inside that I hadn't found. THANKS everyone This site is great.