Lazy distribution blower

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thebigo

Member
Feb 11, 2012
29
live free or die
You all have helped me several times in the past, hoping for some more assistance.

We installed a free standing accentra during the summer of 2011. The stove has eaten about 200 bags, a range of brands but mostly box store - maines choice and green supreme. We are in central NH and rely on the stove to heat our entire 2000 sq ft house, havent used a drop of oil since install. The stove is kept clean, I run the leaf blower on the direct vent, scrape the burnpot and vacuum weekly. I clean out the internal T, heat exchangers, both front and rear fines boxes along with the fan cover once every 1000 lbs +/-.

This year I have noticed some laziness in the distribution fan. Specifically, the stove will fire up from a cold start and the fire will look good but the blower will not reach full speed. Then if I twist the blower speed knob past the max point the blower will return to normal. There is no play/motion on the actual knob I am just providing some torque on a knob that is always at its maximum setting.

I do not recollect these syptoms occuring during the first year of operation. It occured once in November, again in December and then last friday and again last night. I started cleaning with the leaf blower this year, is it possibly connected?

We have always run the feed rate at 4, auto ignition, room temp at full blower and used the temperature to adjust the heat output.
 
I don't think the leaf blower trick has anything to do with the knob issue you are having. I am willing to say that the fan controller for the distribution fan has some fines in there that are causing a bad contact. I base this opinion on the movement of the knob past max point comment you made. If you can get at it, I would look towards cleaning the controller with compressed air or tuner cleaner while the stove is off and unplugged. It is most likely some sort of potentionmeter. IMO
 
The distributor blower could use a cleaning perhaps. The blower is also tied into the heat output of the stove. Perhaps the pellets being used and the heat demand of the stove does not warrant the full speed of the blower. Try switching the stove to stove temp mode and on its high setting. Presumably the distributor fan will eventually run at full blast to prevent the stove from overheating. This is where I would start, after cleaning the blower.
 
Does the distribution (convection) blower have ports for oiling? If so, when was it's last lube?
 
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