Lopi 400PS-troubleshooting draft blower

[G-runner]

It's that time of year. I just officially starting burning my freestanding Lopi 400PS yesterday. I deep cleaned and test burned it about two weeks ago to make sure everything was good. It ran great.
Yesterday though I fired it up and it was burning hot and the draft blower shut off and the auger stopped turning but the convection tube blower continued to run.
I have a vent pipe cap for clean out. I opened it up and tapped the pipe and quite a bit of ash came out. As well I think there might have been some build up at the end of the exhaust tube before the pipe turns down into where the cap is. I obviously missed this when cleaning. I blew out the exhaust pipe to make sure it was clear all the way up. After a period of time the blower just came back on and the auger started feeding pellets again and the stove ran fine for about two hours then it did it again. I also heard something fall in the chimney area making me think there could have been a partial blockage? I don't know but again after a period of time the blower fan kicked back on and the auger started turning again and the stove has ran for the past 24 hrs. strong. I checked all the wiring and nothing seems out of place. I'm running Turmans pellets like I do every year.
Didn't know if anyone had any thoughts or was it probably just the exhaust pipe blocked causing the blower to shutdown.

Thanks,
G

 

[johneh]

If the pipe is blocked your vac switch will shut off the auger
will also do the same thing on overheat and come back on when the stove cools
Clean exhaust from burn pot to the top of the chimney before you fire it again.
Maybe a leaf blower trick

 

[Mt Bob]

Properly clean the flue and remove the dead bird?

 

[G-runner]

Thanks, Johneh

I used the leaf blower. It worked pretty good.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Rule of thumb that most of us that have been playing with these stoves for years is..

We clean them in the spring when mothballing them, not in the fall. You don't need all that crap sitting in there collecting moisture and corroding the works and that includes the venting. Fly ash has a bad habit of solidifying after sitting and collecting moisture all summer.