I turn my stove off all summer. Clean it and that's all. We leave no pellets in the hopper and ensure its fully empty. I went to fire it up yesterday and I keep getting a check ashpan error. I removed the Ashpan and tried again and I can't even here the auto clean motor running. What can I do before having the place come to do a service. f or $300+
Mount Vernon Check Ashpan
- Thread starter Caseyr101
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Not as clue as my ashpan has no silly sensors. I would imagine you could jumper (defeat) it with a short length of wire. These newer stoves seem to have an over abundance of useless safety stuff. Guess it has to do with product liability or something along those lines.
Like the lid sensor (don't have one of those either) but if I did, that would be the first thing I'd jumper. Better yet, remove it entirely and jumper the lugs on the circuit board.
Your 'autoclean. motor is most likely froze up and needs taken apart and freed up and lubricated. Don't have one of those either. My 'autoclean' is my cleaning it and sweeping the ash into the ashpan weekly.
I have this philosophy about bio mass stoves... The more complex they are, the more prone to failure they are. Me, I want simple and that is what I have.
Like the lid sensor (don't have one of those either) but if I did, that would be the first thing I'd jumper. Better yet, remove it entirely and jumper the lugs on the circuit board.
Your 'autoclean. motor is most likely froze up and needs taken apart and freed up and lubricated. Don't have one of those either. My 'autoclean' is my cleaning it and sweeping the ash into the ashpan weekly.
I have this philosophy about bio mass stoves... The more complex they are, the more prone to failure they are. Me, I want simple and that is what I have.
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Unplug your stove and then open the door. Put a magnet on the door sensor on side of stove. You can tell if you got the magnet in the right place when you plug stove back in, and door open indicator is off on screen of wall control. This will trick stove into thinking the door is closed. Then plug stove back in. This will allow you to see if auto clean is working, and if you need to help it open with a screwdriver in one of the pot floor holes. I just worked on one that the rails were all rusted and it couldn't do the auto clean. Sanded the crap out of rails and then put some high temp anti-seize grease on them. and it started working. if no motor noise and no auto-clean, then you are needing to check the wire connections, and sensor on the auto-clean motor. kap
Tonyray
Minister of Fire
Geez.. think i will stick with the basic analog dial stoves. Too many new sensors and stuff that were not needed all these years are now in them. Guess its good for diagnostics but just more stuff to malfunction.
I suspect all the sensors (like the lid sensor and ashpan sensor) are there to eliminate and mitigate liability on the part of the builder. They want to make an appliance as 'idiot proof' as possible. Problem is, the more complex they become, the more proper maintenance and upkeep becomes.
Just like the unit I bought and finished refurbing yesterday (I'll be posting pictures of the finished product on my 6039 thread). The previous owner shut it down (I presume last spring and never bothered to clean it out). Don't see how it even worked it was so choked up with ash and the interior of the firebox was rusted and it was filthy under the panels too. I mean nasty. the burn pot is corroded from wet ash sitting in it all summer. I'll be purchasing another pot for it, the one that is corroded is still serviceable but I'm keeping this one for in the shop so a new pot is in order. This one had a hopper lid sensor. It's not there anymore. Made a jumper for the board and defeated it.
Builders can make them as fail safe and liability safe as possible but if you don't maintain them, all the gizmo's in the world won't help it work. In fact they make them even more failure prone.
Just like the unit I bought and finished refurbing yesterday (I'll be posting pictures of the finished product on my 6039 thread). The previous owner shut it down (I presume last spring and never bothered to clean it out). Don't see how it even worked it was so choked up with ash and the interior of the firebox was rusted and it was filthy under the panels too. I mean nasty. the burn pot is corroded from wet ash sitting in it all summer. I'll be purchasing another pot for it, the one that is corroded is still serviceable but I'm keeping this one for in the shop so a new pot is in order. This one had a hopper lid sensor. It's not there anymore. Made a jumper for the board and defeated it.
Builders can make them as fail safe and liability safe as possible but if you don't maintain them, all the gizmo's in the world won't help it work. In fact they make them even more failure prone.
I just replaced my autoclean motor in my Mt. Vernon AE insert. That was a treat getting to it. The key is the bracket (not really a bracket, but I don't know what else to call it) that the convection fan is mounted to. It comes off. Once you do that you can actually see the autoclean motor. That was probably the hardest repair I've done so far just because its so hard to get to.
The other thing you need to make sure you check how its oriented and mounted to the arm. It may right itself once you get it working inside the stove, but when I was installing my new one it gave me a moment of thought.