Mt Vernon AE Autoclean

[joescho]

All:
Can anyone explain how the autoclean on the Mt Vernon AE's work? I've had a minor issue this year with what seems to be a common issue where the floor gets stuck open during the autoclean. Someone posted before about cleaning the pot floor which I will, but would like to know the significance of the springs, and how you can clean the whole burn pot floor including where its may be more difficult. I'm thinking its a little different accessing this area between having the stove vs the insert. I have the insert and can't really even determine how to change the springs. It's fairly tight in there. I'm hoping someone has some experience with this as youtube is really limited in this area. Best I can tell is there's an arm somewhere with a motor attached (couldn't find the motor) and it will move the floor back an forth. In addition there's a little arm beneath the floor that pivots but I'm not sure what that does either.

My stove is approaching 10 years and I would imagine the springs are getting weak but it looks like you need to be a contortionist to get in there.


Thanks...

Joe

 

[kappel15]

The springs hold the pot floor to the pot. When they weaken, you will have issues with the fire. They have nothing to do with pot floor not closing. First thing to do is pull the ashpan, and on the back wall of opening is a bolt that holds auto clean motor in place. See if it is loose, as this will cause the floor to not close all the way. And if you leave ashpan out and unplug stove and plug it in , it will do an auto clean. You can lay on floor and watch what the arm does. A little high temp anti-seize grease on some places may help also.. Pivot arm bolt could be loose also. There is a micro switch that could be going bad. The oblong opening on bracket on motor could be bent out of shape. Have seen this happen. To replace springs, you need to do it either thru ashpan opening, or take pot out. kap

 

[joescho]

The springs hold the pot floor to the pot. When they weaken, you will have issues with the fire. They have nothing to do with pot floor not closing. First thing to do is pull the ashpan, and on the back wall of opening is a bolt that holds auto clean motor in place. See if it is loose, as this will cause the floor to not close all the way. And if you leave ashpan out and unplug stove and plug it in , it will do an auto clean. You can lay on floor and watch what the arm does. A little high temp anti-seize grease on some places may help also.. Pivot arm bolt could be loose also. There is a micro switch that could be going bad. The oblong opening on bracket on motor could be bent out of shape. Have seen this happen. To replace springs, you need to do it either thru ashpan opening, or take pot out. kap

Thanks. It seems to only act up maybe once in three weeks or so. I'll give it a cleaning and maybe lube it in a few places.