New Guy with "Standard" Pellet Stove Questions/Concerns

[guitarjamman]

Blah, Blah.....bought a new house that came with a pellet stove. Year: 2000, Model: Enviro EF-4 insert with a 20' 4" conduit up to a capped chimney vent. Called the local chimney sweep company to clean the exhaust vent (seriously needed it) and learned how to do it myself in the future. When I pulled out the stove, I can see that is all they did, the inner workings are packed full of dust bunnies and old dropped pellets. The pellet stove had about half a bag of unknowns left over from the previous owner that I have been using to test and configure the settings. They are between 3/4" - 1 1/2" long and burn rather well.

So onto the issues I am having. I did some research and my unit has the 1 second auger control, in order to keep a fire going, the dial-a-fire control has to be set at 12:00 minimum. Any less (towards the blue zone) and the feed rate cannot keep up with the burn rate and she slowly whittles down to nothing - not too big of a deal, may replace with the 3 second auger control unit in the future. However, the amount of air this unit receives while burning is enough to not just blow the ashes out of the burn pot, but also makes the burning pellets dance around. Some will flicker around the pot and blow out and into the stove (there is no ash try - bottom of stove catches all material). When looking through the online manuals, it states the damper control is behind the "left side panel" of the unit and is secured with a 5/16" hex screw. I have been playing "Where's Waldo" and cannot find this screw for the life of me. Any input? I believe if I close down the damper, I can slow down the blow torch flame and keep just the ashes out of the burn pot, not all the burning fuel.

Also, I am having trouble with the convection blower (distribution). As I stated earlier, the whole backside of the unit is packed with dust bunnies and the blower is no exception. It works just fine on "Max" all the way down to about 7, any lower and it begins to get loud and then just cuts out. I have the replacement motor information and the local garden center has some in stock, but I am planning on removing it, blowing/vacuuming out all the dust, and adding a few drops of motor lube (3-in-1) to the oil injection ports to see if I can revive it. From the symptoms I described, does this sound like a waste of time? Does it sound like dust/lack of oil would let it rotate on max, then cut out as I dial it back down, or is this a symptom of the bushings gone bad?

Thanks for any information - this is my first pellet stove and I am trying to gather as much information as I can before coming to the experts here for help.

 

[Harman Lover 007]

You are in the right place....welcome to the forum. Sit back and check in periodically...someone will be with you shortly....

 

[MCPO]

The first thing I`d do is remove the fans and motors and clean and lubricate them and then test them individually.
And the entire stove would have to be cleaned before attempting to fire it up to figure out what if any issues need to be resolved.
All this you already know and it sounds like you plan to do this. Make sure your air supply and is thoughly clean and not obstructed

 

[Bioburner]

There is a thread that discussed motor issue of Enviro and they had some bad triac on the boards wrecking the room air fans. Started by steamboy,

 

[jtakeman]

Its the dial a fire anolog control. No triacs in it.

OP, I'd start with motor clean and lube. Motors that are full of crud usually require more volts to turn. As you lower the fan speed knob it lessens the voltage to the blower. If that doesn't work replace the blower as its cheaper than the control components.

As a check you can lower the speed knob and check the supplied votlage with a volt meter(careful here its A/C and hurts) Make sure you unplug before playing and its isolated from you and the stove chasis when ya do. Enviro has a spec for the the voltage output in the service manual. See link.

http://www.enviro.com/images/manual...C-12145 Instruction PELLET Service Manual.pdf

 

[Delta-T]

if you have the latest version of the manual, on page 24, figure 32, you can see the damper arm just below the temp snap switch on the back of the firewall. you likely need to remove the left side surround panel to get to it. its flush up against the back of the firewall, just a piece of flat sheet metal with a bend in it for a grip.

 

[guitarjamman]

Well that was a PITA....those convection blowers require a good 'Tetris' ability to remove and reinsert. Loosened the two screws, unclipped the two wires and had to contort myself and the blower to get it out without removing all the control switches. Anyway, got it out and was astounded at all the pellets and copious amounts of dust under the auger motor. Shop Vac'd out all the materials and used the bristle attachment to try and scrub off most of the dust, wiped everything clean with a paper towel and Q-tip then vacuumed again. Went to the left hand side and thanks to Delta-T, found the damper slider (side note: why the hell would they put it against the backside of the firebox? Impossible to adjust on an insert model). Closed it down a little bit then retightened the lock screw. Will check for proper air flow soon.

Took the blower outside and used a compressor to blow out all the dust, used a Q-tip and my shop vac to clean each impeller blade (extremely packed full of dust), and did a full wipe down and with a few drops of 3-in-1 oil in the blower ports, thought I was good to go. Gave the impeller a hand spin and could hear the bushing making a little grinding noise - damn it. Getting a replacement today and can forget about that one, hoping that if I keep up on regular cleanings and 6 month oilings, I can keep from making $200 purchases every few years. Hooked the motor back up and still grinded to a halt when the blower speed was dropped below 7. Oiled and cleaned the combustion blower as preventative maintenance while I was in there.

Tried to start the stove again after putting it all back together (blower still works on 'max') and am now having problems getting the igniter to do it's job. The pellets in the burn pot get extremely hot and even charred after the 15 minute start up period is over (I open the door and check it out after it shuts down). My plan is to clean inside the igniter tube and make sure the hole in the burn pot liner is clean and clear. Could I have pushed the igniter out a little when vacuuming behind the stove? It seems I could of pushed the igniter leads on accident and pulled it further into the tube, away from the burn pot. Hopefully this will solve the troubles because I am not looking forward to manual lights.

Side question - is there a preferred method to get rid of these blowers? It seems silly to chuck it at the dump when it still slightly works.

Thanks,

Zach

 

[jtakeman]

Hang on to it for a spare for right now. You might be able to find just the motor and keep the rest from going to the dumpster.