P38 not feeding enough pellets

[m159267]

I have a 7-8 year old P38 (old style with 2 knobs). It seems that it is not getting enough pellets. It has been running fine. Without going into detail could the slide plate have an issue where it may not be opening enough? I have heard recently a pop or two where it sounds like a long pellet was snapped. All the blowers are fine and the auger cycle timing seems to be in sync with the (heat) knob setting. The stove and venting is super clean. If I empty the hopper what would I do or look for with regard to the slide plate - assuming it is a slide plate issue? Thoughts?

 

[Delta-T]

I'd take a look at the fines box behind the unit. As it fills up with sawdust the range of motion for the slide plate decreases. Sometimes it makes a banging noise as the auger cam arm slips off the bearing. Sometimes you can also get "bridging" from long pellets down at the slide plate. Basically a "beaver dam" of long pellets not wanting to move through the system.

 

[Bioburner]

X2, hopefully

 

[m159267]

Fines box was empty. No bridging that I can tell. The Greenway pellets I use are very short. If the slide plate is OK could the ESP probe be at fault? Is there anyway to tell? In the recent past the room temperature on a heat setting of 2.5 would be 70 to 70.5. Currently the setting is 4.5 and the temp is 70.2. It would be 75+ before this issue.

 

[gfreek]

What happens on Turbo mode??

 

[m159267]

What happens on Turbo mode??

Turbo used to be a wall of solid flame. Now I still get a good flame but you can see it cycle up & down between pellet feeds.It's like the numbers on the heat knob have been set back 1 /12 to 2 settings.

 

[Bioburner]

Pot switches going bad? Easy project if have some experience soldering. Less than $10 for the switches.

 

[gfreek]

I would guess either ESP or pot (potentiometer ) knob control bad. However I have no prior experience trouble shooting, just from reading posts here.. What I did I hooked up the wires for thermostat to the board and have them where I connect them to together and it gives me turbo mode, which bypasses the control knobs

 

[gfreek]

m159267, how are you making out on your problem??