Pellet Stove Shuts Down

[Tired-n-dusty]

I have a Whitfield Profile 30 FS2 pellet stove that I installed new in 2004. This last year, we had a couple of times where the stove would just shut down after operating for a while. Instead of it going through the normal shutdown where pellets stop feeding but the convection blower continues until it has cooled, the blower and everything would just stop. We waited and it re-started normally after we let it cool down quite a bit.

I don't know if it would have re-started right at that time as we did not attempt to. My wife and kids were home when it did it so I don't know if the control board lights were on or not. Likewise, they do not remember how long it had been running when this happened. The outlet it is plugged into was fine and there was no household loss of power at the time.

Suggestions on what it might be??

Thanks in advance

Tired-n-Dusty

 

[jtakeman]

I don't know much about the Whitfield, But I would say you hit the hi limit safety. That is designed to stop everything.

Can you reduce the pellet feed a little?

 

[Tired-n-dusty]

The auger and feed rate is almost always set on medium level with the convection blower on high. I have not seen any indication that the stove is running any warmer than usual.

 

[jtakeman]

A rule of thumb is the majority of stove issues is a dirty stove. Have you cleaned the stove since last spring or when you had the issue? I mean the flue and stove exhaust ports as well.

Could have had an air flow issue. Or the Hi limit safety snap disc is starting to fail.

 

[Tired-n-dusty]

I am in the process of giving it its usual annual cleaning (it gets wekkly/monthly cleaning for those items requiring more frequent cleaning) so we will wsee if it takes care of it.

The one thing about it possibly being a high temp switch. From a safety perspective I would expect a high temp switch to shut off the auger and feed but to maintain the blowers to allow adequate cool down. In this case, everything shuts down almost like the power went out. Unfortunately, like I said I don't know if the control board still had lights or not.

 

[jtakeman]

You would think that they would just stop the feed, But if there is an overfeed (a control issue where the auger just runs-doesn't cycle) The majority just shut down the whole stove. I know for a fact Breckwell, Enviro and Quadra Fire do it this way.

Think of it as an Emergency stop switch. If limit is reached off goes everything. Some auto reset some are manual reset. You actually have to remove the covers to get at the switch to push a red button to reset it.

Hope this help.
jay