Piazzetta Monia Auger Problems

[gdphishman817]

I woke up at 1:30 am on Saturday morning to the stove alarm going off. The fire had gone out. It was full of pellets so I was confused. After shutting it down, when I tried to start it up I could hear the auger motor trying to turn but it wasn't turning. I went back to bed and the next morning I emptied the hopper and saw what I think is the problem. It looks like something go in there and damaged the auger. It's still under warranty and my dealer will be here Monday morning. This is the first time the stove has been out of commission since it was installed in October 2013.

 

[Lake Girl]

I would have a hard time waiting for the tech to pull out the auger to if there was anything in there. Surprised to see the chip on the auger as they are usually pretty tough. Let us know how you make out...

 

[Bioburner]

Warranty probably wont cover the problem if it was something in the pellets I would proceed to pull the auger and try and find the offending problem. Been many posts of finding items in pellets.

 

[Stovensen]

Warranty probably wont cover the problem if it was something in the pellets I would proceed to pull the auger and try and find the offending problem. Been many posts of finding items in pellets.

If warranty is to cover the damage, gdphishman will have to find proof that e.g. a sheet metal screw, a washer and so on from the stove had fallen out in the hopper... I would start searching in the ash pan for metal parts. A magnet pick up tool like this will come in handy here, but any permanent magnet will do. In an old loudspeaker you can find a powerful magnet.

 

[Lake Girl]

Tried that for picking up nails after a bonfire. Native sands and small rocks contained iron so it got pretty frustrating

 

[gdphishman817]

I'm not so mechanically inclined so I'll let my dealer handle the problem whether it's covered by the warranty or not. I will let everyone know how it goes.

 

[Overfired]

Is there a chip in the auger screw, or is something jammed in between the auger screw and the bottom of the auger tube? Kind of hard to tell in the photo. Chips are very rare; usually the motor doesn't have enough torque to do that.

 

[Lake Girl]

Chips are very rare; usually the motor doesn't have enough torque to do that.

That's what I thought when I looked at the photo...

 

[gdphishman817]

Well the stove is back in action. That "chip" we saw, is actually the base of the auger, not the auger itself, and it's a weld point. The problem was just a really long pellet bridged and jammed the auger. It was nice that I called my dealer on Saturday and they were here 8:30 am Monday morning. I only had to burn the oil for 2 days, but man, it's a lot warmer in here with the stove going. I watched what he did so when the stove is out of warranty I'll be able to remove the auger if necessary.

 

[Bioburner]

Wow, one tough pellet

 

[Lake Girl]

Glad to hear it was something minor. Auger removal is fairly straight forward on the Ecoteck so I'm thinking the Piazzettas are not much different. Warm is always good

 

[gdphishman817]

It looked pretty straight forward, I just didn't want to void the warranty. Unfortunately, there are not any youtube videos on how to remove an auger from a Piazzetta stove.