PS35 Pellet stove, noisy motor

[shep546]

Hey guys,

I'm pretty new to pellet stoves.

I have an Eco choice ps35, only a month old. Lately the exhaust blower has gotten quite a bit more noisy than it was when it was new.

I vacuum out the inside of the stove once every 3-4 days, recently I opened up the back of the stove and cleaned out the two blowers with an air gun (there was built on white chaulky dust on them) but I'm wondering if they weren't the right ones?

 

[SidecarFlip]

You should NEVER blow out any blower (combustion air or convection) with it attached to the stove physically. Always remove it and brush off or blow out the fan assembly, especially in the case of a convection blower because. blowing off the squirrel cage fan just blows the crap into the heat exchangers inside the stove and reduces the air flow.

Always remove the fans when cleaning.

You most likely blew the crap into the motor bearings which hastened their drying out and now they are getting noisy. If you address it promptly, the blower is saveable. If not and the bearings continue to run dry, you'll probably be replacing it with a new blower in as much as most only come as an assembly.

I suggest you remove the blower, blow it out with low pressure compressed air and oil the bearings with light oil. Even if it has shielded skate bearings, you can apply oil to the bearing and it will absorb it, though the best way is to pop the shield on one side with a pointed tool and oil the insides, then replace the shield.

You wait, you'll be replacing the fan entirely. Once the bearings get sloppy and noisy for an extended time, the only avenue is replacing the bearings or the assembly.