Questions on a Whitfield profile 30

[smg64ct]

Hi,
My brother has a Whitfield profile 30 he bought new in 2001. I'm trying to help him out with it. He's having some problems with it. He had someone look at it and gave him a crazy price to fix it. The last storm he hooked it up to his generator and I think the control board is gone. He's also having a problem with the electric eye and it needs a new ignitor. I looked around online and saw a board for about 360.00.

This stove hasn't been the greatest and he's not sure it's worth the repairs. I don't know much about that brand. Is it worth fixing or should he be moving on to something else?

Thanks in advance,
Steve

 

[MountainSean]

The profile series was an interesting one using the photo-eye and honestly it is not a system I am a big fan of personally. Perhaps someone else here on the forums can back me up on this one (or shoot me down as being an idiot ) but sometimes after running a board on a generator it just takes them time to get back to running normally. The igniter you can buy from various places online with a warranty but the cheapest way is to get it the igniter from grainger and put a nut on it, there are some threads you can search for that can give you detailed instructions on what you would need to do. Usually on those photo-eyes the problem isn't that they are bad but that the filter lens that sits in front of them is dirty or it isn't aimed properly through that lens so it can see the fire properly. Try adjusting it a bit and clean that glass lens and see if that might help.

WHitfield made a good stove and while I don't think the Profiles were the best they made they were still a darn good stove all in all and fixing that one wouldn't be too hard to do from the sound of it.

 

[smwilliamson]

You can replace the photo eye with a 140 degree snap switch, mount it on the exhaust housing under the hole that is covered with the plate. The board is sending out 5v and looking for a return signal, POF will do fine. How do you know the control board is bad if you cannot get it running? Will it not power up? Sounds like the unit needs a professional to look at it. What is this rediculous price you speak of...if I know that, then I can tell you if it is worth fixin.

 

[smg64ct]

Thanks for the replies. My brother had a repair guy over to look at it and he gave him a price of 700.00 to get it running. He just wants to make sure it's worth it.

 

[Tim_M]

I've been running a Profile 30 insert in my livingroom all winter and have been quite happy with it. I haven't had any issues at all. I doesn't put out quite as much heat as my Harmon but it's not too far off. As MountainSean mentioned above, I seem to recall reading something about having to do some sort of reset process after running the stove on a generator. If you search thru this forum you should be able to find more info on that. Overall I think it's a good stove and probably worth repairing (although $700 sounds a bit steep).

 

[Heatsource]

you could have the board re-built for a lot less than a new one
in my experience the pro20/30/optima boards are prone to failure during power surges (genset)

i agree, 700 seems steep to install a new board and photo eye.

btw, was the photo eye upgrade, field enhancement done? where is the eye located?