Santa Fe LOUD Rumbling upon startup

[QuadSantaFe]

Santa Fe has been in service since October 2013 (our first season with it). Purchased new. Tonight for the first time since using it for months the fire box filled with flames and was creating a VERY LOUD rumbling noise. It burned itself out and did not continue running afterwards. I clean the inside of the fire box and burn pot very well every 2 to 3 days (VERY well). I have not however cleaned the exhaust going out the back of the stove yet this season.......is the problem being caused by restricted airflow out the back by chance?

Experience with this problem would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

[reallyte]

Rumble like ball bearings or like roaring fire?

 

[QuadSantaFe]

roaring fire

 

[reallyte]

Well sounds like it got overfired. Did u change pellets and not adjust the feed gate?

 

[Bioburner]

Restricted venting may make for a delay in ignition and the late fire got a little over sized. Time to get dirty and clean your pipes.

 

[DMKNLD]

As Bio said you probably over fired your stove and tripped the #3 snap disc, which is on the rear side of the auger chute, below the auger motor. You should be able to reset it by pressing down the popped up piece of plastic in the middle of the disc, between the 2 spade plug terminals.

X2 on cleaning your venting, as well as the heat exchanger and ash traps. After burning several tons of pellets since October, depending on how clean they burn, you no doubt have allot of fly ash in the exhaust pathway. Do you know how to do the leaf blower cleaning?

 

[QuadSantaFe]

Thanks very much for the replies everyone! Looks like I know what I'll be doing this afternoon

Do you think I need to take the back apart and get at the fan too? Or just run a brush down the pipe and hit it with a leaf blower?

 

[Bioburner]

Please suck it with the blower Don't know what the fan will look like as pellets are different. Play it safe and take a good look after 1st ton of season.

 

[DMKNLD]

I'd brush the pipe, clean the ash traps and heat exchanger, then leaf blow it for now, and do the combustion blower cleaning and gasket replacement in the spring when the burn season is over - hopefully that comes sooner rather than later after this brutal winter !!

 

[QuadSantaFe]

Ok so here's the update. I cleaned the pipes (I already clean the traps and exchanger a couple times a week anyway) so the air path is good. I now have discovered a new problem (which might be related to the previous). I am getting an inconsistent feed rate of pellets. It will burn out if it does not get fed in time. It goes from no pellets to a few being dispensed (believe me it's abnormal) and will eventually allow the pot to burn out. If it were a jam I would expect no pellets being fed right? Does it sound like the auger motor is going bad or perhaps something in the control board? I plan on taking things apart this evening to make sure there isn't something jammed in there too....

Any suggestions on troubleshooting this one?

This stove was new in October so I will be pretty unhappy if I am already losing parts (i.e. motors etc).

 

[Bioburner]

Any kids in home? Darn GI Joe stuck and can't get out Many pellet stove owners have found odd items in the hopper etc.

 

[QuadSantaFe]

I had all of the pellets out of the hopper this morning and didn't see anything obvious....just couldn't see up the feed tube where the auger resides. I guess the obvious thing to do first is to make sure nothing is jammed up in there somehow. If it's clear then what should my next step be?

Any test I can do to see if it's the motor or the control board etc.?

 

[reallyte]

It's very easy to remove the augur motor. Pull it and take a gander.

 

[tjnamtiw]

Bioburuner is right! I've had several episodes where things jammed up the TOP of the auger at the drop chute. You need to get a flashlight and small mirror and look up there. Even overly long pellets can bridge up there and make for inconsistent feed. In the worst case, you get nothing and then a sudden drop of a huge load of pellets that leads to overfiring and the dreaded rumbling, which is actually nothing to worry about as it is just your vent piping going into resonance with the beat of the flames. I've had a piece of wood, an aluminum safety label, a piece of plastic from SOMETHING, and quite a few long pellet jams (before I changed brands) stop the flow. If you have the occasional pellet that is 2-3" long, expect uneven feed rates from time to time.
Also, if you are running on low, my experience with long pellets makes this speed very unreliable. Couple that with a low hopper load and you don't have enough vacuum to keep the vacuum switch pulled in, which will stop the feed altogether.

 

[QuadSantaFe]

Update: So this one ended up being a really simple fix. I have never dealt with a pellet jam since owning this stove so I didn't know what to expect. The uneven feed rate and over-fire didn't make me think a jam would be the cause.....I guess in my mind I thought there would be zero feed if that happened. Now I know better!

Just this past week I had to switch brands of pellets because of a supply shortage here in Southern Maine. Tractor Supply Co. was the only place with a few bags of pellets on hand and I grabbed their brand. Apparently there are some rather long pellets in these bags I pulled the auger and no pellets dropped from the chute to the burn pot when I did this...so I stuck a screw driver up there and wouldn't you know it a big bunch dropped down with a few lengthy buggers! Problem solved!

Thanks again everyone!

 

[tjnamtiw]

Update: So this one ended up being a really simple fix. I have never dealt with a pellet jam since owning this stove so I didn't know what to expect. The uneven feed rate and over-fire didn't make me think a jam would be the cause.....I guess in my mind I thought there would be zero feed if that happened. Now I know better!

Just this past week I had to switch brands of pellets because of a supply shortage here in Southern Maine. Tractor Supply Co. was the only place with a few bags of pellets on hand and I grabbed their brand. Apparently there are some rather long pellets in these bags I pulled the auger and no pellets dropped from the chute to the burn pot when I did this...so I stuck a screw driver up there and wouldn't you know it a big bunch dropped down with a few lengthy buggers! Problem solved!

Thanks again everyone!

See, I'm not as dumb as I look!

 

[Bioburner]

Paul Bunyan getting lazy and not cutting to length. So much for the "Patented feed system" Glad it was simple. We had the same results with some late season pellets from Walmart couple years ago. Entered them in the longest pellet contest.