Saranac auger obituary Edit: He came back to life!

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Doocrew

Doocrew

Feeling the Heat
Hearth Supporter
Nov 3, 2008
324
Southern NH
Saranac auger, age 6 months, quietly passed away on Saturday, January 10, 2009 surrounded by friends and family. Saranac auger enjoyed providing warmth to his family especially during sporting events. Saranac auger always had an interesting spin on things and will long be remembered for his hatred of Appling County pellets, excessive fines and clinkers. Saranac auger was predeceased by high oil bills. He is survived by his loving family and 2 tons of LG pellets.
 
LOL Nice obituary but hey you said 6 months??? did you contact your dealer to see if that was covered? If the stove is only 6 months im pretty sure it is covered under warranty. any questions or problems let me know ill contact me saranac distributor and try to help
 
compressedwoodsupplier said:
LOL Nice obituary but hey you said 6 months??? did you contact your dealer to see if that was covered? If the stove is only 6 months im pretty sure it is covered under warranty. any questions or problems let me know ill contact me saranac distributor and try to help
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I'm sure my dealer will stand behind it. He has been great so far. The manual says that it has a 5 year parts replacement warranty. Of course, we are headed into the coldest week of the year so far. Go figure.
 
Being a woodburner with little knowledge of the auger system, I read this over in its entirety thinking you were talking about this: http://www.saranac.com/page/lager1 - and you had so many of them in you that you had exchanged the L for a U and scrambled them.

In lieu of pellets, I will be making a donation to your oil company. The donation will be in the form of a mocking letter written on the back of a check that will bounce.
 
Could be chance, but not a great sign that we have only a few stoves of that brand on here, and the auger failed quite soon.

I used to say....and I WISH I COULD STOP SAYING - that if airplanes were like pellet stoves, they'd be falling out of the sky every hour!
 
Webmaster said:
Could be chance, but not a great sign that we have only a few stoves of that brand on here, and the auger failed quite soon.

I used to say....and I WISH I COULD STOP SAYING - that if airplanes were like pellet stoves, they'd be falling out of the sky every hour!
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That auger motor is also used in other stoves according to a friend who works on many different makes of pellet stoves.

Doocrew you have my sympathy.

Did Auger expire because of a nasty jam?
 
The key is not that the same motor is used on many stoves......it is other factors such as the location of the motor, the auger, the auger tube, etc. etc.

It is probably very hard to test a pellet stove for the number of hours and all instances (air flow, etc.) in order to determine exactly what the load and temp of the motor is. Sometimes a lot of that testing ends up being done in the field.

Not saying the design is defective, but not a good thing for it to go in that short of a time. Might just be a fluke. Let's hope so.
 
Webmaster said:
The key is not that the same motor is used on many stoves......it is other factors such as the location of the motor, the auger, the auger tube, etc. etc.
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Yes I understand that Craig, I was just pointing out that the same motor is in fact used in a number of other stoves. Further I could go on to point out that there appears to be a similar thing happening in those stoves as well.

I also asked if a jam got poor Auger as I'm interested in what actually went poof and why. My interest is purely selfish as I own the freestanding version of the insert that Doocrew has.

CZARCAR,

I just say this from a pure physics stand point the diagonal auger set up equalizes some of the forces on the system, I'm not saying it is good or bad. I should be interesting to note that a lot of auger systems are of the diagonal nature and have been for a long while. There is likely a reason for that.
 
SmokeyTheBear said:
Webmaster said:
Could be chance, but not a great sign that we have only a few stoves of that brand on here, and the auger failed quite soon.

I used to say....and I WISH I COULD STOP SAYING - that if airplanes were like pellet stoves, they'd be falling out of the sky every hour!
Click to expand...

That auger motor is also used in other stoves according to a friend who works on many different makes of pellet stoves.

Doocrew you have my sympathy.

Did Auger expire because of a nasty jam?
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Errrrr, well, uh, yeah I guess, maybe. You may remember that I posted some time ago that I had an auger jam and had turned the shaft with a pair of vice grips to free the jam. Many expressed concern that I may have damaged the motor by turning it backwards. He ran flawlessly through at least a ton and a half of pellets until today, when all of a sudden it just stopped. Thinking it was jammed, I cleaned out the hopper and did find a cake of fines in the bottom where it meets the auger shaft. I poked at it until clear and vaccumed it clean. I was able to turn the auger manually at this point, so I re-assembled and fired it back up. The auger would still not turn. I removed the insert from the fireplace and noticed a puddle of oil under the auger motor. Not a good sign. Ultimately, I think the answer to your question is yes. The real question is whether or not I had damaged or weaked the motor earlier by turning the shaft backwards.
 
Doocrew said:
SmokeyTheBear said:
Webmaster said:
Could be chance, but not a great sign that we have only a few stoves of that brand on here, and the auger failed quite soon.

I used to say....and I WISH I COULD STOP SAYING - that if airplanes were like pellet stoves, they'd be falling out of the sky every hour!
Click to expand...

That auger motor is also used in other stoves according to a friend who works on many different makes of pellet stoves.

Doocrew you have my sympathy.

Did Auger expire because of a nasty jam?
Click to expand...

Errrrr, well, uh, yeah I guess, maybe. You may remember that I posted some time ago that I had an auger jam and had turned the shaft with a pair of vice grips to free the jam. Many expressed concern that I may have damaged the motor by turning it backwards. He ran flawlessly through at least a ton and a half of pellets until today, when all of a sudden it just stopped. Thinking it was jammed, I cleaned out the hopper and did find a cake of fines in the bottom where it meets the auger shaft. I poked at it until clear and vaccumed it clean. I was able to turn the auger manually at this point, so I re-assembled and fired it back up. The auger would still not turn. I removed the insert from the fireplace and noticed a puddle of oil under the auger motor. Not a good sign. Ultimately, I think the answer to your question is yes. The real question is whether or not I had damaged or weaked the motor earlier by turning the shaft backwards.
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I haven't taken a close up look at the auger motor so I can't speak to weather or not moving the auger manually could have caused a problem. The pool of oil however indicates a possible bearing seal failure. Please note I said possible.

I've had my auger shut down five times once from a jam and four times from the high temperature snap disc going snap. The snap disc was tripping because of the convection blower thermaling off and then the stove goes into overheated mode.
 
While watching the football game I started reading my stove manual and found a suggestion to check the high temp reset switch in the event of an auger failure. DUH. The auger motor is working once again. I feel like such a schmuck. Rest easy Saranac owners. Your worry is not with the product but with the owners who do not thoroughly read their manual or know what the heck they are doing.
 
Glad to hear you fixed it. Did you ever call Al for this or were you going to use Hudson River for the Parts? LOL on the obituary, glad to hear "CPR" worked. It does look like a standarnd auger motor, so when we are out of warrant parts should not be too hard to come by. Where is the high temp reset switch at? My insert has been a workhorse so far 24/7. Burned about 1.5 tons. These augers definitly do not like fines for sure. Stay warm!
 
Doocrew,

From my last post ..... I’ve had my auger shut down five times once from a jam and four times from the high temperature snap disc going snap. The snap disc was tripping because of the convection blower thermaling off and then the stove goes into overheated mode.

You likely are going to need a new convection blower ... my dealer calls them f(i)asco blowers ... if I hadn't been in the room the last two times I would still be trying to figure out what the sequence was.

Still I'd be wondering about the oil under the auger motor, and that reminds me, I will have my replacement blowers a week from tomorrow.
 
Doocrew said:
While watching the football game I started reading my stove manual and found a suggestion to check the high temp reset switch in the event of an auger failure. DUH. The auger motor is working once again. I feel like such a schmuck. Rest easy Saranac owners. Your worry is not with the product but with the owners who do not thoroughly read their manual or know what the heck they are doing.
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I thought about the reset switch (figured your unit had one), but then thought you had exhausted anything possible before declaring the auger dead.

Glad to hear all is well, especially with the cold's cold coming.
 
sammypoodle said:
Glad to hear you fixed it. Did you ever call Al for this or were you going to use Hudson River for the Parts? LOL on the obituary, glad to hear "CPR" worked. It does look like a standarnd auger motor, so when we are out of warrant parts should not be too hard to come by. Where is the high temp reset switch at? My insert has been a workhorse so far 24/7. Burned about 1.5 tons. These augers definitly do not like fines for sure. Stay warm!
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Thanks Sammy. It is located against the top back wall of the stove on the opposite side of the control panel. Follow the orange wires if you have a problem seeing it.
 
SmokeyTheBear said:
Doocrew

From my last post ..... I’ve had my auger shut down five times once from a jam and four times from the high temperature snap disc going snap. The snap disc was tripping because of the convection blower thermaling off and then the stove goes into overheated mode.

You likely are going to need a new convection blower ... my dealer calls them f(i)asco blowers ... if I hadn't been in the room the last two times I would still be trying to figure out what the sequence was.

Still I'd be wondering about the oil under the auger motor, and that reminds me, I will have my replacement blowers a week from tomorrow.
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Thanks Smokey. Have not had the snap disc pop before. The manual says the normal cause is the convection fan. Based on what I found in the auger tube, I am thinking that was the cause. Do you think the switch will pop due to an auger jam?
 
"Do you think the switch will pop due to an auger jam?"

It could happen but isn't likely. Auger jam means no pellets, no pellets means no heat after a bit, no heat means snap disc ain't going to make it to snap time (nominally anyway, would require a very interesting failure mode which includes the convection fan also going bonkers and/or a defective snap disc).
 
Ahh. Woke up the am to a cold stove.... I can see the auger light coming on but no pellets, nor any type of sound like the motor is turning. The snap disk looks Ok. I believe its on the upper left side of the stove in front. It looks fine. No heat. time to place a service call on monday. any tips until then?
 
Weird, unplugged it. checked all wires and the high temp switch looked good. turned it back on. Now its feeding pellets. Weird.
 
Did you by any chance press the little red button to see if it was all the way in on that high temperature switch?
 
sammypoodle said:
Weird, unplugged it. checked all wires and the high temp switch looked good. turned it back on. Now its feeding pellets. Weird.
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Sammy-

I am 100% positive that it was the high temp switch. If you pushed the red button it would not feel as though it was tripped. After the auger obituary that turned out to be the high temp switch, mine has tripped a couple of times. I noticed that it would only happen when I would run on setting 3 or higher. No problems on 1 or 2. I talked to Al, and he said that there were a batch of them that came through with 200 degree switches intead of 250s. I went over and he gave me a new one. I have not installed it yet, but probably will tomorrow when I have some time. The switch has the temp right on it so if you remove yours and it says 200, that is your problem. It is only held in by two phillips head screws.
 
I did push the little red square button. It did not seem to make a clicking noise. I could slightly press the button but it did not feel like it reset anything. It pushed in maybe a 32nd of inch.
 
sammypoodle said:
I did push the little red square button. It did not seem to make a clicking noise. I could slightly press the button but it did not feel like it reset anything. It pushed in maybe a 32nd of inch.
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You reset the switch. I experienced the same thing. What setting were you running on when the switch tripped?
 
I did press the red switch a bit harder the second time. Did not feel like it moved much. The stove did then fire up ok. So it must have been that. Now I can run my stove on setting 4 (one below the hightest setting) fine. If I go to the high setting, maxed out it will trip the switch in an hour or 2. Al is coming over this week. I have a few issues. One, my tapping noise is back. I thought I fixed it, went away for 2 weeks. The combustion motor or high hums/vibrates. The "new" high temp switch from 200 to 250 degrees. Also, my exhaust pipe is loose. I was going fix myself by Al wanted to come by and have a look. Great guy! He stands by his products!
 
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