Serenity won’t keep burning. UPDATE

[mikkeeh]

stove ran fine at the end of last season. Did regular cleaning and fired it up. Started ok...no codes....room blower comes on for about 5 min.....auger never starts again and stove goes out. Ran diagnostics and found no issues. Changed pof switch.....no change. Checked vacuum switch hose for blockage...no issues. Sure seems like pof issue to me......but original and backup switches don’t effect anything.

Any thoughts.?

I’ve had a few pellet stoves over the years starting with a Earth stove 25 yrs ago, Hartman, Englander, USSc.......and the Serenity is by far ...the most hands on stove I’ve ever owned. I actually keep a tool box next to the stove.....About time for a change.

 

[Deezl Smoke]

stove ran fine at the end of last season. Did regular cleaning and fired it up. Started ok...no codes....room blower comes on for about 5 min.....auger never starts again and stove goes out. Ran diagnostics and found no issues. Changed pof switch.....no change. Checked vacuum switch hose for blockage...no issues. Sure seems like pof issue to me......but original and backup switches don’t effect anything.

Any thoughts.?

I’ve had a few pellet stoves over the years starting with a Earth stove 25 yrs ago, Hartman, Englander, USSc.......and the Serenity is by far ...the most hands on stove I’ve ever owned. I actually keep a tool box next to the stove.....About time for a change.

2 and a half seasons on mine and I've only put pellets in them. But, you might consider putting it on craigslist after you get it going and buy a different stove. No fun with constant repairs on anything one owns.
I dont know if you timed that 5 minutes or are taking a swag at it, but if it goes a whole 5 or even more, then shuts off, it sounds more like an over temp or temperature control? Maybe go through your console settings and see of something got changed over the summer somehow?

 

[Mt Bob]

Birds nest in flue?I think they also have an indicator on the control panel if the vacuum switch is closing,but,there were different upgrades,I could be wrong

 

[mikkeeh]

2 and a half seasons on mine and I've only put pellets in them. But, you might consider putting it on craigslist after you get it going and buy a different stove. No fun with constant repairs on anything one owns.
I dont know if you timed that 5 minutes or are taking a swag at it, but if it goes a whole 5 or even more, then shuts off, it sounds more like an over temp or temperature control? Maybe go through your console settings and see of something got changed over the summer somehow?

Didn’t actually time it. Fire builds enough to kick on the room air blower. I don’t think athe auger fed after room air kicked in. I’ll re check setting...but don’t know how anything could have changed.....or what change would cause this.

 

[mikkeeh]

Birds nest in flue?I think they also have an indicator on the control panel if the vacuum switch is closing,but,there were different upgrades,I could be wrong

Good thought. But dis assembled vent system to clean, and inspected fresh air intake with a camera.

I think the vacuum switch is closing ok. If I run the exhaust fan in diagnostics, after 25 seconds, the vacuum light comes on..indicating....I think..vacuum switch is operational.

 

[burpuffer2]

I have not owned this stove but all of the reviews i have seen show that the manufacture has excellent customer service and troubleshooting, have you tried giving them a call?

 

[mikkeeh]

I have not owned this stove but all of the reviews i have seen show that the manufacture has excellent customer service and troubleshooting, have you tried giving them a call?

I did. They were helpful and gave me some suggestions. They wanted me to run some diagnostics, but the stove was in a shutdown mode, and I couldn’t do it while on the phone. I’ll call again tomorrow. Thought someone on the forum might have an idea.

 

[Deezl Smoke]

Didn’t actually time it. Fire builds enough to kick on the room air blower. I don’t think athe auger fed after room air kicked in. I’ll re check setting...but don’t know how anything could have changed.....or what change would cause this.

I dont know for sure, but I would think the vac switch or proof switch would shut the fire down before the room blower, would'nt it? I just have'nt had any issues with mine so I dont know the time allowance for proof of fire or sense of vacuum to go into shut down. Just going by what I think should happen, is once the igniter clicks off, the controller should be looking for input from the pof and vac switches. I have not timed my stoves either, but a swag would put about 2 minutes from ignition to room blower. Does that sound about right? That seems a long time for a safety device to make up it's mind.
But if the controller somehow corrupted the settings over summer and it is set to shut down at a low temp or on a set day of the week etc. I know there are several options to run the stove on for daily, weekly, remote thermo, etc. If a setting is corrupted and thinks it is supposed to be in shut down, could that be causing your issue?

 

[mikkeeh]

I dont know for sure, but I would think the vac switch or proof switch would shut the fire down before the room blower, would'nt it? I just have'nt had any issues with mine so I dont know the time allowance for proof of fire or sense of vacuum to go into shut down. Just going by what I think should happen, is once the igniter clicks off, the controller should be looking for input from the pof and vac switches. I have not timed my stoves either, but a swag would put about 2 minutes from ignition to room blower. Does that sound about right? That seems a long time for a safety device to make up it's mind.
But if the controller somehow corrupted the settings over summer and it is set to shut down at a low temp or on a set day of the week etc. I know there are several options to run the stove on for daily, weekly, remote thermo, etc. If a setting is corrupted and thinks it is supposed to be in shut down, could that be causing your issue?

Yea...maybe. Once the pellets light....it burns for maybe 6 to 8 minutes before it get hot enough to start the room blower. Once the blower start...the fire dwindles due to lack of fuel.

 

[mikkeeh]

Ok..here’s the latest. I cant say that I truly understand it....but. What i found out was that after the stove lit, and got up to temp, the room blower came on.....then it lost vacuum. The tech i spoke to said to reset the exhaust fan and room fan voltages to within 10v in each stall. He said if the difference was more than 10v, the room fan would compete with the exhaust fan....and drop the vacuum.
Now...i would think the room fan would have no effect on stove vacuum, as it is just that....a fan that blows the heat out of the plenum. He didn’t have an explanation.....just said to try it. I reset back to defaults.....and so far its run ok...but I’ve only tried it on heat level 2.
But i did notice that before the reset, when the room blower came on.....the vacuum light went out.
Had to re tweak my air intake shutter...but so far so good.