Smoking Whitfield Advantage III

[burner632]

My first post and also my first problem with my Whitfield Advantage III. Installed in 1991 and working great all these years. This season the stove was a little louder then in years past but was working well. I pulled the combustion fan and the impeller fan blade had lost a couple of fins and needed replacing. I ordered the impeller and new gasket. Cleaned and oiled the motor and reinstalled with the new blade.

The stove worked great and was very quiet. Burned a bunch of bags over Thanksgiving without a problem. After a good cleaning the stove was restarted and burned on high until it was warmed up. Then turned down to the second lowest setting. It was burning fine. After about 1/2 hour the house was full of smoke. A little scary. Once the flow rate was turned back up the combustion fan kicked in and exhausted the smoke from the stove and a few open windows took care of the smoke in the house. I cleaned the stove and fired it up a few days later no issues. My girlfriend lit the stove while I was out of town and it was burning good on high but filled the house again with smoke after it was turned down. Once the auger switch was turned back up to high it started to exhaust the smoke again.

Is it time to replace the exhaust motor it could this be a bad limit switch of some sort ?

Sorry for the long post but it's frustrating after years of excellent service I'm afraid to light my stove.

 

[stovelark]

Prob the exh blower, or the Motherboard isn't delivering voltage, but I'd suspect its just time to replace the exhaust blower.

Stovelark
Enviro EF3 FS pellet
Enviro Empress FPI AC
Enviro Kodiak 1700 FS wood

 

[imacman]

Are you sure the exhaust system doesn't have some blockage in it that won't allow the lower blower speed to overcome the reduced draft? Are you sure the (old?) comb. blower is running at it's proper speed(s)?

Just a long shot.

 

[DirtyDave]

Whitfield exhaust blower runs same speed on low feed rate as high,at least on mine. The room blower is adjustable. now is this the Quest model , because that has one fan doing both duties, if memory serves correctly.

 

[MountainSean]

Whitfield exhaust blower runs same speed on low feed rate as high,at least on mine. The room blower is adjustable. now is this the Quest model , because that has one fan doing both duties, if memory serves correctly.

Advantage combustion blowers vary depending on heat level. from about 73ish on low to 110 on high if memory serves. The Cascade is the one with the single motor doing double duty.. and for some reason I want to say Prodigy but I don't deal with prodigys much and don't have my book in front of me to double check.
In any case, check the voltage going to the combustion blower. These numbers are off the top of my head from memory the wife hid my work laptop so I can't pull my book to double check. the low end should be 73is and then a slight rise at #2 then going up rapidly for the remaining heat levels. If the voltage is good it is probably a tired motor after 21 years of work. If the voltage is bad it is probably a bad component on the control board.

 

[Phil Do's fire.]

I had the same problem with my old Profile 30, the motor was bad!

 

[stovelark]

Hi guys yes control board voltage for 3 speed is 74 volts (65-80 according to lennox tech.....) med 82 (68-86) hi 94 (88-105) I laughed at the guy when he told me these ranges the spec isn't very tight. Anyway, Prodigy and Cascade had single motor doing comb and convex at same time. Quest I believe was multiu speed motherboard motherboards vary a bit, you have to use sn to get the correct MB I've found. I agree with the guys above again, bad comb motor after that long a time.

Stovelark