So i fired up the Empress up the other day, and the auger sounds bad again

[seige101]

So i did my fall maintenance to the empress saturday, get done and fire it up. Started up great, but the auger sounds like it's gonna crap the bucket again. About 2 years ago i took the thing apart and cleaned the gear box. The only thing i had handy at the time was vaseline to use in the gear box. Worked like a charm up until now. What do you guys recommend for a light weight grease to pack in there?

Also what about a light oil for the bearings on all the fans and motors. I have been using plain ole 3 in 1 for the past several years.

 

[imacman]

So i did my fall maintenance to the empress saturday, get done and fire it up. Started up great, but the auger sounds like it's gonna crap the bucket again. About 2 years ago i took the thing apart and cleaned the gear box. The only thing i had handy at the time was vaseline to use in the gear box. Worked like a charm up until now. What do you guys recommend for a light weight grease to pack in there?

Also what about a light oil for the bearings on all the fans and motors. I have been using plain ole 3 in 1 for the past several years.

Vaseline? :bug: Well, I guess it was OK for a while, but I think you need something better than that. Vaseline will not stand any kind of heat, and wasn't meant to lube metal gears. My first thought would be normal automotive grease like what you put in a grease gun. They are even making synthetic grease too....works great.

As for the oil for the motors, I used 3 in 1 too, but switched to 10w non detergent oil. Both seemed to work OK, but I felt "safer" with the 10w.

 

[seige101]

Hey it's all i had handy at the time and needed to get the stove back up right then and there. Back in my paintball days we used to use it on the bolts of certain paintball guns.

I do have some synthetic bearing grease kicking around, think that would work fine?

If the 3 in 1 is working fine, gonna keep using it.

Thanks

 

[imacman]

.....I do have some synthetic bearing grease kicking around, think that would work fine?.......

Yep, the synthetic grease should be ok as long as it's not some super thick stuff. If it's like what comes out of a typical grease gun used to grease front end parts on cars, you should be good to go.

BTW, I saw that you mentioned in another thread that you were going to just use a "dab" in the gear case.....my advice is to pack it pretty full....even if some squeezes out when you close the cover, it's not going to hurt. The idea of "packing" it is so the grease has no place to go except on the gears. If you leave open spaces, it will work it's way there and won't be on the gears any more.

 

[slow-al]

The 3:1 is a good oil, if you want to try something else for your bearings try Zoom Spout, a very good quality turbine oil, I think it's available at Ace hardware, I get it at Grainger industrial supply. The bottle has a pull out spout that fits about anywhere. About $4's a bottle. It's about the same thickness as the 3:1.

http://www.zoomspoutoiler.com/

 

[seige101]

Thanks mac and slow, i will report back when i get around to doing it.

 

[Wood Heat Stoves]

fasco specifically recomends against using 3 and 1 oil... on its blowers
use synthetic bearing oil instead

 

[slow-al]

Dave, do you have a particular oil or wieght oil recomended by Fasco?

Also, are the fasco blowers used on a variety of different stoves?

 

[Wood Heat Stoves]

fasco motors are in 90% of pellet stoves, etc
one of our suppliers offers some
(broken link removed to http://woodheatstoves.com/synthetic-bearing-oil-anderol-465-p-12119.html)
there is likely a cheaper source if you look around for synthetic bearing oil. you might need to buy it in bigger quantities though...