I know there are not many CF owners on here but I have seen a few, usually describing problems similar to mine. After battling my stove all last year I think I may have found the solution. Just figured I'd post this for those few.
I own a CF Harvester. All last year I had problems with the stove feeding pellets, auger was constantly getting jammed. Was never able to find a solution here or on any other forums, or from the TECH dept at American Energy Systems (AES). By the way, http://forum.iburncorn.com/ is the best forum I've found for the Country Flame. Just about everyone burns corn but still a lot of good info. They have forums there for many specific types of stoves, worth checking out if you have a multi fuel stove.
Anyway back to the problems. Don't want to rehash everything, lets just say that none of the typical suggestions for auger clogging were the cause. I was about to give up and put this thing on the curb when for some reason I returned to AES's web site and looked at parts for the 1,000th time. While on there browsing at replacement parts I discovered that they had two types of augers for the Harvester. One, the one I had, called the "corn auger" and another called the "pellet auger" Well, I called the tech again and asked about it. Now, every time I called them last year I told them that I burned wood pellets exclusively. Not once did anyone mention that there was a different auger. They always tried to blame my clogging issues on the pellets. I asked the tech if they thought the pellet auger could solve my problem and she said yes. She said the "corn auger" is the standard auger and most people have no problems burning anything with it, that pellet quality is usually the blame for the auger getting jammed. To which I told here there was no way in hell it was the wood pellets, I've tried 10 different brands, good bad and everywhere in between and had the same problem. Let me just say that everyone I've talked to there was very nice and tried to be helpful. I'm just disappointed that no one could solve my problem. Anyway, I'll end my rant on the service and get to the solution.
The difference in the two augers is the gap between the flitting. After reading the description on the AES site I searched other wood pellet stove augers and found that they resembled the auger I was about to purchase. Here's a pic for comparison.
The corn auger is on top and the pellet auger is on the bottom. Pretty big difference. I'm convinced that this is why I had so many problems. The gap on the corn auger is just too small and the pellets get jammed in there. Since installing the new auger I've been able to run the stove for about 8 hours in total, just too hot to keep it on. During that time the difference has been night and day. Pellets drop no problem, great fire and heat. I'm confident that this problem is solved, I do have some other questions. If anyone wants to try this swap, first take out the old auger and measure the diameter of the base that the motor mounts to
If is 2" in diameter then then the pellet auger you need is PP-1501. If the diameter is only 1 1/2" then you need PP-1501s. Or if you have the 1 1/2" you could still order PP-1501 but you will need a new male adapter HR-0000-931
This is what the male adapter looks like
Hope this will be of some help to someone. FYI CF also makes a Cross Fire that has two different augers available. AES also owns Magnum. I did a quick check and many of those stoves offer multiple augers where the flitting has a larger gap. I have read on here problems with Magnum's that sounded similar to mine.
I'll be back with some questions later. Thanks
Dave
I own a CF Harvester. All last year I had problems with the stove feeding pellets, auger was constantly getting jammed. Was never able to find a solution here or on any other forums, or from the TECH dept at American Energy Systems (AES). By the way, http://forum.iburncorn.com/ is the best forum I've found for the Country Flame. Just about everyone burns corn but still a lot of good info. They have forums there for many specific types of stoves, worth checking out if you have a multi fuel stove.
Anyway back to the problems. Don't want to rehash everything, lets just say that none of the typical suggestions for auger clogging were the cause. I was about to give up and put this thing on the curb when for some reason I returned to AES's web site and looked at parts for the 1,000th time. While on there browsing at replacement parts I discovered that they had two types of augers for the Harvester. One, the one I had, called the "corn auger" and another called the "pellet auger" Well, I called the tech again and asked about it. Now, every time I called them last year I told them that I burned wood pellets exclusively. Not once did anyone mention that there was a different auger. They always tried to blame my clogging issues on the pellets. I asked the tech if they thought the pellet auger could solve my problem and she said yes. She said the "corn auger" is the standard auger and most people have no problems burning anything with it, that pellet quality is usually the blame for the auger getting jammed. To which I told here there was no way in hell it was the wood pellets, I've tried 10 different brands, good bad and everywhere in between and had the same problem. Let me just say that everyone I've talked to there was very nice and tried to be helpful. I'm just disappointed that no one could solve my problem. Anyway, I'll end my rant on the service and get to the solution.
The difference in the two augers is the gap between the flitting. After reading the description on the AES site I searched other wood pellet stove augers and found that they resembled the auger I was about to purchase. Here's a pic for comparison.
The corn auger is on top and the pellet auger is on the bottom. Pretty big difference. I'm convinced that this is why I had so many problems. The gap on the corn auger is just too small and the pellets get jammed in there. Since installing the new auger I've been able to run the stove for about 8 hours in total, just too hot to keep it on. During that time the difference has been night and day. Pellets drop no problem, great fire and heat. I'm confident that this problem is solved, I do have some other questions. If anyone wants to try this swap, first take out the old auger and measure the diameter of the base that the motor mounts to
If is 2" in diameter then then the pellet auger you need is PP-1501. If the diameter is only 1 1/2" then you need PP-1501s. Or if you have the 1 1/2" you could still order PP-1501 but you will need a new male adapter HR-0000-931
This is what the male adapter looks like
Hope this will be of some help to someone. FYI CF also makes a Cross Fire that has two different augers available. AES also owns Magnum. I did a quick check and many of those stoves offer multiple augers where the flitting has a larger gap. I have read on here problems with Magnum's that sounded similar to mine.
I'll be back with some questions later. Thanks
Dave
