St Croix Lancaster - still not working after tech visit

[Tommy_Demisenal]

I have a St Croix Lancaster corn stove with the conversion to pellet stove and the upgraded DHC4000 80P30523B replacement board. I purchased this house (1 bed 1 bath roughly 700sqft) in early 2022 and the previous owners had the stove working when I made the purchase. While in escrow they apparently let someone housesit who "used the wrong pellets". When I took possession of the home they told me the seal was bad on the door but they had been honest up until then so I didn't think they were lying. When fall rolled around I replaced the door seal and expected the stove to work. It didnt so I called the only local repair guy. He and I cleaned it out, it was totally caked with build up everywhere. There was also a ton of nesting material in the exhaust pipe outside (i've since put a mesh grate over the end to prevent this). The repair guy and I cleaned as much as we could, we also replaced the vacuum sensor and the stove still kept throwing up the #2 error code. We would occasionally get the stove to run for a few minutes but then it would throw a code again. He said he thought the board may have been fried by a power surge (it wasn't plugged into a surge protector) and that I should replace it, but even then he's not sure it would run properly. Then he stopped answering my calls. I finally got ahold of him again now (1 year later) and he thinks I should buy a new stove. I'm pretty low on cash and several thousand dollars for a new stove isn't really in the cards. Is it worth trying to get a new board? is there anything else I should try first? I saw somewhere that if the board turns on at all that it probably isn't a board issue.

Thank you

 

[Bob Sorjanen]

I usually find with my Lancaster it won't run right if it is dirty. All the hidden passage ways need to be clean. There are a couple behind the phony brick that are a pain to get cleaned.
A question did your repair guy know anything about St. Corix stoves?
Bob

 

[kchace]

The fact that the stove will sometimes run a short while makes me think the electronics are fine. Throwing a code #2 usually means something is clogged and the stove can’t create a vacuum - the air has to be able to get in AND out freely. you mentioned a couple of things like there was a nest in the stovepipe. Are you certain the stove pipe is now completely clean? You also mentioned that the stove was “totally caked with buildup” and that you and the repair guy “cleaned as much as we could” but unless you totally clean the stove including difficult to reach passages then the problem could be just that. If the stove was “totally caked” then that is probably the root cause and the problem is that you have simply not gotten it all.

Ken

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

The fact that the stove will sometimes run a short while makes me think the electronics are fine. Throwing a code #2 usually means something is clogged and the stove can’t create a vacuum - the air has to be able to get in AND out freely. you mentioned a couple of things like there was a nest in the stovepipe. Are you certain the stove pipe is now completely clean? You also mentioned that the stove was “totally caked with buildup” and that you and the repair guy “cleaned as much as we could” but unless you totally clean the stove including difficult to reach passages then the problem could be just that. If the stove was “totally caked” then that is probably the root cause and the problem is that you have simply not gotten it all.

Ken

If possible, try the leaf blower trick for cleaning. This would help clean all those hard to get areas.

 

[Tommy_Demisenal]

it won't run now at all, just goes straight to code 2 flashing. We cleaned as much as was cleanable, vacuumed and blew out the rest last year when the tech visited. definitely nothing left in the stove pipe. we also bypassed the vacuum sensor and it still did the same thing. But I guess I will pull the stove and try again to clean it. But if the lack of cleanliness was an issue for creating a vacuum then why doesn't bypassing the vacuum sensor work?

 

[Tommy_Demisenal]

I usually find with my Lancaster it won't run right if it is dirty. All the hidden passage ways need to be clean. There are a couple behind the phony brick that are a pain to get cleaned.
A question did your repair guy know anything about St. Corix stoves?
Bob

yeah I cleaned those with a metal brush on a wire, scraped and vacuumed all behind there.

 

[Bob Sorjanen]

yeah I cleaned those with a metal brush on a wire, scraped and vacuumed all behind there.

I use a piece of choke cable and run it up in there goes for a ways on both those small holes. I have also taken it outside and use a leaf blower and an air compressor, leaf blower seems to help a lot. good luck

 

[Bob Sorjanen]

was the combustion blower taken out and cleaned and new gasket put on? all the fins cleaned off ?

 

[Tommy_Demisenal]

was the combustion blower taken out and cleaned and new gasket put on? all the fins cleaned off ?

yes it was taken out, it was really clogged with build up. but we got it as clean as we could. I'm pretty sure we put a new gasket on, but not 100%. Whatever we did with the seal was what the tech said was good enough. I think you've convinced me to at least try to take it all apart again and clean as much as possible and hope for the best. If that doesn't work maybe I'll try a new board. But I did notice yesterday that the board has a fuse and that fuse looks like it is intact. That fuse is meant to protect against surges for the board right?

Thanks for all the help.

 

[zrock]

definitely pull it apart and clean it again.. Find a rubber mallet and give the outside of the stove a few smacks all the way around (not on the glass) this will help some of the crap drop down. Pull both blowers out and give them a good clean. Are you sure the tech bypassed the vacuum sensor if it was giving you a vacuum error and you bypassed it the stove should have run. If it were me i would give it another good cleaning and bypass the vacuum and both snap disks and see what happens... If it will still not start then its a safe bet that the board is bad.

Not sure how you can use the wrong pellets in a stove..

 

[Tommy_Demisenal]

definitely pull it apart and clean it again.. Find a rubber mallet and give the outside of the stove a few smacks all the way around (not on the glass) this will help some of the crap drop down. Pull both blowers out and give them a good clean. Are you sure the tech bypassed the vacuum sensor if it was giving you a vacuum error and you bypassed it the stove should have run. If it were me i would give it another good cleaning and bypass the vacuum and both snap disks and see what happens... If it will still not start then its a safe bet that the board is bad.

Not sure how you can use the wrong pellets in a stove..

Honestly I have no idea what the previous owners meant by "wrong pellets". I think they were running it and they didn't realize the stovepipe was filled with nesting material (like literally 7 feet of pipe stuffed with nesting material). Honestly surprised they didn't start a fire. Anyway, i watched him use a jumper to bypass the vacuum sensor, he also replaced it just in case. I'm pretty sure he also bypassed the snap disks. But anyway, I'll try to get to cleaning it up next week and will report back.

Thanks again.

 

[rickwai]

Do the leaf blower trick. That is the only way to get the exhaust passages clean. Every St Croix that had the vac switch code was fixed in this manor. You will be amazed at how much stuff comes out when you hit it. That is typically why you can pick un St Croix stoves used cheap because people dont know how to properly clean them