Troubleshooting Older Castile

[jhsilcox]

My stove ran well last year. This year when I plug it in, the Red call for heat light comes on (but no other lights), exhaust combustion blower starts up, thermocouple glows red hot, but auger doesn't run even if I push the reset button on the back of the stove. Bypassed snapdisk #2, no change in condition. Bypassed snapdisk #1, Convection blower runs continuously upon start up (not waiting for combustion) and exhaust combustion blower starts up as before.l Still no auger. Snapdisk #3 not tripped. Blew out vacuum hose. Checked air intakes into the fire pot. Any other suggestions? BTW, should there be gasket material on all 4 sides of the glass door?

 

[Jack Morrissey]

My stove ran well last year. This year when I plug it in, the Red call for heat light comes on (but no other lights), exhaust combustion blower starts up, thermocouple glows red hot, but auger doesn't run even if I push the reset button on the back of the stove. Bypassed snapdisk #2, no change in condition. Bypassed snapdisk #1, Convection blower runs continuously upon start up (not waiting for combustion) and exhaust combustion blower starts up as before.l Still no auger. Snapdisk #3 not tripped. Blew out vacuum hose. Checked air intakes into the fire pot. Any other suggestions? BTW, should there be gasket material on all 4 sides of the glass door?

No on the gasket on 4 sides. top is open. I too have a problem with my castile this year, mine starts up normal but stops feeding pellets before the blower comes on.. waiting for my expert repair guy.. Good luck

 

[jhsilcox]

No on the gasket on 4 sides. top is open. I too have a problem with my castile this year, mine starts up normal but stops feeding pellets before the blower comes on.. waiting for my expert repair guy.. Good luck

Thanks. At least that clears up one area of concern. I was thinking SOMEHOW a length of gasket had gone missing and was interfering with the vacuum.

 

[johneh]

Test your auger motor!
See if the auger is free and not stuck

 

[jhsilcox]

Test your auger motor!
See if the auger is free and not stuck

Well, I don't 'feel' it trying to turn. I'll empty the hopper & see if I can turn it by hand.

 

[jhsilcox]

Well, I don't 'feel' it trying to turn. I'll empty the hopper & see if I can turn it by hand.

Unscrewed the auger motor from the stove, held the auger & attempted to turn the motor end. No joy. Should I be able to turn the auger?

 

[johneh]

One word auger YES as long as the motor is disconnected from the auger
The motor will not turn by hand, low gear reduction
test the motor with an old lamp cord
Pull of wires at the motor. install the 2 cord wires to the motor
plug the cord into 120 and the motor should run continuously

 

[jhsilcox]

One word YES as long as the motor is disconnected from the auger
test the motor with an old lamp cord
Pull of wires at the motor. install the 2 cord wires to the motor
plug the cord into 120 and the motor should run continuously

I'll give that a try. Am I correct that to remove the auger, I need to separate the motor from the auger and remove each individually? I have three sets of wires coming from the auger motor; a black, a red, and a double white. Should I apply the 120V to the black & red?

 

[jhsilcox]

Got the auger removed. It turns but pretty stiff. Given the probability of a high-torque/slow-speed motor, That wasn't a surprise. As you said, low gear reduction.

 

[jhsilcox]

One additional question...should I see any lights on the controller beyond the red "call for heat" light? Seems to me that in the past there may have been a series of different colored lights blinking in some sort of pattern.

 

[jhsilcox]

One additional question...should I see any lights on the controller beyond the red "call for heat" light? Seems to me that in the past there may have been a series of different colored lights blinking in some sort of pattern.

Auger, when hooked to power, ran fitfully. New auger motor arriving tomorrow. Any knowledge about lights on the control board?

 

[johneh]

Sorry don't know that stove well enough for the lights
The manual should tell you !
If you don't have one google it

 

[jhsilcox]

Only the red call for heat light is mentioned in either of the two manuals I've looked at. Already looked at google (my first option). Not much there either. Maybe I imagined the multitude of lights.

 

[Former Farmer]

The sequence is when you push the reset or the tstat calls for heat it goes into startup mode. Pellets feed for a min or 2, igniter gets hot and starts a fire. The thermocouple senses there is a fire and it has reached about 300 and the green light comes on and it then feeds another cycle of pellets which in turn start burning and the fire pot temp rises to about 800 then the light will turn red and the stove goes into run mode, the igniter turns off. Now if you don’t have the stove set to med it may have false star (low just isn’t enough). If the ash has built up in the burn pot or the holes have gotten plugged or partially plugged it will affect the start up.

 

[jhsilcox]

Thanks for that info.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Have you ever oiled the bearings on the motor? Have you ever blown off the filth accumulated on it? Motors only fail from lack of lubrication or maintenance. You need to grease the gearbox as well. Sounds to me like it's pat time for an under the panels cleaning and oiling and if you blew through the vacuum hose with it attached to the vacuum sensor, you destroyed the sensor. You never blow in the vacuum hose with it attached to the sensor. If you did, go buy a new one as the old one is junk.

 

[jhsilcox]

I do an annual cleaning behind all the panels. Thanks for your suggestions.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Annual cleaning don't cut the cheese. I clean mine at least 2 times during the heating season plus in the spring and my spring cleaning involves removing all the drives and combustion fan, cleaning the combustion plenum, oiling all the motors, greasing all the drives and fogging the interior of the unit with Fogging oil. Going on over 20 years with no component replacements what so ever.... I run corn which is 10 times as corrosive as pellets.

My in season cleanings also involve a leaf blower on the suck side on the venting.

They are not plug and play and never will be. Only thing plug and play will get you is a failed unit and no heat.