US Stoves 5510 King Pellet Stove - odd problem

[jhilyer]

Hello, I wonder if anyone can help me here.
I'm a newbie to pellet stoves. Bought an older used US Stoves King 5510 this fall, been using it since November, and for the first month or so, no problems.

But now, an odd problem has popped up. When re-lighting, (manually, igniter is bad), the feed will do its usual running for about 8-10 minutes. Pellets drop in. Big flame. Then the flame starts to die down, and it will *not feed* for just long enough for the fire to die. Almost like it 'pauses'. Then it starts feeding again, but too late to help the fire, and it goes out. I've watched it do this 6 or 8 times.

My work around is that when this happens, I take a small handful of pellets, open the door and quickly throw them into the burn pot to keep it going - usually have to do it twice, then the feed starts again and everything's fine. It will run all day then. I'd say the feed stops for approx. 3-4 minutes.

What's going on here? Do I have a fuel rate/blower speed problem? I've tried different things there, to no avail. And it's not the hopper door switch, because I disabled that when this first happened - thought the switch might be bad. Nope. If I was having a non-seal problem, the combustion blower would stop blowing too, right? Maybe this is the stove's normal "reaction" to some condition I am not correcting for? The manual is no help here.

Thanks!

 

[Lake Girl]

Gaskets on door and hopper pass the dollar test (search site)? Checked pressure switch (vacuum) to see if it is clean? I have seen that you can check it by disconnecting and sucking on the line - should hear it click closed. Check door handle is making appropriate connection? Wiring diagram does not show Fan limit switch - does it have one?

Hopefully others will chime in with suggestions...

 

[skibladerj]

In my experience these stove hate to be started manually! That being said its is strange that you used it for a month with no problems. When you got it did you do a factory reset of the control panel? I would do a reset and see if that makes any difference. I know that on the 5500m there is a factory timer that says if they internal temp does not reach operating temp (approx 120*) in 30 mins it will shut down.

Personally I think that your stove needs to have the ignitor replaced to make the control board happy.

 

[mipellet1]

hey I have a ? for skibladerj do you stir your pot ever day? if so do you do it with the stove on or shut it down? thanks

 

[skibladerj]

I stir/ dcoop my pot when needed ... i turn the stive down to a 1 and lift the hopper door. This allows the fore to almost die down. I open the door and stir first. Then i close the door for a minute, and open it back up and scoop it out. Lastly i close the door and close the hopper thats it.

I will make a video next time i do it. Thread will be called 'ussc pot maintenance'

 

[mipellet1]

That would be great when I have needed to clean pot i shut down to do it But do the cleaning before it is all the way cold.