USA King 5500M fan won't kick on after power outage

[frostyny]

We had just started out pellet stove and within just a few minutes, the power went out due to downed electric lines. we immediately unplugged the stove, even though there was no power to it. 2-1/2 hours later, the power is back on, but when we light the stove, it goes through normal start up and ignited, but the blower would not kick on, causing it to stop and burn out and throw E-2 code. It is feeding pellets normally as well.

NOTE: We have had this stove for about 4 years with no major issues. We shut it down around 8:00am every day, and do a complete clean out before restarting around 3:00pm. So, it had just been cleaned before lighting it, prior to the power outage.

According to the troubleshooting, it could be "Electrical Open in low temperature switch or wiring.
Would someone be able to show me what this is referring to on the wiring diagram?

EDIT: We are in central NY with heavy snow and current temps around 20F, dropping to teens in the morning...and the pellet stove is our source of heat. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ABusWrench]

Welcome to the forum. I know nothing about your make of stove. Someone will be along with more knowledge about it. Is it plugged into a surge protector? If not, it may have taken a surge when the power went out. Does bad things to the electronics!

 

[frostyny]

Thank you. Yes, the stove is into an addition which is all new construction and wiring. Every line has one GFI feeding the line.

New update. This morning we pulled the motor, cleaned and greased bearing. We started it, it would throw a code, we would hit off and unplug, and do over again. Did this several times before it finally cleared and fired. The codes were E4 and E9.
It has now been running for a couple hours, but now it randomly cuts out completely, as if the power shut off. Then, after a few seconds, it turns back on as if it never shut off.. it's happened 3 times when we have been present.

 

[ARC]

According to the troubleshooting, it could be "Electrical Open in low temperature switch or wiring.

I would start off checking the vacuum switch, try attaching the two wires on the back of the witch with a jumper wire. If that works then I would check to see if door gasket is good, rubber tube from switch to stove is not cracked or plugged with soot. Err 2 is also caused by vacuum problem.

( From trouble shooting guide
Possible Causes for a vacuum issue:
Gasket around door or glass not sealing properly.
Clean-out slides on front of unit open.
Clean-out slides inside firebox not closed properly.
Unit has not been cleaned: firebox, underneath firepot, behind clean-outs on inside of unit, brass port
inside firebox clogged, vacuum hose clogged-brittle-cracked, exhaust pipe clogged, exhaust pipes not
sealed, improper venting—excessive horizontal length—too many elbows—vented INTO chimney, and
the last thing to rule out is a faulty pressure switch itself.
90 to 95% of the time a faulty pressure switch is NOT the problem.
Just because the unit will run with the pressure switch “jumped” does not mean
the pressure switch is faulty. It simply means we have told the unit to “ignore”
the vacuum problem.
Cleaning firebox: clean thoroughly, remove firepot-clean underneath, clean brass port in firebox,
Check gasket around door and glass and make sure it seals all the way around-that it is not frayed or
burned allowing any gaps.(some 5500-5510 have gaps at bottom of glass gasket)
Make sure the door seals—doing paper test.
UNPLUG UNIT.
Remove side panel—left side facing stove—locate pressure switch-remove hose from pressure switchblow
through to make sure it is not clogged or cracked. Make sure it is connected well to the brass port
going into the back of the firebox,--AGAIN—make sure it is not brittle cracked or damaged—reconnect
hose to pressure switch making sure the clamp is tight.
Make sure the exhaust piping has been cleaned—all of it, not just the clean-out tee removed and
emptied.
Make sure the piping is sealed—especially the first piece attached to the exhaust pipe.
THESE UNITS CANNOT BE VENTED INTO A CHIMNEY. THE PIPE-(3” or 4” PELL VENT)- MUST RUN ALL
THE WAY TO THE TOP.

 

[SidecarFlip]

We had just started out pellet stove and within just a few minutes, the power went out due to downed electric lines. we immediately unplugged the stove, even though there was no power to it. 2-1/2 hours later, the power is back on, but when we light the stove, it goes through normal start up and ignited, but the blower would not kick on, causing it to stop and burn out and throw E-2 code. It is feeding pellets normally as well.

Was it hooked to a surge suppressor? If not, you probably experience a voltage spike that fried something. Hopefully, Not the brain box. Surge suppressors are mandatory on any solid fuel appliance, no exceptions.

NOTE: We have had this stove for about 4 years with no major issues. We shut it down around 8:00am every day, and do a complete clean out before restarting around 3:00pm. So, it had just been cleaned before lighting it, prior to the power outage.

According to the troubleshooting, it could be "Electrical Open in low temperature switch or wiring.
Would someone be able to show me what this is referring to on the wiring diagram?

EDIT: We are in central NY with heavy snow and current temps around 20F, dropping to teens in the morning...and the pellet stove is our source of heat. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Not following, your statements contradict each other. You say you shut it down every morning at 8AM and restart it at 3PM, what do you do for heat between 8 and 3? Freeze your buns off? Curious about that in as much as you state..."and the pellet stove is our source of heat" I don't follow that at all.... And, a biomass stove of any flavor SHOULD NOT BE YOUR ONLY SOURCE OF HEAT. No exceptions. They are only meant as a supplementary source of heat, never a primary heat source. I'm not familiar with your unit either but sure sounds like a voltage spike issue.

Since someone else welcomed you, I won't bother except to say that the knowledge base on here is pretty damned good... However...

Sure someone will chime in. I'm just not following your comments too well.

 

[Ssyko]

The king/ashley 5500M does not use snap disc’s they use a thermister for temp sensing. And the stove was working normal before the power outage so i doubt it is the cause of your problem. In the situation of a downed main line there was undoubtedly a short causing an amperage spike.this probably let the magic smoke out of the blower triac. Spikes can happen ultra fast nano seconds and fuses cant even catch them if it is only momentary. Your probably going to have to replace the board. Take a lamp cord and connect the blower directly to the outlet, that should allow you to at least stay warm till you get parts. Where in central NY are you located?

 

[SidecarFlip]

.... and I thought Thermisters were only used in RV fridges...

 

[FirepotPete]

this probably let the magic smoke out of the blower triac. Spikes can happen ultra fast nano seconds

A friend of mine has a King 5500m and a few years ago had this same problem but with the exhaust fan. Only difference is what might have caused it. No power outage in this case.

What he had done though, for the first time was to use the leaf blower trick to clean his stove. The only thing we could come up with was that the exhaust blower blades were free to spin. Being that triacs are bi-directional as far as current is concerned, the blower must have spun fast enough to produce a spike higher than what the triac was rated for and fried it.

We replaced it and the stove ran fine. He still uses the leaf blower trick for cleaning but now sticks a screw driver into the fan blades to stop it from spinning and hasn't had any problem since.



I do warn people now to not allow those motors to spin while cleaning with the leaf blower trick. I know it's just a small motor but there is magnets and windings and electricity doesn't care about direction, it just follows the easy path. I always wanted to put a blower motor on my meter and spin it with my compressor just to see what it would do but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

ETA: just thinking about it further the one I'm thinking about might not have been the King stove, he has two stoves but it might have been the one in the basement and I think that is maybe not the King 5500m. I'll have to try and call him. Friggn' memory ain't what it used to be.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Tell me about it. I can set something down in the shop and in 5 minutes not remember where I set it.

Far as spinning a combustion fan on a meter. If it's shaded pole, no matter how fast you spin the armature / fan, you won't get a current or voltage reading because there is no magnetism present. A perm mag motor certainly. Only time a shaded pole motor has magnetism is when the lamination windings are energized. Other than that, it's a rock....

 

[FirepotPete]

Tell me about it. I can set something down in the shop and in 5 minutes not remember where I set it.

Far as spinning a combustion fan on a meter. If it's shaded pole, no matter how fast you spin the armature / fan, you won't get a current or voltage reading because there is no magnetism present. A perm mag motor certainly. Only time a shaded pole motor has magnetism is when the lamination windings are energized. Other than that, it's a rock....

That's what I was always taught. It just seemed to much of a coincidence to have happened when and how it did. I don't remember if the stove was plugged in when he did the LBT. Those triacs continue to conduct even after current isn't applied, until the gate senses it dropping to a certain point and then closes. So perhaps something else was going on that fried it. I know sometimes they just fail, we had an old side winder conduit bender years ago and the triac wasn't designed well enough to work for more than a month or two. We ordered a higher rated triac and it worked fine for years after.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Hell Pete, I don't know a Triac from a Democrat, I'm a mechanical person, not an electronics whiz. If it's mechanical or involves TIG welding or machining, I can do it. If it involves a light bulb, I'm screwed. I look at my computer driven Hypertherm plasma cutter and 3 axis plasma table with awe. Don't have a clue how it works but it is 'plug and play', so it does (and makes me look good too).

I have a real fancy dan laptop I post on. Has full programmers 64 bit, whatever that is) software, solid state hard drive, touch screen, facial recognition, 3 web cams 2 terabyte external hard drive and more internal memory than the entire democrat party has in brains. Problem is, I don't have a clue how to use any of it. I have to call my cousin in Frankfort Illinois and let him make the computer 'dance' remotely. He's a Dell dealer and I'm under his license so I have all the latest and greatest stuff.. I don't have a clue about. I can post on a few forums, get e-mail, respond and see the weather and that is about it and fine with me.

I have more programs on this that names in the Toledo phonebook. No worries about hackers or unwanted crap either. he has Trend professional anti virus with 24/7 monitoring. on here. If I even try to look at a site Trend don't like, I'm barred.

Surprised it allows me on Hearth.Com. I do not control the vertical or the horizontal.,,,lol

If I didn't have a fancy code reader that 'tells me' what component to replace, I'd be lost. None of the cars would run. They'd all be parked around here like a Hillbilly does and I'd buy a new / used one and leave the others sit and rust away.

 

[frostyny]

Not following, your statements contradict each other. You say you shut it down every morning at 8AM and restart it at 3PM, what do you do for heat between 8 and 3? Freeze your buns off? Curious about that in as much as you state..."and the pellet stove is our source of heat" I don't follow that at all.... And, a biomass stove of any flavor SHOULD NOT BE YOUR ONLY SOURCE OF HEAT. No exceptions. They are only meant as a supplementary source of heat, never a primary heat source. I'm not familiar with your unit either but sure sounds like a voltage spike issue.

Since someone else welcomed you, I won't bother except to say that the knowledge base on here is pretty damned good... However...

Sure someone will chime in. I'm just not following your comments too well.

Not contradicting at all. Yes, this IS the only source of heat we currently use, and yes, we normally shut it down during the day. This is all new build and is insulated exceptionally well. It gets quite warm at night. Then, when we shut it down, it maintains a very comfortable temperature all day, even in our large house. There is no way we would be able to run more than one heat source, we would melt.
If temperatures dictate, we will run in through the day, but that's not often. Today, it's running on low all day because we are home and trying to keep an eye on it. It has not shut off since my last post.

 

[SidecarFlip]

we have an older as in 100 year old farmhouse that has been completely redone with foamed in insulation in the walls, new thermal windows and R50 in the ceiling on the second floor so it's old but tight.

We do the opposite, turn it on low at night (with the central propane furnace +90 condensing) set back as well and then in the AM (7AM) the central furnace comes up to set temp (70) and when I get up to let the pup out (usually 7:15AM), I turn up the bio mass stove to medium and let it and the central furnace run in tandem. Furnace runs about 15 minutes every hour and supplements the stove output, but I burn mostly corn with a smidge of pellets mixed in and corn burns much hotter than pellets for the same weight of fuel. Took some fiddling to get both t'stats (furnace and stove) working together but I have that licked now and house stays at 69-70 all day. drops back to 60 during the night. Which is fine with us as we like to sleep cooler. Makes for better cuddling...

 

[frostyny]

I would start off checking the vacuum switch, try attaching the two wires on the back of the witch with a jumper wire. If that works then I would check to see if door gasket is good, rubber tube from switch to stove is not cracked or plugged with soot. Err 2 is also caused by vacuum problem.

( From trouble shooting guide
Possible Causes for a vacuum issue:
Gasket around door or glass not sealing properly.
Clean-out slides on front of unit open.
Clean-out slides inside firebox not closed properly.
Unit has not been cleaned: firebox, underneath firepot, behind clean-outs on inside of unit, brass port
inside firebox clogged, vacuum hose clogged-brittle-cracked, exhaust pipe clogged, exhaust pipes not
sealed, improper venting—excessive horizontal length—too many elbows—vented INTO chimney, and
the last thing to rule out is a faulty pressure switch itself.
90 to 95% of the time a faulty pressure switch is NOT the problem.
Just because the unit will run with the pressure switch “jumped” does not mean
the pressure switch is faulty. It simply means we have told the unit to “ignore”
the vacuum problem.
Cleaning firebox: clean thoroughly, remove firepot-clean underneath, clean brass port in firebox,
Check gasket around door and glass and make sure it seals all the way around-that it is not frayed or
burned allowing any gaps.(some 5500-5510 have gaps at bottom of glass gasket)
Make sure the door seals—doing paper test.
UNPLUG UNIT.
Remove side panel—left side facing stove—locate pressure switch-remove hose from pressure switchblow
through to make sure it is not clogged or cracked. Make sure it is connected well to the brass port
going into the back of the firebox,--AGAIN—make sure it is not brittle cracked or damaged—reconnect
hose to pressure switch making sure the clamp is tight.
Make sure the exhaust piping has been cleaned—all of it, not just the clean-out tee removed and
emptied.
Make sure the piping is sealed—especially the first piece attached to the exhaust pipe.
THESE UNITS CANNOT BE VENTED INTO A CHIMNEY. THE PIPE-(3” or 4” PELL VENT)- MUST RUN ALL
THE WAY TO THE TOP.

Thank you for replying.
We've pretty much done everything you suggest, except the gasket. That will definitely be the next task.
After all the troubles, it has now been running for two days with no issues and a little quieter after the bearing was greased.
Fingers crossed!