Whitfeild Pellet Stove

[charger1966]

Hello, I have an older Whitfield Pellet Stove. The problem I'm having with it is it will not generate maximum heat on the high setting. It is only warm not hot. The flame does burn and it is Somewhat lazy but not real lazy. The auger does feed the pellets at a good rate ,about 3 second cycle and the Stove will put out heat if I manually feed allot of pellets into the pot. The window in the front of the stove turns VERY BLACK. I hope that one of you can help me out. Thank-you Lance

 

[lucky13]

I have an old Whitfield as well.

My auger stays ON about 1-1.5 seconds on all settings.
It stays OFF about 4-5 seconds on the 3 setting, 3-4 sec on 4 and about 1-2 on setting 5.

If you say your getting good heat by hand feeding the pellets I would check those setting.
There's some guys with a lot of experience on here that I'm sure can set you straight.

 

[rap69ri]

What model of Whitfield stove is it?

Your problems sounds like an airflow problem. Have you cleaned the squirrel cages on your fans, behind the brick, under the ash pan, etc... Are your gaskets still sealing tightly?

 

[Mr Whitfield]

What model stove do you have, Do you have the manual for the stove. If you give us the model , we can help you with your problem.

 

[charger1966]

Advantage II-T Is the Model of my stove. I have no manuals for it . I bought this used. I did replace the blower for the combustion and exhaust. I have cleaned everything except for behind the brick. How much ash will collect back there.? Is the brick easy to remove?How many screws or fasteners are in each panel? Is the air flow problem causing the blackness on the glass and the poor burn? Thanks for your time guys,
Lance

 

[Mr Whitfield]

Two screws on each side of the stove, 5/16 nutdriver works best. Remove the screws and remove the sheet metal holding the fire brick in place. Right side first, then left side, then middle. Behind the bricks there can be alot of ash. You can go the Lennox hearth products and download the manual. Go to discontinued stoves, and download it in a pdf file.

 

[jjdesch]

When saying left side, right side, etc - it helps if you note the orientation. When you say right side first - do you mean the right side of the stove when facing it from the front (or, its true left side), or the stove's true right side?

thx!

 

[charger1966]

Thanks for the info. I have found that the stove doesn't even have the brick plate in side it. So Being the innovator that I am and having some sheet Stainless steel laying around I made the plates and I am testing as I write this. Another question, How many pellets should this stove, I have an Enviro in the house this one is in my shop, be dropping into the pot? It seems that it only drops pellets in every four or fifth cycle. Thanks again Lance

 

[hearthtools]

Advantage II-T Is the Model of my stove. I have no manuals for it . I bought this used. I did replace the blower for the combustion and exhaust. I have cleaned everything except for behind the brick. How much ash will collect back there.? Is the brick easy to remove?How many screws or fasteners are in each panel? Is the air flow problem causing the blackness on the glass and the poor burn? Thanks for your time guys,
Lance

This page (linked in the yellow sticky links at the top of the pellet room)
has photos and info about cleaning behind the brick.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/13419/

 

[hearthtools]

here is a direct link to photos
http://www.hearthtools.com/parts/adavantageII_clean.htm

 

[charger1966]

Ok I have removed the auger and the motor cleaned everything that is around it and attached to it. I found nothing wrong. I have another question, Is it possible for the Auger Motor to be going bad, Not strong enough to crush the pellets at the top of the auger shaft and stop the feed?When empty it works fine but with pellets in it stops. Thanks,
Lance

 

[hearthtools]

auger motors last from 2 - 8 years
we sell over 250 a year on our website

 

[drtnshtr]

If you havent already done this take the removable sheet metal back off the stove and see if that makes any difference in your burn. Mine burn was not keeping up with the new batch of pellets I just bought(they are smaller) and the pot kept filling up and I was getting a lazy burn. I removed the back for some reason and I notice the wall in front of the stove got alot brighter....I walked around front and sure enough the burn was waaaaay better. More air getting in I suppose.

 

[hearthtools]

If you havent already done this take the removable sheet metal back off the stove and see if that makes any difference in your burn. Mine burn was not keeping up with the new batch of pellets I just bought(they are smaller) and the pot kept filling up and I was getting a lazy burn. I removed the back for some reason and I notice the wall in front of the stove got alot brighter....I walked around front and sure enough the burn was waaaaay better. More air getting in I suppose.

I have no idea what you are talking about?

 

[jjdesch]

I think he means taking off the back cover/wall of the stove, exposing the lovely innards

 

[drtnshtr]

I think he means taking off the back cover/wall of the stove, exposing the lovely innards

thats it!

 

[hearthtools]

I think he means taking off the back cover/wall of the stove, exposing the lovely innards

I dont know how this would help the fire unless as you were pulling the panels off the side you pulled the air control out more
making the fire burn cleaner

 

[drtnshtr]

nope...just took that back part off and it brightened right up. Im not sure how that could help either but it did.

 

[charger1966]

Well Gents, I ended up taking the auger off the stove. I removed the cover plate and found that the grease in there was like thick like tar. So I cleaned that all out real nice then I used a special grease for automotive electric windows and applied a very small amount inside the gears and a little on the plate. I reassembled it and then Tested it on the beach. Man what a difference. It rotated fast (A little) and didn't bind at all when I tried to stop it to simulate a pellet being stuck. After that test I put it back into the stove and fired it up. It now has a better flame,Hotter air temps coming out of the heat exchanger and it is feeding the pellets a whole lot more efficiently. So to cap it all off the sheet steel and the auger was the problems with this stove. Thanks a bunch guys. Have a Happy Thanksgiving.
Lance

 

[drtnshtr]

WOW you took the auger apart and got it back together properly? You must have a darn engineering degree or something...that cost me $125 when I did it

Good deal!

 

[kinsmanstoves]

A friend of a friend called me to a house that was having a problem with a Whitfield. The auger was not running right and a few other small issues were going on. I found out the "eye" was not sensing the fire. I did some cleaning of the glass under the eye inside the auger tube and it appeared to be working well. I hope this solved the issue. I will keep all you Whitfield owners aware.

Eric

 

[jjdesch]

Could you define "auger not running right" a little more? Could the auger's in these things be misaligned at times somehow? I see a lot of pellet spillage that bounces out of the ultragrate onto the floor of the stove. Bt "a lot" i mean about a single layer of pellets on the floor, more so on the stove's left side (right side as I face the front) after about 12 hours of running.

 

[drtnshtr]

I think the "bounce outs" are from the grate maybe getting full and the pellets bouncing off the top. thats what I get when my grate gets a little too full.

 

[jjdesch]

There is about a single layer of embers in the grate, seems to be burning ok except for the spillage. The pellets seem to be dropping with a little too much force, or the backsplash and sides of the grate are just a little too low. I don't know - I am new to all this! I do find that the damper does not seem to give much control, and there is no way an amount of play in it as indicated the manual. the manual says the factory setting of the damper rod lenght between the rod knob and the set collar is 1 5/8" Mine adjusts out to a MAX of 1 1/8, maybe 1 3/16."

 

[kinsmanstoves]

A friend of a friend called me to a house that was having a problem with a Whitfield. The auger was not running right and a few other small issues were going on. I found out the "eye" was not sensing the fire. I did some cleaning of the glass under the eye inside the auger tube and it appeared to be working well. I hope this solved the issue. I will keep all you Whitfield owners aware.

Eric

That was all that I was told. I got there and started the stove. It appeared to be ok and attempted to start. The stove filled with smoke that started pouring out from everywhere, vent, hopper, air wash. I asked about cleaning of the vent pipe and he said he had just cleaned it and it was full of "stuff". As the smoke was rolling into the house a large "poof" from inside the stove happened and the smoke started going out the vent pipe. I think the combustion blower had a large amount of "stuff" we will call ash in it blocking the exit of gases.

I did notice the auger was running very intermittent. I research the owners manual and saw they instead of a snap disk or similar sensor this stove has an "eye" that looks for fire. This eye is in the pellet drop shoot. I find the eye and saw the red plastic covering the eye was soot covered. I cleaned it and put it all back together. Relight the stove with no problem and was told that it was a very good flame. I was happy and drank 2 of his Bud Lights. Very tasty after being smoke covered.

Please remember to hydrate with any type of activity.

I am going to make this a post of it's own to see if there was something I might have forgot.

Eric