Whitfield advantage 2

[wert]

I got the unit used, The exhaust motor wasn't working. I replaced it . Worked for a week
the convection motor started making noise and opperating off and on. I pulled the motor out and bench
tested, it works. Put it all back together, no fans at start up. Is it the control board? Help!!

 

[wert]

BTW, the auger motor works after I hit the start switch and engage the auger Ser. No. 22345.
The relay was previously disengaged

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

You might want to hunt for a hi limit snap disc. It is possible that the unit has a tripped over fire safety.

You should be able to find it in the manual.

A convection fan that is failing is a likely cause of such a safety getting tripped.

Did you clean your convection fan?

Did you oil it? Not all of these blowers can be oiled but a lot of them can. They have thermal safeties that shut them off, this will cause the high limit to go after a bit. These motors restart as soon as their temperature drops enough. Thus the possible run stop run you saw. Meanwhile a number of high limit switches need to be manually reset.

Let us know how it is going.

 

[wert]

Thanks Smokey, How would I manually reset the high limit switch

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Thanks Smokey, How would I manually reset the high limit switch

If it is a resettable one there is button in the center of it that you press in it won't go in very far but it will go in and latch.

First there has to be a resettable one on the stove not all stoves have manually resettable hi limit switches.

 

[Snowy Rivers]

I own an Advantage II and the high limits are auto reset type normally unless they have been replaced.

The overfire (high limits) are located, one on the heat jacket and the other on the air inlet pipe below the hopper.

The room air fan is controlled by a triac on the board. The boards do go bad and this will result in the fan stopping off and on, this will cause the high limit snaps to pop and shut the fire off

A noisy whining fan motor is an indication of a Bad triac on the board.

Check it out and see what you find.

If the rest of the board is working OK you could wire in a Room fan speed controller seperate from the other controls and just bypass the triac.

The setup was originaly made so that at the different fuel settings that the fan could only be set just so low.

On high the fan would run fairly fast and on low the fan would be allowed to drop to a much slower speed.

My Advantage II fan speed controller is oretty much to the point that it works on medium high

A fresh control board with the updates will fix this issue me thinks.

Wood heat stoves (posts here) can fix you up with a new board.

Snowy

 

[wert]

Thanks Snowy, I pulled the board off. The triac next to the fan control appears ok, I'm no computer tech by any means. I
looked up the part no. and it is obsolete. A new board seems the way to go but, Im cheap. How do I wire in a room fan controller
to bypass the triac?
Thanks Alot
Gene

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Really simple to do.

Unplug the room air fan from the board.
Locate the Hot wire and the neutral wire where it connects to the power buss bar. (From the power cord)

Hot is generally Black and neutral is always White.

Mount a cieling fan controller into the side panel of the stove. (Dont buy a cheapy controller)
Connect the controller per its instructions to the 120V lugs.
Wire the fan to the two feed wires from the controller.

**** Include a 2 amp inline fuse ***** use good insulated crip connectors

OH be safe while you are inside the stove UNPLUG IT

Now be sure that you do not turn the controller to the off Position when the stove is on.

If you dont have the fan on, the stove will overheat and the high side snapswitch will shut the thing off.

If you run the fan at near full speed you will never overheat the thing on most settings.
Dont run the stove over the number 3 setting.

I use 1 most of the time.

My stove fan runs almost on high all the time as the triac is not playing the game right any more either.

Snowy

 

[wert]

Thanks again Snowy, Will this resolve both my fans not working? I did replace the combustion fan last week. The convection fan I tested it and found it oK

 

[Snowy Rivers]

If your exhaust fan is not running, then there are other issues.

Unfortunately the control board is set up so that all the components are tied together and work as a team.

If only the room air fan was effected you can wire a controller up to take care of it.
If the exhaust fan is not working too then it gets far more complicated.

The whitfield boards with the control knobs had issues that cropped up as the stove got a few seasons on them

If the feed motor will run on the timer by itself, you can wire the exhaust blower up to run alone but, I am thinking that at this point, you would be far better off to replace the board with a new updated one.

I have designed a complete new control panel for my whitfields but this take a complete rewire of the stove.

If you have some good basic electrical skills, I would be happy to share the schematic.

Now you must keep in mind that once you rewire the thing, all safeties that were in place originally must stay in place to protect you from a hazardous situation.


These pellet stoves are pretty simple.

A draft fan to pull air through the fire pot.
A pellet feed motor
A room air fan to distribute the heat
A one shot timer to start the cycle until the low temp switch closes
A variable timer that allows the feed motor to run about 2 seconds on time and adjustable from 2-8 seconds off time (off time is the heat range control
1 low temp switch
2 high temp switches to protect against a burnback or an overheat situation
A pressure switch to stop the feed in the case of the vent becoming plugged.

I have all the components now to redo my Advantage completely.

The cost for the new timers was $109

The company that the timers came from is Precision timer company
(860) 399-6253

One shot is part number 644B-G5R
Burn timer is part number 646B-P15RO

These units are industrial grade controls.

NOW FYI this setup will require the operator to RUN THE STOVE

You will have far more control avalable than the original board afforded

If you do not feel that you want to try this sort of thing, then a "Plug and Play" replacement board is the way to go.

Here is a link to the post I made regarding a rewire including the schematic.
This Schematic was done for my Prodigy but, the only difference is that the Prodigy uses one fan for the draft inducer/room air.

Simply wire the draft inducer/exhaust to run constant and the room air fan on the speed controller.

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/61838/

Hope this helps
Snowy