Whitfield Advantage gone cold. Control board?

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MikeInFairfax

New Member
Dec 9, 2010
1
Fairfax, Va
Hello,
We have a Whitfield Advantage pellet stove insert that has stopped working. I’m near certain that the control board has gone bad but would appreciate any advice as to other possibilities.

Stove stopped feeding pellets. Everything else about the stove seems fine. I thought the auger had jammed or the auger motor had died. I emptied pellets and pulled the stove forward.

Auger seemed clear so I checked startup (several times) and found auger sometimes moved only two or three times each startup. It then no longer operated until I unplugged, re-plugged and restarted it. Hmm. I checked voltage at auger motor’s leads and found it was only 30 volts and the drive did not run. Then I noticed that 120 was present for a few pulses only at startup with voltage dropping back to 30 after the initial operative pulses.

The stove’s serial number is 90747 with a date of manufacture of May ’95. The control board is original with rotary type blower speed controls.

Does anyone have any ideas to resurrect my ailing stove short of buying a new control board? If I need to replace the board, is it plug compatible or is some rewiring required? My stove does not have an electric igniter. Does the new board drive an igniter and can one be retrofit into my old stove?

Thanks in advance for any assistance.
Mike
 
Mike, I don't have that stove, but I'm sure some of the Whitfield owners will chime in eventually.

In the meantime, try sending forum member "Wood Heat Stoves" a PM or e-mail....he works for (owns??) the store of the same name. He usually has owners manuals and sometimes service manuals for a lot of stoves....he will email a copy to you. Anyway, the guys name is Dave Gould, and is a regular on this board.

Here's a link to his website. Try using his little video to make sure what model you have.....I saw a discrepancy in the Serial # you listed, and the manufacturing year.

http://woodheatstoves.com/whitfield-pellet-stove-parts-c-292_90_99_95.html


Good luck, and welcome to the forum!
 
Wood Heat Stoves said:
advantage II-t
feel free to pm me for the svc info

ps. i'm just an hourly grunt here.....

Them's the folk who actually do something useful, the world would stop otherwise.
 
When the red light is on (feed light) there should be 120V +/- at the motor leads.

If this is when you are seeing 30V then there are issues.

Check to be sure that the high temp snap switches are not the cause.

A failed, failing high temp switch could be the issue.

If the switch contacts have burned or ??? the contact could be poor.

Also in the auger circuit is the pressure switch.

Check the voltages starting at the board and trace the power circuit to the auger motor.

If you have 120V on one side of a switch and not the other, Bingo, there is the issue.

The boards on these can and do go south but if everything else seems fine, as in the exhaust blower and the room air fan, it may just be a simple fix.

There is one high temp snap switch up on the back of the fire box inner wall (inside the mechanical cabinet) and the other high temp switch is located in the air inlet pipe at the rear of the stove.

Also as mentioned, look over the connections, junction blocks and any place that wires in the auger cicuit connect.

These are not a real complicated electrical system so tracing the issue should be relatively easy.

If you find low voltage all the way back to the board, then the issue is in the board.

There is a replacement board that will plug right in and go to work available.

I have a similar whitfield stove with the same type of board ( two knobs, a push button to start and the slide switch to turn the thing on and off.

The upgraded board is a digital control with a touch pad.

This stove does not have the parts needed to upgrade easily to an auto lite system.

There are several options.

I have designed a complete new control system for mine using heavy duty industrial solid state timers.

This is not a difficult process, but does require a complete rewire of the stove.



Good luck and keep us posted.

Snowy
 
The usual problem that afflict the Whitfield's w/ rotary knobs, which are actually Rheostats, are that the rheostats become worn out and defective.

The tell-tell symptoms are the erratic voltages you report. They are replaceable by a qualified service tech and would cost far less than a complete Control Board replacement.
 
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