Whitfield Advantage Plus: Intermittent "Tick" Sound and Flashing Light Between Auger Cycles

[GR366]

Long‑time reader, first‑time poster. I recently bought a house that came with a freestanding Whitfield Advantage Plus pellet stove (I’m not completely certain of the exact model, but I did a search and the single‑pane wraparound glass door makes me think it’s the Plus model). I’ve been browsing this forum for months and have found a ton of useful information, so I’m hoping someone here can help me diagnose an issue.

I’ve only been running the stove for about two weeks, and the other night I started hearing an intermittent “tick” sound in between the normal auger feed cycles. Whenever the tick happens, the auger light flashes briefly (sometimes just once, other times in a quick series that matches the tick sound).

Back in the fall, I replaced all of the interior vent pipe from the adapter tee to the exterior 3” to 4” increaser tee with Duravent PVP. I also did a thorough cleaning of the combustion chamber and ash traps, removed and cleaned both blower motors, and replaced the combustion blower gasket.

I recorded a short video before shutting the stove down, and I haven’t run it since. The stove is in the basement, and the video is dark, but you can clearly see the red heat output lights and green blower speed lights on the control panel and the red blinking auger light, along with the ticking noise and flashing of the auger light to match the tick.

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I’m not sure what’s causing this issue, and I’m hoping someone can point me in the right direction for troubleshooting and a potential fix.

 

[ARC]

The Advantage stove has what I call a free floating auger motor by that I mean it is only attached to the stove by the auger shaft it is not bolted to the stove. It has a metal bumper it presses against to stop it rotating and forcing the auger to spin instead. I would check to make sure the metal bumper bolts are tight. The Allen screw attaching the auger motor shaft and the auger is tight. Also check how much dust/fines are in the hopper and auger tube. If semi plugged the auger can bounce back and hit the metal bumper. If these do not stop the noise enough for you add a small piece of rubber on the bumper stop to deaden the noise a little. Watch the below video at around 5:30 he rotates the motor hitting the bumper and to me it sounds like what you are hearing on your stove.

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[Ricks]

I have a Whitfield Quest that also had a tick sound whenever the auger turned on. I check ed, and the rubber bumper on my stove was intact.

In the end I replaced the auger bushing and the auger itself to stop the noise.

You could try and remove the auger and add a very little (2 or 3 drop) of light weight oil to the top of the auger as well as at the auger bushing.

 

[GR366]

I tried ARC’s recommendations and tightened both the metal bumper bolts and the Allen screw on the auger. I also vacuumed out the fines from the hopper and auger tube, then ran a couple bags of pellets through the stove over the last few days. Unfortunately, the same ticking noise returned, along with the auger light flashing in sync with the sound.

When the noise started, I turned the blower fan down from 4 to 2 so I could try to hear the source of the sound more clearly. As soon as I lowered the blower speed, the ticking and flashing stopped. After waiting a bit, the issue didn’t return. I then set the blower back to 4, and after an hour or two the ticking/flashing started again. Lowering the blower speed immediately stopped it.

I turned the blower back to 4, waited until the ticking/flashing returned, then this time turned off the auger while leaving the blower at 4. The ticking/flashing continued even with the auger off. Then as soon as I lowered the blower speed below 4, the noise stopped again.

At this point, it seems the ticking and flashing only occur when the blower is set to 4, and the issue disappears at any lower setting (1–3).

Any thoughts or insights would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Ricks]

If the ticking noise is present when the auger is off or not turning, then the auger is not the problem.

I am thinking a bearing maybe going in the blower motor. On my Quest, the original blower motors had an oil fill port. Once a year I would add two drop of light weight oil.

If your blower motor has an oil port I would try that. The key is you need a light weight oil. What you use in a car is too heavy an oil.

 

[Ricks]

The auger light should turn on each time the auger turns. Depending on the feed rate this light will be on briefly or for several seconds.

 

[stovelark]

Sounds like the noise was isolated to the convection blower, good analysis done. Hope you get her fixed, there are still a lot of old Whitfields heating homes, I liked the little Quest, but the Advantage 2T was probably the workhorse of the fleet. Stay warm.

 

[GR366]

Do you think the issue is the convection blower itself or the control board? And is there a reliable way for me to test and confirm which one is causing the problem?

 

[stovelark]

If you could put power directly to blower (I made a test wire with a rheostat, so I could vary motor speed too), that would be a way of testing it. I suspect though its the blower, prob not he control board, but I suppose a flaky triac could cause that.. not sure. Good luck with her, keep the old Whit going.

 

[Ricks]

While Whitfield pellet stoves haven’t been manufactured in many years. The stoves are very reliable and simple to repair. Many parts are still available ( auger motors, blowers, gaskets)

In terms of narrowing it down between the blower or the control board, I would follow Stovelark’s suggestion. You could also try disconnecting the blower as long as it is the blower for the room. I wouldn’t run it long disconnected, but a minute or two should be long enough to determine the source of the noise.

Actually if you don’t light the stove you could also disconnect the other blower.