Whitfield ll-T Combustion Blower fails intermittently.

[Beauness]

I have a Whitfield Advantage ll-T, pictures attached. The Combustion/Exhaust blower is not working properly, I get a lazy orange flame and slow pellet build up inside the burn grate.

Sometimes it works fine, sometimes blower fails to operate.

Unplugging and plugging the stove back in when the blower fails seems to get it running again but sometimes only for 30 seconds.

Blower works fine for days at a time so I'm thinking it must be some part of the controls?

 

[Beauness]

I've tried thorough cleaning, under fire grate behind firebricks and replaced the low limit switch.

 

[heat seeker]

Classic symptoms of the motor overheating. Have you blown out the windings of the motor?

 

[Beauness]

Made a rudimentary attempt at blowing the out the windings, was using a nail to push the valve in on a compressor hose.
It now comes on consistently but only seems to operate at 1/4th capacity. . .

I'm going to make another effort with a can of condensed air instead. Seems maybe I've killed the motor or it's a loose electrical connection.

What you said makes good sense, there was also some insulation pushed in up against the back of the blower motor which I have now removed.


I'm thinking I should order a new motor, or get someone more qualified than I am to check the electrical.

 

[Stovensen]

With a little luck all you need to do is to clean the potentiometer for the combustion blower. The symptoms you describe clearly seem to point in that direction.
A pot-meter is one of the "weak links in the chain", since they are prone to get dirty ( = intermittent contact ).
This instruction video is for cleaning the pots in a guitar amp, but the overall cleaning principle is basically the same and I'd say that the pots in a Whitfield control are a lot easier to get to. All you need is some contact cleaner.

Good luck keep us posted.

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[heat seeker]

You need a pretty powerful source of air, such as an air gun. I'm not so sure that canned air will work in this case, especially since you may now have clumps of dust trapped in the windings. I bought my stove used, and the first time I blew the motor out, I was really glad I took it outside. I used compressed air and a gun, and the dust cloud from inside the motor was pretty impressive. I do it every year now, and get a small, but noticeable, amount of dust out. You need to blow in both directions, BTW.

 

[Beauness]

Cleaned it out with a compressor, is flowing well atm. I looked around for pots but all there is in there is a simple bar (I think it's called an integrated circuit or circuit board?) with all the wire relaying through it. I took the quick connects off one at a time and wiped them down, then sprayed with Contact cleaner.

Auger has failed somewhere along the way, I'll clean the pellets out and see if it's jammed. If that works and if the combustion fan keeps up the good work then this will be the last you hear from me.

Thanks a bunch for the help guys.

Attached are the wiring diagram and circuit board.

 

[heat seeker]

That motor in your third picture needs to be blown out, also (unless that's the one you did). It's full of dust.