Whitfield Profile 20 - 5 seasons and that’s it?

[DKNJ]

In 2003 I bought a Whifield Profile 20 to heat a great room we added to my house, paid about $1500 which was a fairly well discounted price (i think it was usually about $2200). For the first few years it worked fairly well, then at the end of last season I began having trouble with the exhaust fan slowing to a halt, the display lights flashing and the room filling with smoke, and at the same time the stove began to get fussy over which types of pellets I was using. It would shut down if I used some brands, and run ok with others (I only bought premium fuel of whatever brand they were carrying in the local Lowe's and HD). In December I swapped out the control board, and while the exahust fan problem seemed to be solved, I still had problems with brands of pellets. Now, at the end of the season, I have seen a recurrence of the exhaust fan issue, and the control panel lights flashing, and it also shuts itself off no matter what type of pellet I use. I already put in a $300 control board that is faulty after 4 months, I dont plan to pump hundreds of dollars more into this thing to keep it running when I dont know if it will fix the issue. This is the sole source of heat in the room, I dont need it cutting out on me early next season. Dont know of any techs in my area (Southeastern NY state) so I think it's probably time to look at a new stove over the summer. Any advice? Anything I should try before I give up on it? Has anyone seen/heard of problems with certain brands of pellets?

thanks

 

[begreen]

Sorry to hear about the problems. Has the exhaust fan been checked to see if it is thoroughly clean? Are the exhaust passages nice and clean? Has the exhaust fan been checked for bearing failure? If it has bad bearings, it will present an increasing load on the control board. That may be what is causing the CB failure. If that's the case, the CB is a symptom and the problem is what needs to be addressed first.

You might want to take a look at the old control board to see if it is repairable. Sometimes there is just a burned out triac that needs to be replaced rather than the entire board.

 

[requin]

Did you have the stove cleaned/maintained every year?

 

[DKNJ]

Hi, thanks for the responses.

I have not checked the exhaust fan for bearing issues, but will figure out how to do so.

And I have not had the stove serviced each year because there doesnt seem to be a techincian in my area who wanted the job (I called a few places and they would not make house calls if they did not sell me the stove). I do routine maintenence on the stove myself though, and keep it pretty clean. Just not an expert on all the moving parts.

Has anyone heard of the issue of certain types of pellets causing issues? Seems very odd to me, as I said I only buy premium fuel.

 

[begreen]

How does the flame look? Is it burning as recommended in the manual? Is there any sign of soot build up in the firebox? The pellet brand may be exacerbating the problem, but it also could be coincidental.

I'm wondering if the exhaust blower is dying and no longer can keep the air pressure sensor switch closed. That would shut the stove down. Of course, this is assuming that the Flue exhaust passages, ash cleanout ports, etc. are well maintained. If not, that is the place to start.

 

[requin]

I'm the furthest thing from an expert on how to clean/maintain pellet stoves (I had mine installed by the dealer), but I do know there's more to cleaning it than just the burn box area (or whatever you call it). The vents, pipes, and assorted other "Hidden" areas need to be cleaned and maintained. I wonder if you perhaps missed some areas that are blocked by dust or soot?

I myself have never heard of brand of pellets causing the problems you mention but again, I'm no expert. My experience is with a very old Whitfield for about 8 years, and just this past year, a Harman Accentra.

 

[DKNJ]

What happens with the stove is one of two things:
A>it will start up and burn as normal. After a time I will hear some 'fluttering' for lack of a better word and the combustion fan will slow and speed up, back and forth. The display lights on the control board will all be flickering when this happens, and the flame will get lazy also. In a short amount of time the window will blacken and the room will smell like I have overfired the stove (burnt paint smell). At it's worst the room will begin to fill with smoke. When I turn off the stove and it goes into shutdown, the exhaust fan will then begin to operate normally and the fan will go on high speed as it's supposed to.
b>What's been happening more often with the new control board is that that stove will begin to run, and then just switch off suddenly as if the high-temperature limit had been tripped. the auger stops, the fans go to very slow speed and the fire burns out. I have seen the control board lights flickering a few times with this control board but not as often.

I do clean the burn area every time I use the stove, and over this past winter I performed the yearly maintenence that is listed in the manual, although because of the position and weight of the stove I didnt do much of a job on the back/inside I will admit.

My stove is only vented horizontally through my foundation. I have the piping to run it vertically to meet code but it's in the back of the house so I just havent bothered, plus the outside pipe cover is above pavers so there is no fire hazard (ie lame diagram below). The point is, I can and do routinely clean the exaust pipe by snaking my shopvac hose directly into it.

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| | ~~~~~~~~~ <--pavers

 

[kinsmanstoves]

Clean the stove, more than just the burn pot. Run a brush down the pipe or at the least a broom stick with rags on the end. READ YOUR MANUAL. Cleaning your stove is not rocket science.

Pellet stoves are not fire and forget.

Eric

 

[Xena]

What kinsman said ^^^^^^

Get the manual and read up on how to remove
the blowers to clean them. After 5 seasons of
not cleaning them you'll most likely be looking at
replacing at least one of them. I made the same
mistakes and after 3 yrs had to replace the room
air blower this past February. I replaced it myself
and once I got a good diagram found it was very
simple to remove.

You also would benefit from reading Rods maintenance
tips which is a sticky in this forum.

Run a brush up the vent pipe until no ash drops.
I keep my shop vac under the pipe so that when the
crap falls it gets sucked right up instead of making
a mess.

If you do these things yearly in addition to the regular
weekly maintenance, your stove should last quite
awhile.

 

[ADSchultz]

My Profile 30 benefited greatly from cleaning both sides of the IR filter in front of the flame sensor and the surface of the flame sensor. I'm not familiar with the Profile 20, but on mine there is an access cover in the pellet bin. I ended up installing brass tubing from outside the stove into these areas, and now I can clean these surfaces with a can of compressed air from outside the stove.

My stove cycles on an off also, and I have posted a question elsewhere in this forum.

 

[webbie]

Left to itself, most pellets stoves will start to need major service or parts replacement after a few years. You must keep up with all aspects of the service - either find a qualified pro or learn DIY.

This is one of the reasons I always harp on one point - buy your pellet stove from a local dealer who can service it on a regular basis...or, be a very handy fella with lots of factory phone or email support. There are thousands of pellets stoves in homes across the country acting as "boat anchors" because of need for service, cleaning and parts.

One of our forum member has written what is perhaps the most complete guide to Whitfield service - he has kept his up and running for 15 years for almost nothing:
http://www.butkus.org/whitfield_pellet_stove.htm

 

[pastera]

Flickering of the control lights sounds more like a power issue - which will destroy the control board.

There is a recall on the power cord, so check to see if you have one of the effected models.

Also, make sure the outlet that the stove is plugged into is in good condition. The cord should fit in the outlet and stove quite firmly. If it does not replace the cord AND the outlet. If the outlet was overheated from a bad cord or bad outlet, it needs to be replaced.

Aaron

 

[DKNJ]

Update: I found a guy locally who said he serviced pellet stoves, including Whitfield. He came by, looked at it for a bit and said it just needed a cleaning, which he did a few weeks later for $250. Didnt really fix the problem, but the guy was awful at returning calls so forget him.

Now, the stove will work but not consistently. Pretty sure though, that I have identified one of the main causes of the stove going into 'fault'. Pellet size. My local Home Depot had Freedom Fuel pellets in stock, I bought a few bags. They are made of pine, and quite a bit smaller in diameter than other pellets I have seen. My stove seems to run pretty well with those, generally the stove works without a problem. I had another brand of pellets on hand & sifting through the bag, they were the usual diameter but quite a big longer on average than some brands. My stove hated those. Dropped into fault every time I started it, usually within 10-15 minutes. I did find another brand that the average pellet length was shorter, I get uneven performance with those, sometimes I get a half hour before fault, sometimes I can get quite a bit more.

Anyway - is there anything that can be done as far as stove/auger repair to accept the longer pellets? The Home Depot does not always have the small pine pellets in stock, I am at the mercy of what their distributor sends them.

thanks for your help.

 

[imacman]

DKNJ, I am by no means any kind of an expert on Whitfield stoves, but since you said at one point that when you put the stove into shutdown that both fans both start working normally, (and since you had the stove cleaned, and didn't see any major improvement), I would tend to think it has to do with the control board or the above mentioned flame sensor more than the pellets or the fans.

I have run NEWP, Lignetics, Freedom Fuel, and Fireside Ultra through my stove, and have noticed no change as far as how the stove operates. Yes, I DID notice that the Freedom Fuel is smaller diameter, but the others work fine too.

BTW, where are you located? I'm in SE NY too....near Newburgh. What brand pellets do you have now? PM me...maybe we can swap a couple of bags so you can try something different....hey, you never know.

 

[kofkorn]

DKNJ,

I don't have a whole lot of experience with pellet stoves in specific, but as an engineer, I've worked on a number of items with mechanical / electrical interfaces.

Based on the issues you describe, control lights flickering, smaller pellets working well, increasing issues with increasing pellet sizes, fans working better when in shut down mode, I would take a close look at your auger. If you have problems with the large pellets, your auger may be working harder to push them. It may be drawing more current through the control board, lowering the voltage and browning it out. This could have caused your 1st CB to fail. When you change the pellets to smaller ones, they probably move along the auger easier, masking the issue. Also the auger stops turning when in shut down mode, eliminating the draw and allowing proper voltage to get to every thing else.

A couple of ways to check for a bad auger

Is the auger motor excessively warm? Any kind of an unusual smell coming from it (when they work hard they burn the coating off of the coiled wires)
do you see the CB flicker on the lower feed rates?

Can you put a current meter on the power cord to see if there is a high draw? Even better to get a meter on the wires for the auger itself.

I would suspect that with a bad motor, you'll find that the performance will steadily decrease to the point where even the small pellets won't work anymore.

I hope this gives you a couple of more things to check! Look forward to hearing the final solution once you find it.

Ray

 

[woodsman23]

I would do the leaf blower clean out or better yet take the stove outside and use a air hose and completly clean that puppy out. Remove both fan motors and clean all blades and reinstall. Clean out vent pipe, i used a big piece of stainless steel wool attached to a long attachment on my cordless drill does a great job.