Whitfield Profile 30 Freestanding.

[jjdesch]

Last week I received a call my wife while I was at work (an hour away). She was sobbing hysterically about smoke billowing out of our Whitfield Profile 30 FS after she initiated a shutdown cycle (the heat and fan speed were both set to medium), which usually takes about 15 minutes. She explained that the fans cut out much sooner that 15 minutes (which would explain the smoke). I immediately assumed the exhaust fan died, as the stove is hooked up to an APC 1500 SmartUPS and could therefore manage a power blip, which in any event the wife said did occur - the power blip that is.

I arrived home expecting the worse, but the stove successfully completed two shutdown cycles in a row, with all fans working fine. I then let it actually run with a flame for several hours and again it shut down just fine, and has worked fine ever since.

I am little stumped as to why the stove just cut out like it did, and would appreciate any insight into this.

Thx!

 

[Shane]

Could be the photoeye wasn't "seeing" a fire so it just shut off.

 

[jjdesch]

A lack of flame should initiate a shutdown cycle, not a sudden stop, but in any event the stove was set to medium heat and had a decent sized flame (according to my wife)

 

[jf254]

check to make sure that no half burned pellets have been falling into the ash pan below. I have a profile 20 and they fall below and will sometimes ignite when I turn the stove off.

 

[sicoka1]

Recently the Lennox company posted for owners of the Whitfield Profile 30, which we own, to order a new (free) power cord which we received. We installed the cord on the stove which is suppose to prevent shock hazards with a ground fault interrupter. After the cord was installed and the stove was running one night, a spike on the power grid activated the ground fault interuppter and shut down the stove in the middle of a full burn with the stove running at low setting. This resulted in a power outage to the stove which resulted in no air flow to the fire box (where pellets burn) with the end result of no oxygen, a smoldering mass of pellets which caused a massive amount of smoke. The smoke vented from the front of the stove into the room/house causing us to evacuate our family at three in the morning due to smoke filled house.

When we called Lennox to report the problem their response was the ground fault interuppter worked "exactly as it was suppose to and we are not liable" despite knowing that the smoke will vent directly into the house. They admitted the stove had a vent in the front to suck air in to keep the glass clean but in the event of positive pressure in the stove it will vent out into the room. Thus if you are asleep and the ground fault interupter triggers you will have a smoke filled room/house. BE AWARE and buy other than Lennox products! We will look at another company now for our next stove. Needless to say we will be more careful in choosing our next stove from another company. Lennox did not offer any support whatsoever nor did Kitsap Lumber where we bought the stove.

 

[jf254]

any stove will smoke out the front of it in the event of a power failure. If you have a vertical rise it will minimize the amount.

 

[imacman]

.....which resulted in no air flow to the fire box (where pellets burn) with the end result of no oxygen, a smoldering mass of pellets which caused a massive amount of smoke. The smoke vented from the front of the stove into the room/house causing us to evacuate our family at three in the morning due to smoke filled house.........When we called Lennox to report the problem their response was the ground fault interuppter worked "exactly as it was suppose to and we are not liable" despite knowing that the smoke will vent directly into the house. They admitted the stove had a vent in the front to suck air in to keep the glass clean but in the event of positive pressure in the stove it will vent out into the room.

Sicoka1, I understand that your upset, but I must play devil's advocate here....what Lennox said about the GFCI working "as it was supposed to" is absolutely correct. In general, most people do NOT put their pellet stoves into a GFCI outlet or circuit just for the reason you experienced.....pellet stoves can draw a large current , especially at start-up, and could trip the GFCI. Most pellet stove owners simply use a surge protector or a UPS for the stove.

And most pellet stoves have airwash systems similar to what Lennox has in your Profile 30, and may let smoke out as yours did. As jf254 mentions above, vertical rise in the exhaust will help the problem a lot. If you had to evacuate the house due to the amount of smoke, it seems likely that your set-up has no natural draft capabilities due to the flue set-up you have....that's not the fault of the stove or Lennox.

What is your exhaust set-up? Can you post some pics?

 

[hearthtools]

This is why I say over and over
NEVER DIRECT VENT A PELLET STOVE
BECAUSE SMOKE WILL SPILL INTO YOUR HOME WHEN YOU HAVE A POWER FAILER OR A STOVE FAULT.

 

[mnkywrnch]

This is why I say over and over
NEVER DIRECT VENT A PELLET STOVE
BECAUSE SMOKE WILL SPILL INTO YOUR HOME WHEN YOU HAVE A POWER FAILER OR A STOVE FAULT.

Agreed

 

[sicoka1]

I will post photos ASAP. The power cord was sent by the company with a GFCI built in as an updated replacement. This problem never happened until we replaced the cord sent by the Lennox company. This stove is NOT direct vented however it has about a four foot rise installed by Kitsap Lumber that sold us the stove. It worked flawlessly for 9 years until we got this new cord from Lennox. We put the old cord back onto the stove and will put a surge protector on it today with a battery backup (as used with computers)....any suggestions as to what size surge protector/battery backup to run a Profile 30 pellet stove? Thanks for your reponses...they help a great deal.

 

[imacman]

I will post photos ASAP. The power cord was sent by the company with a GFCI built in as an updated replacement. This problem never happened until we replaced the cord sent by the Lennox company. This stove is NOT direct vented however it has about a four foot rise installed by Kitsap Lumber that sold us the stove. It worked flawlessly for 9 years until we got this new cord from Lennox. We put the old cord back onto the stove and will put a surge protector on it today with a battery backup (as used with computers)....any suggestions as to what size surge protector/battery backup to run a Profile 30 pellet stove? Thanks for your reponses...they help a great deal.

Maybe Rod or someone else can comment on this, but I never heard of a power cord w/ a GFCI built-in for a pellet stove.

Yes, the pics will help us understand how your 4' rise is set-up.

As for the battery back-up, do a search for "battery back up", or "UPS" on the forum, and you'll get lots of info.

 

[hearthtools]

Last week I did a service on a Pro 20 (I did not sell it to her) her stove was not coming on so I told her it prob just needs service and photo eye cleaned.
This stove had one of them cords on it. she said Lennox mailed it to her as a recall

I failed to check the stove before I serviced it but I did a full service and tried the stove and the lights on the control board. Flickered and nothing.
I checked everything and figured it was the board. all I had on the truck was a Profile 30 board and everything was the same on it so I hooked it up and it worked just fine.
the board must have higher feed rates because the 30 is a higher BTU stove
I had her order a new board from woodheatstoves.com and tomorrow Im going to swap out the boards.