Whitfield WP2 Advantage series Powers on then off. Please help.

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coffeeman5

New Member
Oct 18, 2011
5
SW Washington
Hello. I acquired a Whitfield Pellet stove for my neighbor. The Control Panel powers on for 2 seconds then off. After that the unit is dead. The #1 Heat output light comes on and then 2 seconds later you here a click in the the CP and the light goes out. I checked the continuity of all the switches and they test normal open or closed as shown on the schematic. However, the low pressure switch tests closed when the schematic shows normally open. I disconnected the switch and then powered the unit on and had the same result. I checked the low pressure switch and it is opening and closing. ( You can put a small screwdriver in the the diaphram and gently push the switch open and closed.) I even plugged the stove back in and moved the low pressure switch and had no change. If it is the control panel itself is there a way to test it? BTW the fuse in the CP is not blown. Both fan motors and auger motor test ok. Anything else? I am willing to get a new CP for my neighbor but I just want to be sure before I drop $$$ on it. THe CP part number is PSC120A-3605. The stove was new in 1999.

Thank you for all the help. This is her only source of heat and the NW winter is on the way. Thanks again.
 
Bump up to the top for this guy.

pen
 
Welcome to the forum coffeeman5, I'm going to ask some questions and hopefully some Whitfield owners will chime in.

First is what was the status of the vacuum switch when the stove was unplugged and does it have two ports that the tube could be connected too?

When the stove was plugged in and before you touched a single switch on the control panel did the stove do anything?

Was the stove previously connected to a thermostat?
 
Thank you for getting back to me. I received the stove from a home that has been unoccupied. There was no power in the house but was told it "worked fine" and I had no reason to believe it didn't. There is just one port on the low pressure switch that I can tell. I will go to my neighbors house tomorrow and confirm that. When the stove is unplugged the low pressure switch is has continuity across it; (closed?). There was no thermostat hooked to the stove. The jumper cable is in place. Also, I hooked a tube to the one port on the low pressure switch, gently blew into it and could hear the diaphragm move back and forth.

Thanks again everyone. It's greatly appreciated.
 
Do the blowers also kick in during those two seconds at start up, or is it just the # 1 heat output LED that lights up?

Is the controlboard a touch pad type like the one on this picture?
 

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Hello Stovensen,

Yes, it a push button style control panel. No, no blower motor starts when I plug in the stove. I plug in the stove, the #1 heat output light comes on, I hear a click in the control panel, the light goes out and then nothing. I pushed all the buttons on the CP and still nothing. One side note to all this. When I received the stove it was dirty. So I cleaned it with compressed air, front and back inside and out. Could I have done more harm than good?

Thanks again everyone.
 
could be insufficient voltge getting to control board or, sadly, dead control board. I've seen many a Whitfield board flash at me once or twice and do no more. Even if the pressure switch was faulting you'd still have the combustion blower trying to engage. If the unit was not plugged into a surge suppressor it may have fallen victim to power spike of some kind.
 
For some reason, which we do not yet know, the onboard one shot timer and/or it’s actuator... the relay ( AZ941-1ICT ? ) are not working. As mentioned by Delta-T the board could simply have been zapped dead by a lightning hitting the power grid once in the past. However, this is a pessimistic worst case scenario, although not unlikely.

Note: Below is a description of the start up procedure in a Whitfield pellet stove. Just to clarify the function of the one shot timer.

More optimistic suggestions:

The connectors on the control board may simply be oxydized. After all the stove has been left unused in an quote: “unoccupied†house for some ( a long? ) time. High humidity may be very harmful to metal surfaces.
Remedy: unplug the stove, unplug the molex plug on the board and give both ends a good layer of contact cleaning spray. Then work the mating ends in and out a number of times in order to grind away the insulating layer of metaloxide.
This could do the trick and make the stove working again. If not, I’m afraid we’ll have to open the CB. See pic of my CB below.



I’ve done a little research lately on the control board in my Whitfield stove. Just to be prepared for a sudden breakdown like the one Coffeeman is facing.
It appears that mostly universal standard components are used and that some of these are well known for being prone to fail sooner or later.
These components can be seen on the pic below.
Now, I don’t have the detailed schematics of the printed circuit board and I don’t think it’s possible to find anywhere for privateers, but it’s quite obvious that the two relays AZ941-1ICT are actuators for these two functions respectively:

1) Bypassing the low limit switch at start up, allowing the blowers to operate until the low limit switch closes. ( 30 min. one shot timer )

2) Switching power on/off to the ignitor. Switched on for app. 15 min. at start up.

If my Quest Plus should get a serious issue like the WP2 Coffeeman is working on, I wouldn’t hesitate to change the relay that is bypassing the low limit switch at start up. It’s easy to trace the tracks on the pcb in order to determine which of the two relays it is that does the bypassing.
The AZ941-1ICT is a standard relay and should be available in electronics shops.

Good luck and take care... 120 Volt / 60 Hz can be dangerous.

And keep us posted :)
 

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Hello everyone. I went back to the stove and rechecked everything; switches, power supply, fuse etc and narrowed it down to a bad CP. Upon inspecting the CP further I noticed that the start button on the touch pad did not have the same type of action as the others. The auger motor button, heat output button etc. both have a distinct on/off push button feel in you finger tip when pressed. I took the CP apart to expose the circuit board. (Look closely at Stevensen's picture and you can see the 4 small black push button switches.) The black plastic case that houses the CP has plastic pins that depress these switches. With the circuit board out of the case I plugged the circuit board in, applied power and carefully, with a small wood dowel. pressed the start switch on the CP. Presto! the blower motor started. The same with the auger motor when pressed.

The circuit board rests on 6 posts within the plastic housing. However, the circuit board can move back and forth on those posts. I placed some tiny fiber washers on the board to keep the board from moving. I also noticed that if the circuit board is screwed down too tightly the action of the start button on the touch pad is diminished.

So it was the control panel after all. Lucky for me it was a cheap fix.

Thanks again to everyone.
 
Glad to hear that you figured it out, Coffeeman, and I'm sure that your neighbour is happy and grateful now that she can stay warm in the winter approaching us.
Let us hope that her pellet stove will work well for many years now.

Also, thanks for letting us know what was wrong and how you fixed it... useful knowledge for many members here at the forum including myself :)

Bo
 
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