Winslow PS40 starts, runs for different times and goes into shutdown

[Ubaisore]

Hello all. I think i am losing my mind. lol I am having a continual problem with my Winslow PS40. I have read all i can and think i must be missing something simple.

The stove will start every time. Combustion blower comes on immediately on start up.
I have cleaned the flue areas (6 places) , burn pot, auger area, combustion and convection blowers, inside the cabinet and the face of the POF switch.
I have jumped the POF switch.
I have tried different temp settings (through the knob as i dont use a thermostat with it)

So it gives two long red blinks when it shuts down. The fans stay on but the auger stops feeding sometime before i notice. I havent needed to push the manual reset on the high temp switch. Sometimes it will work for an hour or more and sometimes it shuts down after the startup flames die down.

I am leaning towards a bad high limit resettable switch. Is there a way to bypass it for testing? Or am i missing something i should have tried?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Ssyko]

You can use a jumper on it like any of other components. I would also check your vacuum port, hose, switch. Another thing is the combustion blower may be getting warn and it’s losing vacuum that way.

 

[Ubaisore]

hank you for replaying! I'm going to try jumping it then. Also, I haven't tested vacuum switches in anything before....any tips on how? Hose looks good but i didnt mess with it yet as i didnt understand it.

 

[Ubaisore]

So i jumped the high limit switch and it has been running for hours. I couldn't ever push the reset button and feel a click of any kind, so im thinking it went bad. Have a new one on order.

 

[Ssyko]

Cool glad it’s figured out. Stay warm

 

[Ubaisore]

Well, as luck would have it, apparently the random running continues. This thing is driving me to drink!'

It ran the other night no issue and turned it off. Then it started acting up again. It makes it through startup. Sometimes runs for hours and then after it is warmed up, the time it runs goes shorter and shorter. It has 2 long blinks when it shuts down, which refers to the convection fan. When it shuts down i can hear the one fan go into the sound it makes when we shut it down. It stops feeding pellets before that. SO the pot is empty when i hear it start that fan running differently. I have jumped the POF and the convection snap switches. I also put a new overheat reset switch in. It is still acting up.
The only thing i haven't done is taken apart the pipe running up through the chimney area to clean it. But i cant see how that would give me these random shutdowns. Do the logic boards go bad often? Thats the only piece that I havent done anything with. I even checked that the jumper is firmly in the thermostat lugs.
Anyone have other things to try?

 

[Ssyko]

I think you need to clean the entire vent pipe. The vacuum the stove needs to operate is created by the combustion blower. If the exhaust is restricted it can’t create that vacuum and yours is an older stove and the motor may be weak compared to a newer one, i cant count the times we have had folks find mice. Bird nests, or soot/ash clogging up the vent. This bird made it down 15 feet through a 90 into the blower housing.

 

[Ubaisore]

So i took the pipe entirely off and uses the brush on flexible tube to clean the whole pipe. I also got some where the combustion blower meets the vent pipe. But nothing that would blows air flow. So i put it all back together after pushing a piece of wire through the flue tube areas that i cleaned previously to make sure there wasnt a block.
So i turned it to 5 and started it. It started and 25 minutes later it shutdown with the 2 long blinks. I waited and started it at 2 and it has been running for about 45 minutes. I cant figure out what triggers the two long blink error code and i cant find pellet stove repair up here in No CA.
Short of replacing the control board and convection motor, is there anything else i should be looking at? I think im going to have an aneurysm trying to figure this out. It seems like such a simple device.

 

[Ssyko]

did you pull the combustion blower? if it has never been out. it may not have any blades on it for all we know.

 

[SidecarFlip]

If it was mine, that would be the first thing on the agenda (combustion blower.) I had one that did just that a long time ago. Pulled it out and viola, no blades left, all laying in the plenum. The heat-cool-heat cycles make them extremely brittle.

Always clean with a soft bristle brush and no tapping or scraping allowed.

 

[Mt Bob]

OK.I think we are missing/overlooking some things. 2 long blinks is only supposed to happen IF the overheat snap switch tripped. In which case,you would have to push it to reset it.I do not recall you saying this. You have verified pellets fed to burn pot stopped, when this happens. I really think you have cleaned,and learned cleaning well(great!). So,my current thoughts,subject to change,as more info. comes in, is, you have an auger motor that is dying,overheats and shuts down,or,a control board problem.If you can be around right when it acts up.is th auger motor warm,hot or OMG hot.You would also have to check for power being sent to the motor,before the light starts flashing,but the motor has stopped.Which might entail having a meter hooked up before problem occurs.Well,hope this helps.

 

[SidecarFlip]

One thing that most owners fail to do is clean the exhaust plenum and the combustion blower housing and fan even if the do a 'deep' clean. A deep clean to me is pulling every component from the distribution (room air) fan to the combustion (draft) fan and cleaning everything and lubing the bearings and oiling the auger motors too. Combustion fans and the plenum associated with it are all ash catchers.

 

[Ubaisore]

Yes, i have pulled both fans. I have cleaned the pathways as well. I couldnt reset the switch (and the stove keeps starting and sometimes will run for better than an hour) but replaced the switch anyway in case it was like a weak circuit breaker. Still doing the same thing. So i just ran it again... turn on and push ignite... it goes through startup and soon after, the convection fan starts running I usually hear the convection fan go higher when it goes into shutdown and the pot is burning out the last dregs of pellets (which are well burnt...nothing like a fresh one) so I know the auger stopped. I wish i could pin down when it does it because it goes through the 15 minute startup and will sometimes run for awhile. It is definitely putting out heat. Ill check the heat of the auger when it shuts down after i try it again. Im wondering what signal goes to the control board and if i can hook a meter to that point to see if it it doing something that makes the stove think it is overheating. But the old and new reset switch havent ever needed to be pushed.

 

[Ssyko]

ok your stove has 3 temprature sensitive snap disc's. 1 is for overtemp that is resetable> #2 is for your convection blower. #3 is the proof of fire that is located near your combustion blower on the housing. have you jumped the 3rd one> on the exhaust housing?

 

[Ubaisore]

1) POF switch- cleaned it, and on another try, jumped it
2) reset switch- replaced it
3) replaced and jumped multiple times

And i appreciate you all walking through this with me. I have tried doing all sorts of stuff and know i must be missing something dumb. So i will try different things tonight. First, Ill jump the combustion (pof again) Then Ill jump the convection as well. I dont believe i should jump the reset as it is more of a cutoff switch? Am I right in that?

 

[Ssyko]

jump all 3 of them and then try it. stay by the stove and watch it is all. jump the vac switch ....if you jump all of these at the same time and it still will not run you have an issue with the board

 

[Mt Bob]

You are thinking stove overheating,not an individual part overheating.Very few stoves have precise temperature to the control board,and yours is not one of them. You have 3 snap switches,and a vacuum switch.The "overfire" would need to be reset,if stove overheated,the other 2 are on and off,and stove probably would not relight if they totally crapped out,or would cause other issues.As ffar as the fan speeds chaiging,that would be in the programming,in the control board.Lennox is well known for not releasing information,even for their old out of production units,and they are also known for releasing improper info.Not an uncommon thing,back in the 1990's. If you had inlet and exhaust probes,like a Harman,diagnosing things would be different.So,I will stick to what i have said,your auger motor is overheating and shutting down,or your control board is dying.the future shall tell.

 

[Ubaisore]

Good morning! Im trying to stay positive today. LOL

So i ran the thing about 5 hours on 3 last night. I shut if off to go to bed. I had the control panel side door open to be able to feel the auger motor and the convection fan. This morning i do the same thing. Seems to be running fine for about an hour. I close the door and after about 20 minutes it shuts down with the 2 red blinks. I leave the door closed and try to restart and it wont. So i crack the door rather than leave it open and it has been running for an hour since. Since the reset switch never has to be reset, I am leaning towards (obviously) heat building on the convection motor, the auger motor, the control board or wiring being my issue. I really wish there was some reliable way to take readings.
Now im going to make sure it has run long enough and close the door. Then ill touch the convection motor and auger motor to see if one it alarmingly hot. Kind of hoping one is. My thought is that either the convection motor isnt running fast enough to pass the heat through the exchanger OR the combustion motor isnt putting the exhaust out quickly enough and letting the heat build inside the cabinet.
THoughts?

 

[wantsomeheat]

I was in high hopes that my problem would be solved by this thread but I am at the end of it and it never did get solved. Did the original poster finally do himself in over this? I hate it when the thread ends without success! If anyone knows the solution to this please help me here. My problem is the same as this person had. My stove is a PI40 also but it is an insert. Thanks Jim

 

[blades]

That is a problem on a lot of boards op figures out what is wrong then never returns to state what was found.