The facts as they presented were as such, the stove, a Heatilator PS35, installed now for two years in a masonry adapted installation (raised hearth into a 4" stainless lined chimney flue), simply refused to feed the LG's.
Glen Green and Son, an area chimney sweep that installed to unit on behalf of Franklin Fireplace in Franklin, MA trotted over to the guys house and determined that the pellets he was using had ruined the auger motor because they were too hard and as such, the auger motor was turning backwards. They installed a new auger motor and the problem was solved....
Any of you that see where this is going, give yourself 5 extra credit points.
So the stove ran for awhile then stopped feeding again. Guy comes back and determines that the pellets are simply too hard for the stove and loads in a bag of Infernos....the problem went away. So, it must be the pellets, right?
Woodpellets.com is pissed cause the guy, a disabled paraplegic wants his money back and all 4 tons are uncrated and stacked in the barn. So they called me in before they sent some guys to retrieve the stash and give him his money back.
I already know the issue. Just have to go over and verify what I think is going on. I get there, remove the right side panel and whola! Just as I suspected, the yellow capacitor box from the feed wires, the thing that flips the polarity to make the feed motor spin backwards in the event of an auger jam is resting 1" above the non shielded exhaust manifold of the stove! Hmmmm.
LG pellets burn hotter than this guy is used to. So hot in fact, it was activating the polarity flip. Made a quick heat shield for him to dissipate the heat, stuffed the capacitor up into the feeder mounting bracket like it's supposed to be and no more problems. Let's see if Mr Green and Son refund the 300 and change for the unnecessary auger motor they installed.
Funny, the Infernos are so weak they couldn't produce enough heat to recreate the issue.
