Service tips and trouble shooting pellet master stoves.

Problem: You are saying the auger stops feeding?
Possible Causes
1 Burn pots needs to be chipped out better. (Every 10 bags of pellets)
2 Auger motor week and needs to be replaced.
3 Auger Barring Bad and needs to be upgraded to the New Bushing.
4 Auger Broken where the front Clinker gear shaft is welding to auger and is
binding up.
5 Burn pot out of alignment with the auger tube (held on to the back of the
firebox with 3 bolts)

Problem: Auger not feeding pellets.

Check list:

Is the motor trying to feed?
 (looking at the auger motor or feel it, does it try to turn and then stops?)

Yes:
Possible Causes
1. Chip out carbon out of burn pot (every 15 bags of pellets)
2. Empty hopper and check for foreign materials (toys, scissors, pieces of pellet bag)
3. Auger motor week and needs to be replaced.
4. Auger Bearing Bad and needs to be upgraded to the New Bushing. (replace with bushing kit)
5.Auger set screw striped or broken? (replace with bushing kit)
6. Auger Broken where the front Clinker gear shaft is welding to auger and is binding up. PHOTO
7. Burn pot out of alignment with the auger tube (held on to the back of the firebox with 3 bolts)

NO:

1. Is there power to the auger motor?
   Power is not constant. Depending on feed rate it will only put power to the auger every 9 to 21 seconds.
2. If you do not have power to the Auger motor check the connections and check if there is power at stoker terminal on the control board. 

Problem: stove will not change feed rate and will not heat up

1. Thermostat closed connection? (set above room temp)
2. if no thermostat are the 2 stat wires from the control board looped together to make a closed circuit? (Closed or wires connected together correct)
3. Thermal Disc (stove overheat)  bad and will cause the stove to one run on Low thermostat Mode feed rate. This switch is Wired with the Low Voltage thermostat Circuit. Quick fix is to Jump the two wires going to it together.
4. Auger Feed times for stoves made after 1-1-94 times may very
   High               17 Sec on /  3 sec off  4.75 pounds per hour
   Med              12 sec on /  8 sec off  2.5 pounds per hour
   Low                8 sec on  /  12 sec off  2.25 pounds per hour
   Keep fire mode 4 sec on / 16 sec off    .8 pounds per hours

If you try all above steps and the times are still at the keep fire rate try jumping the Low voltage connection at the board on the small terminal that the low voltage wires are going to. This will tell you if it is the board or a bad wire or switch.

Problem: stove will not Shut OFF.

1. Thermal Disc (Auger overheat) Is in the closed position. Your stove has overheated or the switch is BAD. This switch is Mounted on the Bottom of the hopper near the auger.
   Quick fix is to Remove one of the wires going to it.

Problem: Black unburned pellets in ash pan and or SMOKE BUILD UP IN HOPPER OR STOVE.

1. Combustion fan and Intake air screen clear of debris? (pet hair, dust bunnies ect.)
2. Flue pipe and cap clean clear of debris? ( ash, Birds ect)
3. Clean the horizontal flue passage that runs from the firebox out to the back of the stove.
   Remove the brick and baffle on the stoves right side and Run a 4" brush and or small vacuum hose through to push and pull out the ash. NEEDS TO BE DONE EVERY 1 TON OF
   PELLETS.
4. Door, hopper lid and Ash drawer gasket sealing tight?
5. Combustion air tube connected to bottom of burn pot (1/2" brass pipe)
6. Combustions fan turning at full speed? (after motor warms up might slow down and not push enough air)
7. Air slots in burn pot clean and clear?
8. Ash build up in the hollow cavity of the top part of the burn pot under air slots.
   Remove the 3 counter sunk bolts holding the top of the burn pot together by removing the square secondary ring with a hammer, then lift off the clinker ring, with a short standard screwdriver and a short 7/16 boxed end wrench remove the 3 bolts that hold the top of the pot. with a tap of a hammer the burn pot will split in half.  You will find about a cup of ash build up in this cavity.
   
   Before you replace the top of burn pot chip all carbon off the top and bottom half and Clear air slots. ONLY CLEAR THE AIR SLOTS ON THE TOP AND INSIDE OF THE BURN POT. DO NOT CLEAR THE SLOTS ON OUT SIDE EDGE OF THE BURN POT!
   
   
   
   
    

9. ---

   Pellet master stoves MUST have a minimum of 8 feet of Vertical Flue for proper draft. No more than 2 feet horizontal run. If you do not have the Min flue your stove WILL smoke from the hopper and door and you will smell smoke in the house.

Convection Blower on LOW setting is the same speed as HIGH or seems to be running slow?

1. Under pedestal the LOW fan rheostat is bad or when cleaning may have been turned to high or low.
   (Square Brown Block with a white stem, may have black knob. whit two wires going to it stuck the the bottom of the stove.)
   Best setting is to turn the knob counter clockwise until it clicks or is on full high and then turn back clockwise 1/4 turn.

Convection Blower Cycles on and off.

With some Low heat output pellets the fan will come on and off when you have the stove on low feed or if you are using a thermostat and it is on KEEP fire.

TEST
Try running the stove on HIGH feed rate with the thermostat turned up and see if the fan kicks in after the stove gets hot. We have found with some batches of pellets that if the stove is on low the convection switch does not reach its 120 deg and the fan will cycle on and off.

If your stove is HOT! (on high) and the fan will cycle on and off then the Fan Limit switch may be bad.

Stove seems to build up Clinkers in just a few days and the glass is Sticky.

Most of the time this is due to your Flue full of ash or see Unburned Pellets above

If using a thermostat
It is best to run the stove on High or Medium feed rate and let the stove get hot fast to burn off all the stuff off the stove and glass, then when the room Temperature get up to the thermostat setting the stove will go back down to Keep fire then cycle back to high when the thermostat demands more heat.

The stove will burn and stay cleaner with less clinkers in the burn pot. and you will use less fuel because you home will get up to normal temperature sooner.

Low an Keep fire mode are almost the same feed rate.
Low                8 sec on  /  12 sec off  2.5 pounds per hour
Keep fire mode 4 sec on / 16 sec off    .8 pounds per hours

More to come......