Pellet Stove Parts - Stoves & Venting

 

 

As a pellet stove professional, I've found that identifying the sounds a stove makes or doesn't make is essential when diagnosing and fixing it. I always start by determining whether the sound in question is a normal operating sound. If you are the landlord or you are not the person who usually operates the stove, consult with the stove's user since that person will be most familiar with the stove's typical sounds. I have included a chart below that compares normal sounds to problematic ones. I'm going to share some tips on how to identify those sounds based on my experiences.

The other day, one of my customers said there was a strange squealing sound coming from the pellet stove while it was running. He asked me what it might be. After a thorough cleaning we restarted the stove and it made that sound again. The squealing happened intermittently, repeating every few seconds. Since the sound was repetitive and located in the center of the stove, I could identify the auger was making that sound. It squealed during a small part of it's 360 degree rotation. I gave the auger a complete servicing, which remedied the issue.

Listening to the sounds your stove makes can resolve many other issues. Doing so may help identify whether the exhaust or convection blower has gone bad. Another customer told me that the pellet stove sounded like a jet plane after it warmed up. Instantly, I knew  the convection blower was the issue since it is the only part that starts running after the stove heats up. The stove gets hot after the start up cycle finishes (approximately 15 minutes). Upon further inspection, I discovered it needed replacing because the bearings were bad. A different stove had a squealing noise that occurred right when the stove was turned on. It came from the left side of the stove where the exhaust blower was located. Of the two blowers, only the exhaust blower starts running right  away; therefore, replacing that part was the cure.

No noise at all can also indicate your stove's issue. I came across a unique issue when testing a stove. It ran for 5 minutes, then went silent. All of the lights on the control panel went out  he stove died. Having no sounds in this instance helped me pinpoint the AC line cord was the issue. After the stove got warm, one of the line connecters had failed. Replacing the line cord fixed it. Also, a multi-fuel stove I worked on didn't make a sound in the burn pot. After investigating, I found the rod connected to the pot stirrer motor was so loose it prevented the stirrer from turning.

  Listening to where the sound is coming from and, if possible, seeing the moving parts helps find problem areas. Knowing where the stove components are located is helpful as well. Determining whether an unusual sound occurs intermittently or constantly, or varies with the component's speed is valuable information. If the sound happens promptly as the stove starts, then the faulty component could be the combustion (exhaust) blower,  auger, or auger motor. If the sound is heard after the startup cycle, then the faulty component could be the convection (room) blower. Once you identify the part in need of potential replacement, I recommend using an AC test cord and multi-tester to test this component for abnormal sounds.   Sometimes, the noise only occurs when the stove is hot so a test fire is always needed to complete the analysis or assure the repair has been made. I always give the stove a complete cleaning and lubrication first, then perform the test fire.

 

	Fire pot or Burn Pot
	Normal operating sounds As pellets slide or are pushed into the fire pot a clinking sound can be heard.   Bottom feed stoves that have an automatic slide plate or rotating disk have a louder clinking sound when pellets fall into the auger flight chute.   In Mult-fuel stoves there may be a sound of a turning pot stirrer and motor connected to it.
Sounds that indicate wear or failure	Reason	Cure
A, No sound, especially if pelletsare not coming into the fire pot and the fire dies out . B. Grinding sound	A, Auger motor not turning      See reason below under auger motor. B. Pot stirrer    1. Stirrer bearing needs lubrication.    2. Stirrer motor is failing or needs lubrication	A. Replace Auger motor. B. lubricate or replace Pot Stirrer or Stirrer Motor.
	Auger or pellet feed motor
	Normal operating sounds When the auger feeds pellets into the burn pot you can hear the intermittent sound of the auger turning and the buzz of the auger motor running.
Sounds that indicate wear or failure	Reason	Cure
A. No sound especially pellets are not feeding into the fire pot. You may also see that the auger motor's shaft is not turning at all.   B. Load scratchy sound of the auger motor bearings rubbing and failing.           C A loud squeal or grinding noise as the auger hits one spot in it's 360 Degree rotation.	A. Auger is not turning        1. High limit snap disc failed or tripped.        2. Vacuum switch failed or hose clogged.        3. Bad connection to control panel or auger timing module.              Check spade clips on auger motor wires by unplugging and plugging back in.           Also check connectors on snap discs and vacuum switch.        4. Control panel is bad. If all other components are good then the panel maybe bad.              Put a volt meter on the auger leads when stove is running to see if there is 120 VAC on it intermittently.        5. Auger motor heat failure when stove gets hot.        6. Proof or fire snap disc or heat sensor or thermocouple failed. B.  Black Carbon on the Auger or inside the auger chute. Maybe due to bad pellets.       Maybe a burr on the shaft or tube. C. The Auger bearing may need more grease or lubrication.	A. Clean or Replace Part(s) as follows:      1. Clean or replace hi limit snap disc.       2. Replace Vacuum switch or clean or replace clogged hose.       3. Clean or replace quick disconnect spade lugs.      4. Replace circuit board or control panel.      5. Replace tired auger motor with worn gears or coil laminations that have broken down to cause loss in torque.      6. Clean or replace proof of fire snap disc or thermocouple or heat sensor maybe loose or need replacement.        B. Grease or replace worn or missing auger bearings.      Upgrade brass bearing to Nylatron if possible. C. Remove auger and clean with a wire wheel on a drill/driver.      Also using a grinding stone, grind down any burrs or splattered pimples of slag from sloppy welding
	Thermostatic Switch (Snap Discs)
	Normal operating sounds These parts can make a clicking sound as the bi-metal switch opens and closes. Some of these snap discs are used to turn the pellet stove convection blower on and off.
Sounds that indicate wear or failure	Reason	Cure
No sound, especially if convection blower never turns on. (No heat blowing out the front of the stove).	Failed Snap Disc	Replace Disc
	Heat Exchanger Tubes
	Normal operating sounds The rush of air being forced though the Heat Exchanger Tubes.
Sounds that indicate wear or failure	Reason	Cure
No Sound	Bad Low Limit Switch or Bad Convection Blower	Replace Low Limit Switch or Replace Convection Blower
	Convection blower or Room blower
	Normal operating sounds The modern high efficiency blower may have a slight hum or pulsating sound that increases as the blower speeds up. The rush of air from the flow of heated room air through the heat exchanger tubes or plenum drawn by the squirrel cage blades.
Sounds that indicate wear or failure	Reason	Cure
A. A loud hum especially when the blades do not turn.  B. The squeak and squeal of the bearings failing. Also sounds like metal rubbing against metal	A. Squirrel cage not turning     1. Blades so full of dust or pet hair, the Squirrel cage does not turn.    2. Shorted motor coil windings that reduce the electromagnetic field so much the squirrel cage does not turn. B. Blower motor    1. Bearings re worn or have little grease or lubrication.	A. Replace Blower B. Grease or replace motor bearings.      If they are sealed then replace blower.
	Exhaust blower (Combustion blower) or draft blower
	Normal operating sounds The modern high efficiency blower may have a slight hum or pulsating sound that increases as the blower speeds up. The rush of air from the flow of exhaust gases through the ash chambers drawn by the impeller blades.
Sounds that indicate wear or failure	Reason	Cure
A. A loud hum especially when the impeller blades do not turn.   B. The squeak and squeal of the bearings failing. Also sounds like metal rubbing against metal. C. Sometimes an annoying whine can be heard that gets louder as the speed increases	A. Impeller blades not turning     1. Blades so full of dust or pet hair, the Squirrel cage does not turn.    2. Shorted motor coil windings that reduce the electromagnetic field so much the squirrel cage does not turn B. Blower motor    1. Bearings are worn or have little grease or lubrication C. Closed frame motor case is loose or just out of synchronization	A. Replace Exhaust Blower B. Grease or replace motor bearings.      If they are sealed then replace blower. C. Replace closed frame blower with upgraded C-Frame or open frame blower.

 

Do you want the best Wi-Fi Thermostat that easily connects to your wood pellet stove or any heating type of furnace?

Here is the new Ecobee EB-Stat-02 with free dowloadable app for your smart phone. 

The install can be smooth if the install location is known and the wiring length is planned out.

This T-Stat is one of the very few that is not only 24 volt but also can be used on a Milli-Volt system with the optional AC adapter!

The Install outlined and pictured below was done on an Enviro Hampton GC-60 but will work on any pellet stove with a standard T-Stat hookup on the control panel. Most newer stoves with digital control panels will except this T-Stat. This T-Stat does have the short cycle delay needed to give the pellet stove time to turn on or off properly.

 Most newer models of the following stoves will work such as:

Enviro, Regency, Avalon, Lopi, Breckwell, Whitfield, Napoleon (NPS-45 or NPI-45), Hudson River, Magnum, US Stove, Pelpro, Glow Boy, Englander, Archgard, Osburn, Enerzone

 Install steps.
0. Turn off the stove or heating appliance and unplug it.

1. Choose the location and mount the control unit near an AC outlet if possible.
Use wall anchors or wood screws.
If you have the optional remote module, mount that into the control unit first.
Not too close to the stove but not too far away maybe ideal

2. Mount the Head at the normal height on the wall approx 5 feet off the floor.

3. Run 4 conductor solid jacketed wire from the control.
If using hide channel like I did mount that on the wall first.
I used 5 cond. T-Stat wire from Lowes

4. Connect female spade lugs on the regular 2 cond T-Stat wire and plug into stove.
Run wire to RH and W on the control box.

5. Plug control box into the wall.

6. Run the Install wizard on the T-Stat touch screen to choose your Wi-Fi router name and lock it in.

7. On your Iphone
Download and install the Ecobee Smart Stat app from the App store.
Don't forget your apple Appstore password. 

8. Set stove to either Auto-On/Off or Auto-Hi/Low

Now you can either setup a daily program schedule for your stove or put the set temp on hold and change the set temperature up or down to what you desire from anywhere in the world.

Yes, it does have the short cycle delay for the pellet stove.
What I like is the button for the weather forecast and the optional remote module for additional sensors. Also what you see on the wall stat is also what you see on your smart phone!
1. Indoor sensor
2. Outdoor sensor
3. Humidity sensor
4. CO2 Sensor

Cool Stat for a pellet stove!

See pictures below.

Pic 1 - Control Unit with T-stat head

Pic 2 - Inside T-Stat head shows button battery for memory

Pic 3 - T-Stat head mounted on wall with wire hide channel

Pic 4 - T-Stat connection on stove with two female spade clips on wire

Pic 5 - T-Stat on wall shows current room temperature

Pic 6 - Multi-Fuel pellet stove with yellow arrows showing wire in hide channel

Pic 7 - T-Stat smart phone app on Iphone same display as wall unit.

Pic 8 - Control module mounted out of sight in lower corner on wall next to AC outlet.

         

 

                                                                        

 

 

 

   

                                                            

  A good example of this type of stove is the Englander 25-PFS. This stove has 2 - 140 CFM convection blowers mounted high on the back of the fire box to push as much room air as possible through the stove. The user controls are fairly simple. They include a rotary knob with 4 to 5 heat levels that release 1.0 to 5.0 lbs of pellets per hour into the burn pot depending on the setting. The controls also include a simple 2 to 3 speed rocker switch or rotary knob for setting the room blower speeds and an On/Off switch. Adjusting these controls is tricky and care must be taken in order to not overfire the stove. Overfiring occurs when the heat level is set high and the convection fan is not set high enough to keep the internal stove temperature down. This is one reason that there are safety devices to prevent a fire. Other safety measures use snap discs, vacuum switches and overload circuitry to prevent fires when the convection blower or combustion blower fails. These stoves are started by adding a handful of pellets into the burn pot and topped with starting gel, then lit with a match. These early units are not as efficient but still provide good heat without chopping and stacking a lot of wood. Also since wood pellets do not contain bark, they burn much more cleanly.

 Modern units now have many more features plus more efficient designs. Most newer designs unlike the early models, have an exhaust blower at the end of the combustion air path in the stove just before the hot air enters the pellet vent pipe. Since these combustion blowers pull in clean air and have hot air containing pellet ash traveling through them, they are more rugged and better sealed to prevent ash from being released and ruining their bearings. To be more efficient, the burn air comes in from the outside of the house using an OAK (Outside Air Kit). In this manner, warm room air is no longer wasted by sending it up the chimney. The design of the convection blower path for warming room air is much more efficient now. A convection blower anywhere from 165 CFM to 265 CFM is employed and mounted low in the back of stove. This creates a long path around the fire box and out the front through a heat exhanger mounted over the fire box consisting of tubes or accordian type plenum that Harman stoves employ. The user controls are much more sophisticated. They incorporate multi-layer circuit boards with LEDs to display the heat and fan settings. These boards also control the fan speeds in conjunction with the heat levels so overfiring cannot occur. The newer stoves have all needed safety devices that prevent overfiring due to part failure. These devices are bi-metal thermo switches called snap discs and either open or close at a designated temperature or a thermocouple connected to the control board. These safety devices stop the auger from feeding pellets which will put out the fire when an unsafe condition occurs. New features include larger hoppers that hold more pellets and larger ash pans to hold more ash. Top or bottom feed auger systems that deliver the pellets from the hopper to the burn pot have been improved to prevent auger jams.

 All pellet stoves have internal moving parts that can fail and may need replacement. The interior of the stove has 110 volt shock hazzards and very sensitive solid state parts that can short out easily so care and experience is needed. Always unplug the unit before replacing parts.

Below is a list of some parts and when they may need replacing:

Door and window gaskets get old, frayed then get brittle and break. If the flame gets lazy the door and window gaskets become leaky which causes poor heating performance.

Hopper gaskets get old, frayed then get brittle and break and let air in the hopper that can feed a hopper fire or back burn.

Ash pan gaskets get old, frayed then get brittle and break and let air in that can cause a lazy flame and poor heating performance

Ignitors wear out as it may take longer than 4-8 mins to light the pellets or on some startups, they may not light.

Auger motors get sluggish and also may skip which means the gears in the gear box are stripped.

Convection and Combustion blowers may become noisy, cease and not turn at all, or if the windings are bad the fan blades may need a push to get going.

Control boards or panels can get suffer damage from AC line surges and get flakey or intermittent. This can cause pellet overfeeding, the triacs can fail so the devices they control (Blowers, auger motor and ignitor) will stay on or not work at all. The power button may not be able to turn the stove on anymore.

Snap discs are temperature sensing bi-metal strips that open or close at the designed temperature so when they fail thet either stay open or remain closed.

Vacuum switches close when they sense firebox vacuum pressure or exhaust blower pressure and will not change state when pressure is applied.

Firebox door and hopper safety switches fail and stop the auger from turning which makes the fire go out.

 

   

 

Pellet Stove School is in session and you can learn from the master. There is a certain amount of care the goes into maintaining a pellet stove, but it it's worth it. I don't just sell pellet stoves after all, I use one in my own home. I wouldn't sell something I wouldn't use myself. It heats my whole house and is much cheaper than oil.

 

Let me share my expertise. I love to talk pellet stoves. I just love it! I'll be your teacher and you'll get tips on parts replacing, how stoves work, news, and more!