Hopping up the pellet stove with guages to monitor the vital signs! HR Saranac Comb Blower example!

Hello

Remember putting guages in the car before they came standard? Well why not a pellet stove?
Anyone else done this?
New touch pads will have monitors but this guage setup may be even better and works good right now!

I just got this guage in from my supplier in China. Maybe that is why the envelope is hard to read! LOL

After squeezing on the quick disconnect clips install is a simple plug and chug!
You should use wire tires to clean up the wires and keep them away from the hot spots!

I hooked this one up to the combustion blower but more guages can be added for the room blower, auger motor and ignitor.

After starting up the stove the panel lit right up to 120 vac during startup when the combustion blower on high,! The panel background lit up a nice soft blue and the voltage and current numbers popped right in!
Success at last!

After going thru the heat level settings, I saw heat levels 3,4,& 5 have the same speed. Full speed 119 vac.
Heat level 1 = 61 vac
current = 2.8 amp

Heat level 2 = 91 vac
current = 2.0 amp

Heat level 3 = 118 vac
current = 0.7 amp

Heat level 3,4 and 5 are the same 118 vac ! ! !
I never knew that! Learn something every day! LOL

See pics click to enlarge:

Pic 1 - Hudson River Saranac
Pic 2 - Control Panel set at Heat Level 1
Pic 3 - HR Saranac with guage attached to combustion blower at Heat Level 1
Pic 4 - Control Panel set at Heat Level 2
Pic 5 - HR Saranac with guage attached to combustion blower at Heat Level 2
Pic 6 - Control Panel set at Heat Level 3
Pic 7 - HR Saranac with guage attached to combustion blower at Heat Level 3

 

Just thought I would mention that "hopping up" means to give more power.Adding chrome wheels and electric windows to a pinto is not 'hopping up",but dropping in a 289 is.Unless maybe you were "hopped up" when you wrote that?

 

Yes Bob you are correct. To be specific, from Merriam Webster
Hopped up means "having more than usual power : being souped up"

I guess the 1st step is to have some guages so you know what power you do have. On this stove I did the mod and changed the brass auger bearing to a Nylatron for less friction.
Less friction does give more power.
Also installed a new higher current Gleason Avery auger motor that does have More Power than usual! ! ! LOL

What kind of auger bearings do the integra's have? Brass? Nylon? etc.

 

Cosworth Vega, baby!

 

You can add this on to any of your stoves easily. I am going to try it on the Harman room blower next.

 

Less friction does not give more power in a fixed speed.Whitfield went to these bushings because they had a design problem eating auger motors,and price has come down on nylatron,used to be very expensive to machine,now they even cast it.Their other choice would have been a bigger auger motor.I think nylatron is a good choice,many stoves use it now for bottom bushing.But I also see problems,as auger should be pulled and serviced once a year,this will not happen and you will see more upper bushing failures,which are much harder to replace.Putting in a motor that draws more to do the same job does not make the stove give more heat,just makes overall efficiency lower as electrical usage is figured into this.I am not picking on you,as I think improving a device is great,within reason.Just wanted to point out some logic.Never used a gleason motor,picked up one for a spare,as I got it for $49,and noticed it is much heavier.As it hangs off the back of the auger,do not know if I will keep it,more wear on the lower bushing.Original (older) integra bushings were oilite,replacements have been coming through as an impregnated sintered iron.Never seen a brass bushing in a pellet stove.

 

Yes, good info. The upper brass bearing in the EF-3 with the old failed auger and lower bearing was working fine. Not hard to pull if you have a long tool that can go up the chute and grab the back edge of the bearing. Therefore I am not concerned with the top bearings they have no build up for gunk and the auger still turns well after many years.

You will like the Gleason - Avery auger motor it is the Harman standard.

So far I have only seen the Nylatron bearing with an ID of 3/4" for larger and older augers. Do you know if they are available in the 5/8" diameter for many of the newer top feeding smaller pellet stoves?

 

Harman doesn't use brass, but rather bronze, as sleeve bearings for the pusher arm in the feed mechanism....I know.....not a lot of wear, evenso....

 

Hi Lw
Yes, I have not seen much go wrong with the pusher arms. I did have a stove with a slide plate that was making a banging sound after the stove heated up. It is a free standing Harman Invincible RS - Have you seen that issue? What is the solution?

Also I have not seen a Harman Auger bearing go bad. I did have one off an 8 y/o Harman Accentra Insert that had a bad spot in the auger bearing. When I had it out of the stove and turned it by hand there was a slight cach or drag in one very small spot. It did not seem like it would cause much of a problem.
Have you seen a Harman Auger bearing go bad?

 

banging slide plates are generally from slide plate with gummy deposits on them, especially after they warm up.....
As for auger bearings going bad...yep, seen a few, but VERY uncommon...usually the squeak is a pellet stuck in the rear flight against the auger and the spiral, or, the spiral touching the feeder tube.......often a result of a less than diligent cleaning regimen...

 

Thanks so much for the Info! Great Stuff! I took out the slide plate and used the wire wheel on the drill driver and took the grinding wheel to the edges. Then coated it with Dry Moly spray. So from your good description of the issue, that just might fix it. Also oiled the slide plate arm bushings. We will not know until next winter for sure but glad I was on the right track! Thanks again!

 

Just for info,older harman with remote auger motor can warp the box assembly,can cause flap/pusher problems.

 

I've seen the motor mount assembly bend in those older chain drive units, causing misalignment and maybe noise, but I've never seen a warped box assembly.....maybe terminology differences?

 

I have never seen it but have been told it can bend the box out of shape when the motor mount assembly has been straightened repeatedly.Interestingly the larger stove parts places stock the box assemblies.

 

Yes they do stock the box welderments but I have not seen any replaced. It may have happened but probably rare. The newer stoves do not have the chain drives anymore.

 

If you had to replace one,would you update it to the new one?I think I would.

 

The cost and work envolved makes it very difficult. Do you or LW know if the box comes out easily or is it welded?

 

Studs,nuts bolts.

 

Don-

Depends on the model.....we stock the weldments as well, as offtimes they do get replaced.....never because they are bent though.....we end up replacing them if (rare) they get the dreaded "Gummy Stove" syndrome. It just doesn't make sense to try and clean it....easier to replace the weldment, time is money. Since Harman started putting bypass tubes on, gummies are pretty rare.....not unknown, just rare.

The XXV, Accentra, and Advance....yes, all the old chain drive units, are the most difficult to replace the weldments on, mostly because you need to disassemble the units (the whole stove, basically) to do so, and this tends to take a lot of time cutting gasket joints, scraping the old stuff off and putting new ones on, etc...

As for conversion from the old chain drive to the new feeders....cant easily do it. The new feeders are Ultralight, so a smaller size than the older chain drive models....and while Im not gonna say it cant be done, I can say it wouldn't be worth the time to do, unless you don't value your time. Also, even if possible, I wonder about the safety of the unit after you get done Rube Goldberg-ing it.