St. Croix Revolution multifuel hopper install

I bought my Revolution about 5 years ago, and it came set up to burn straight pellets. I got all the parts to install the multifuel secondary hopper, but never installed it. For those not familiar with the furnace, the hopper contains pellets and a second auger that feed pellets for starting the fire, and then main auger kicks in and feeds whatever alternative fuel I can burn. I'm planning to burn corn this year. I have a hopper wagon with some left over from this summer's 4-H projects, purchased at $3.50/bushel.

For a long time, pellets were close enough in price, and my spare time was limited enough that I never bothered to install the second hopper and auger setup. I decided that today would be a great time, so I did the install. The mechanical part went fine. However, at the very end of the install, the directions say to unhook the jumper wire from the relay, and replace it with a pink wire. There is a handy picture included with the instructions, unfortunately, my relay is different than the relay pictured. I followed the instructions as close as possible, but I'm having two problems now.

Everything functioned correctly at the end of last year, but this is the first burn of this year, so who knows.

Problem #1 : I hooked up the new stuff as I *think* it should be. I turn the furnace on (manual mode), it goes into start up, and pellets come out of the newly installed hopper, fire ignites, and then the main auger doesn't respond. No corn from the main hopper gets into the burnpot, and the fire goes out.

Problem #2 : I unhooked all new electrical connections, and put everything back the way it was before. Turn on furnace, starts up, feeds corn from the main hopper, I toss some pellets in to help ignite, fire ignites, burns for 10-15 minutes, blower kicks on, and then after a few minutes the auger stops working again. The auger light still lights up as though the control board is calling for the auger to work, but nothing happens. No error messages, the fire just gradually goes out until proof of fire error come on.

While the main auger is running, it seems fine. No noise, smooth operation. I added some goo to the connections, but it still stops responding after 15 minutes or so.

Thoughts?

 

Sounds like the POF went POOF !!
You can test it with a VOM and grill lighter

 

I bypassed the proof of fire switch, and the furnace behaved the same. Ignited, ran, and the main auger never started feeding corn. Do I still need to test the proof of fire switch, or was the bypass enough?

Strangely enough, the furnace keeps running, with the auger light coming on at appropriate intervals, and it keeps trying to heat for about an hour after the actual fire in the burnpot goes out. At that point I get the "proof of fire" error message. Just seems like it takes much much longer than it should.

I was assuming that it wasn't the proof of fire switch because the control board was apparently calling for more fuel, as evidenced by the auger light being on, even with the auger not apparently responding. Is that a safe assumption?

Where to look next?

 

Don't know anything about this,but suspect wiring on relay is wrong.Will leave 2 links,1 is regular manual,other link,with the big adobe warning,has 2 manuals on the left side you can open up.One is a service manual,and goes into troubleshooting the wiring on the relay.Good luck.
https://netzerofireplaces.com/wp-co...N20Installation2020Operation20Manual-8121.pdf

https://netzerofireplaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Revolution-Manuals.pdf

 

Since it acted better it does sound like the proof of fire switch is bad and you have another problem like the auger motor is bad also. Can you put an AC cord directly on the auger motor to see if it turns?

 

Don - it acted the same as before when I had the switch jumped. The auger motor worked fine initially when I hooked it back up to the previous configuration, but then stopped working about 15 minutes into the burn. During the first 15 minutes, the auger motor appears to work normally. No bad sounds or binding or anything like that.

 

Gotta agree with Don,weak auger motor,quits when gets warm,or too much drag on the auger/bushings.You must check voltage at the motor when it is acting up/not rotating when the call light comes on.

 

Also check the high limit snap disc which must be closed at all times,

 

Solved! The wire powering the main auger was on the wrong prong of the relay. Not sure why, I'm 99% sure that I haven't touched that wire, but I moved it to the proper spot, and the furnace started up normally, and has been running normally for over an hour now. The wire for the new auger was right, the old was wrong. Anyway, thanks for all the suggestions.