Pellet heads!! What's up today?

Don't pay any attention to JT

 

Hecks no....you all are always complaining about it being too cold, so I tried to help.

 

Yeah, had 3.5" of snow the beginning of last week, and been 80* twice already this week - with a lot of mugginess. Have some days next week where the high will be 40. Gotta love the wide swings in temps this time of year.

I'll be running the P6+1a today, which kind fo sucks. Having some work done in the basement and it is too cool and humid down there for curing the stuff in a timely manner. May have to have the mini split going on the main floor

 

Spark bucket

 

Had something weird happen with the P43 yesterday (4/22/26). It was set on room temp / auto, being controlled by the thermostat in the office as usual. The stove is plugged into a UPS, using a "Battery + Surge" outlet. It ran fine in the early morning. But then it quit responding appropriately to the thermostat.

The stove had just begun the start up cycle, and I turned it to off becuase I didn't want it to start right then. About 30 minutes later I turned it back to Rooom Temp for it to start, and it did. Shortly into the heat up, it seemed to quit feeding and the flame died down. The room temp wasn't achieved yet, so it should have still been runniong. I turned the thermostat up more, and nothing. I turned it down to where the thermostat called for the stove to shut down, and it started feeding again. I turned the temp back up to above the room temp, and it actually started shutting down when the thermostat called for heat.

I let the stove shut down. Once it was cold, I turned the thermostat off. I turned the stove off, then back on a couple of times and it would run thru the test cycle twice each time I turned it on. I turned the thermostat on, and raised the set temp, with no reaction from the stove. I lowered the set temp until the click, and the stove still did nothing (at leas it wasn't acting like it was oppoosite day at that point)

I unplugged the stove for a bit, and while it was unplugged I opened/closed all doors, cleaned out from under the igniter and swiped out the firepot. The stove had just been cleaned a week or so ago and had probably 3-4 bags run thru it since then so isn't dirty. I plugged the stove back in, and again the stove ran thru the test cycle twice.

Raised the temp on the thermostat until it called for heat, waited, and no reaction from the stove. I turned down the temp until the thermostat clicked to call for shut down, and nothing.

Next I changed the control to Stove Temp / Auto, turned up the thermostat until it clicked, and the P43 came to life, as it should. I let it run until the house was warm, turned the dial to Room Temp, and it immediately went into shut down (all fans worked correctly).

Between all that shifting of settings, I noticed when the stove is set at Room Temp / Auto, that the Status light is off. When it is in Stove Temp / Auto, the Status light is on. I just tried Room Temp / Manual and the Status light started blinking but the feeder light never came on.

In summary - what stove is doing right now:
Room Temp / Auto w/ Thermostat set above actual room temp: Will not auto start. No Status Light, no feeder.
Room Temp / Auto w/ Thermostat set below room temp: 4-blink Status Light (that is normal because of the thremostat)
Room Temp / Manual: Status light, no feeder
Stove Temp / Auto: Status Light, feeder light, everything works
Stove Temp / Manual: Status light, no feeder

My guess is that the board is fried somewhere.

 

Or just disconnect it and see what happens

 

You might be right. The boards of both your stoves are the same if you want to try swapping them out. You would have to check the dip switches for the correct config though.

I did have to change out a board on my better half's XXV for intermittent shutdown and startup issues about 5 years ago. At times it wouldnt shut down on Room Temp Auto unless she cracked the hopped lid open. I forget the startup issue but the board fixed both issues.

 

The strangeness continues: Yesterday I would leave the settings in Room Temp / Auto until it was cool enough I wanted fire (I would check the indicated air temp on the thermostat to confirm). Then I turned it to Stove Temp / Auto and would let it run until it was warm enough (again, confirmed by thermostat), then turn it to Room Temp / Auto and it would initiate shut down.

Then, yesterday evening, the stove started itself while in Room Temp / Auto at the appropriate time, ran normally and shut down appropriately. I left it at those settings, and it started another cycle early this morning, and shut itself down again just a few minutes ago. It seems to be running fine now.

The only thing I remember doing (and I don't remember when), is turning the coiled probe around. It is hanging on the door to the control board with a twist tie keeping it from uncoiling or moving - as it has for years. That action moved the end of the room probe probably 1/2", if that. Even if the temp probe was too close to the stove, that would only explain the shutting down early (which is why it has a twist tie, because the cats would uncoil it sometimes causing erradicate behavior depending on where the probe landed).

It would not explain why
* the start/stop commands from the thermostat being treated as the opposite at the beginning of the shennanigans.
* then later the stop command from the thermostat being obeyed (or at least, the feeder stopping), while the start command wasn't obeyed
* why the status light now has the 4-blink status (as it should) while in Room Temp / Auto.
* the 2x test after the stove was first plugged in or after I turned the dial to Off, then back On - 1x test is the norm (I'm afraid to see what it does now - LOL)

So, for right now, the ghost in the machine seems to have left the building, which is good news.

 

Jeez, hope the gremlins stay gone. I dont know which is worse-the strangeness or that it stopped as quick as it started. Maybe just needed a hard reset.

Been using the mini splits for heat over past few weeks or so. I did fire up the P68 this year as the extra cold (former normal ) winter really showed how much I missed the basement heat from the pellet burner. Now with HHO being so dam expensive, the stat for the oil monster isnt touched for shoulder season as its just not cold enough to use pellet heat from down under.