Whitfield Advantage 2 room air blower speed, etc

Hi,

I have an old advantage 2 installed in my office/shop (~1,700sf) and it does a pretty good job of keeping the place warm. I clean it daily, and recently cleaned out the rear of it and greased all the bearings, etc. I’ve also replaced all the gaskets, the door, and the fireback.

Problem is that the fan speed is super low on low, and on high, seems like it’s lost oomph over the season. So, it’s not keeping my (heavily insulated) shop as warm as it did last season.

Before I start tearing into it and replacing everything, what should I start with?

Also, is there some sort of gasket/bushing that’s supposed to go around the scraper rod? I end up daily with a fine film of ash on anything within 12 feet of it, and I can see light around the rod. And I’ve been finding huge solid chunks of hard, crystalline ash in the burn pot in the mornings, which I’ve never seen before.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated! Photo attached. (No, the tv doesn’t get hot at all; it sits behind the stove pretty far. )

 

Oddly enough I'm having the same issues with my Hastings St. Croix. It's the room blower with the issue, and it started after I replaced it with an after market blower. I can also see light around the scraper rod, but I don't remember ever having any kind of bushing around it.

 

Blower motor bearing were oiled every year? If so, it might just be getting tired.

 

Yeah, I figured next thing is pull the motor, clean, and grease thoroughly, but I was also thinking that the switch might not be delivering the full voltage for each setting.

 

No grease....electric motor oil only. Most people use 3 in 1 in the blue can, or Anderol.

 

These stoves have a habit of this symptom

The control should have a knob on it for the room fan speed ????

The control boards give up over time and the fan speed starts to go away.

You can unplug the power cable to the fan and wire in a separate stand alone fan speed control.
Most stove shops will have these.

Simply wire the new controller into the system with the power lead connected to the 120V line that comes into the stove.
Connect the lead from the control to the fan motor and connect the second fan motor lead to the neutral terminal in the chassis (White wire in plug)

Drill a hole in the side panel and mount the control.

You will need to turn the fan on and off separately......

The Triac on the control board is giving up.

My Adv 2 board died a couple years ago.
I built a new controller.

You can get a rebuilt board.

Pics
The added fan control with the green tape.
Second pic is the new controller.
My entire board died and I wanted an easy to fix control.

 

1- listen to snowy about the convection fan speed,and controller problems
2- Yes, simple convection motors can become weak,and preform terrible
3-Advantage 2's are very good quality,and perhaps a new control board, and maybe even a new room blower,would fix one of your problems
4-Soot/dust/ashes coming from the cleaning rods--"restricted exhaust" or weak exhaust blower motor, or control board problem, you have choices here. personalty,I recommend having the stove and flue professionally cleaned,and buying a new control board, but,yet be expected to purchase a new convection and combustion fan/motor.Now,I know for a fact pellet stove problems in MD come from because most there burn so few pellets, which creates problems.