Auger Motor Question

This is my first time posting here. I have an enviro meridian insert that I purchased in September 2013. I recently replaced the auger motor due to the old one missing pellet drops (the light would blink on the control board and no pellets would drop). On heat setting 1 or 2 the fire would get really low and almost go out and there would be a smokey smell. The stove would burn ok heat level 3, 4 or 5 just lower then what I thought it should due to less pellets.

The auger I purchased was an aftermarket one from Earth Sense through pellethead.com. (It was $100 less then the Enviro one and this is the third auger motor in the stove, the first one was replaced under warranty in December 2014) With this new auger motor it seems to drop too many pellets. On level 3 it is throwing heat like it should on 5, the flames are licking the bottom of the heat exchangers. On level 5 the auger constantly turns. I had the feed rate trim on 3 and dropped that to 1. I timed the auger and it takes 55-56 seconds to make a complete rotation so it is a bit faster then 1 RPM but not much. Last night I ran on heat level 2 and in 9 hours I went through close to a bag of pellets. I was just wondering if anyone had any suggestions to slow it down. I mean its giving great heat and all, I have a great flame, I just think I am going through too many pellets on the lower settings. I did reset the control board to make sure it was back to factory settings. The stove gets cleaned twice a week and I set the damper with a magnahelic gauge and I burn La Cretes. Thanks for reading.

John

 

Welcome to the forum! Our local Enviro expert jtakeman will be along shortly.

 

Make sure the output RPMs of the old motor and the new motor are the same.

 

The stove calls for a 1 RPM motor, and that seems to be what he has.

Calling jtakeman

BTW Johnski , in the future put the name & make of the stove in the thread title....helps attract attention from Enviro owners faster.

 

Yeah the motor is 1 RPM but it runs slightly faster taking between 55 and 56 seconds to make a rotation but I didn’t think that would make that much of a difference but I could be wrong.

 

I don't think so either. Maybe there is a trim pot on the board to slow it down.......hopefully the Enviro guru's will chime in soon.

BTW, 2 auger motors in 3 years is a LOT. I never replaced in either of my stoves and I burned for WAY longer than that.

 

Sorry,nobody has brought this up,55 to 56 seconds is less than 1 rpm.
Close enough to mean nothing,but,lets be honest.60 seconds in one minute.Not faster.

 

If my math is right it’s about 10% fast. That might make a noticeable difference in the size of the fire – or not.

 

just bad luck?

 

I smoked one auger motor,in my integra,from cheep pellets,and almost smoked another,until I found these forums.Yep,I am stupid,I accept that.What scares me now,is all the low dollar flu/combustion/exhaust motors for sale,on the market,as,they are no different than an refrigerator ice maker add on,low quality,may cause weird problems,but,here we go,again.Seems to go in cycles.

 

I have a different stove, but on the 2 setting, I get enough heat to keep the house warm, and 40 lbs last 12 hours.

 

I am not familiar enough with that stove line to say how reliable their components are, or not. While I agree with the plethora of non-OEM parts available on the internet these days that there might be quality issues, I have a vested interest in trying to get folks to buy parts from the manufacturer through a dealer, I just thought I would point that out before anyone beats me to the punch......

 

Quality wise everything else on the stove works like a charm. I am usually not one to cheap out on parts, I know you get what you pay for but after going through 2 Enviro auger motors in under five seasons I thought I would try something else. It is working and throwing heat so its not the end of the world. I also have always had what I think are good pellets in it. I have burned La Cretes for the last 2.5 years and before that it was Somersets and North Country with 1 ton of Black Hills Heat thrown in the first year I had the stove. I just wondered if I was missing something. Thanks everyone for weighing in.

 

Greetings John,

Welcome to the Forum.

I also have a new 1 RPM auger motor from ESE sitting here - I'll get some spade lug connectors soldered on the wires, and run a timing test on it this evening - will report back w/ the RPM timing on the motor.

 

one thing i noticed is Harman ignitors run from 30.00 to little over 70.00....
the cheaper ones are sold on Amazon and it states they are made in china..
the higher priced ones at hearth part stores state they are made in USA.
I have read many complaints on the asian made ignitors crapping out way to soon.
my own expirience was the same./ bought a cheapie and the ignitor stopped working and blew out my 6amp fuse on the way. 4 months i think..
not worth it to try and save 40.00 bucks.. at least on ignitors...

 

yea, we only sell Harman OEM parts.....sometimes to our chagrin.....there is certainly a secondary market with non-OEM parts, I just would rather not choose to get involved there....certainly some good parts are non-OEM.

yes, those China igniters.....ugh

 

I have to say, that is good advice. They show you pictures and model numbers OEM and then send none OEM as a replacement. Mountain View is good for that. Thanks

 

Brand new ESE motor (unloaded / no auger):





vs. the original Merkle-Korff motors installed in the Englander 25-PDVC, 2 yrs. service, circa 2007:

both motors ran within (1) second of each other, within .5 second unloaded, vs. loaded w/ auger..





Go figure..

Regards,
Rob

 

IMO, the difference between 58 sec and 1 minute is insignificant. Even if it was 5-6 seconds off. On low, a stove is only going to cycle the auger 3....maybe 4 times a minute?