New, Not to Pellet Stoves, Blower Noise

Hello fellow pellet stove lovers. Our family has run pellet stoves since 1995. The first was a Whitfield.

Currently we own a Harman Advance purchased in 2007. We've replaced the auger motor, then the circuit board (this year), and now I think the it's the combustion/blower motor which needs help.

The noise begins on start up and sounds like an out of balance older model washing machine. When the fire gets going the sound disappears completely. It's interesting that we didn't have this problem on the old circuit board. The new one was well needed as the former one wouldn't allow very many adjustments to temperature, auger speed, and blower speed.

Is the part I need a combustion exhaust fan? Or maybe a good cleaning? Or a replacement impeller blade?

 

Welcome
It could be a bad bearing on the combustion motor, mine is due for replacement when I ever get around to it!
By spinning the impeller blade by hand and if it wobbles, it just needs to be bent back to eliminate the wobble.

 

A good cleaning can never really hurt.....
A 12 year old motor and impeller? Yes, probably on its way out. Fans get noisier and noisier, then quit altogether. When preparing to buy the new fan, be sure the impeller can be removed, as the majority simply aren't reliably removable. You may have to loosen the fan and cut off the shaft with a sawzall. I suppose someone will chime in an a heating/cooling procedure, or days of lubrication to remove it, but, with cold weather upon us, who really has the time for that?
Pro tip: Replacing your combustion fan? Get a new impeller too. Cheap enough and avoid an extra trip and aggravation.

 

I always try the simplest things first. Just for giggles, did you try re-installing the board JUST to see if the noise goes away? I'm doubting it will, but weirder things have happened.

Have you inspected the motor for oiling ports? Typically, new exhaust blower motors have sealed ball bearings, but this being an older (12 years), it's possible it does have them. Look for ports on the case that look like "U" shaped holes near the inner & outer edge......could be underneath too, so look at the entire case. Could have plastic (typically yellow) dust plugs covering them too.

In a pinch, 3 in 1 oil can be used, but best is something like Anderol or 3 in 1 in the blue can (for electric motors). 3-4 drops in each hole.

If no holes, you can always try "forcing" some oil into end bearing....might help.

If you're not sure what to look for, I can post some pics of what I think they will look like.

Oh, btw, welcome to the madness.

 

Hello Imacman,
My son, who is an electrician, installed the circuit board so I'm not concerned about it's installation. He's also the one who has done the regular maintenance on our stove ever since a local company's lack of knowledge about cleaning a pellet stove, even though they sell and install them, caused our auger motor to fail after only three years. The company never cleaned out the sawdust.

Interestingly now after a week of the noise starting it is constant throughout the entire time the stove comes on, stays on, and then quits after it turns off. This makes me wonder if it's never coming out of start up mode. Or another possibility that both motors have issues; the combustion motor and the blower. Both are original to the stove.

 

It would help if you could address the oiling I mentioned. Almost ALL convection (room air) blowers have oil ports, but most more modern stoves don't on the exhaust motor. Still, let us know what you did in that regard.

 

....except the Harman. Sealed bearings. But I have heard of folks oiling them and quieting them down a bit, usually just before the motor fails althogether

 

Without oiling it, the combustion blower noise has lessened. The other fan isn't making any noise either. Both are working great. I wonder if it was changing out the circuit board and the two of them working better for the first time in a couple of years. The circuit board had needed to be replaced for about three years as it only had three or four options working on each setting (fan, auger, and temperature).

 

That makes absolutely no sense to me,and probably others.

 

Well, apparently the lack of use of the combustion motor on full blast and the other fan caused their noise when the circuit board was changed out. Go figure. It's the most bizarre set of circumstances I've ever come across as a pellet stove owner and I've been at this for years. The noise is completely gone. No oiling. As I said above the circuit board needed to be replaced for quite awhile. Maybe that was it. The combustion motor fan and other fan couldn't be used past slightly over halfway. We didn't have a robust blaze for the past two years. All is "cured" for now without oiling and without changing out the combustion motor fan. I am as mystified as can be.

 

Problem fixed for how long who knows but its fixed it sounds like and Bravo

Welcome aboard Big Mac

 

LOL, brings back some old car thoughts! Front wheel bearings in cars used to be ball bearings, before tapered wheel bearings. Never saw much failure of the ball bearings, except for the little old ladies that never left town, always low speed. Could be the grease got pushed away, and never had enough speed to build temps up, to redistribute the grease? Probably another factor involved why cars went to tapered wheel bearings?