Pellet heads!! What's up today?

Never have starting issues, Typical large frame Kubota ag tractors. They bang and clang a bit until warmed up Trick is to have good starting batteries and treated fuel, both of which I have. Even my 6000 hour one starts in a turn or less. Neither are pre combustion chamber engines, direct injection with glo plugs in the cylinders themselves. Don't believe in either on a diesel, too hard on pistons and connecting rods.

 

Been through that in Atlanta before. Little solid precip and it's a junkyard. I see Florida is well below freezing. There goes what is left of the orange groves.

 

Nice chassis and you are a dirty old man too...

 

5 degrees here this morning.25 inches with some huge drifts.The Ariens did not let me down.

 

Spent 3.5 hours outside blowing, shoveling, scraping and shoveling again getting as much off the driveway as I could.

8 degrees but all sunshine and little wind so didn't feel the cold at all. Tiring but felt good to be outside in the sun. Would have stayed out longer but the thumb was giving out. Gonna pay for this, hopefully not as bad as 2 weeks ago.....

 

So, my other half has and XXV and I have the P68. Both share many parts and both are 10 plus years old with all original parts.

Last Oct I bought one of pretty much everything to have just in case between the 2 stoves. Only part that they dont share is the dist blower. Didnt get those.

Guess what goes last weekend on the XXV? Yup, dist blower.

Her XXV had been flakey for a few years now and last weekend it started over firing and getting really hot to the touch. Went by, got the dist blower to work but its definitely tired. Changed the board to as the stove didn't want to shut down properly for a while now. The board solved that issue. Ordered new dist blower.

Not quite overfiring but flame still larger than it should be. Probe solved that. Now she has a properly working stove again in regard to proper firing and shut down operation. Now just need the dist blower but at least the old one is working-maybe 3/4 speed but its working.

 

Can always stick a box fan behind/beside it.

 

Never would think that. Would it work?

BTW, I'm the type that wants it fixed right; she could run with this idea. SHE CANNOT SEE THIS

 

Others have done it so they could use their stove while waiting on parts. Might not be good on high mode, for some cheap stoves, would probably trip the hi limit switch. A Harman would probably just start cutting the pellet feed back until it cools down some.

 

Don't landfill the old one, rebuild it. They are 100% rebuildable, especially if you are cheap like I am.

 

hell, I put a box fan on top of mine, it's sop all the time. really helps distribute the heated air.

 

Cleaned it out this morning. It went a week without cleaning and it was filthy inside and so was the lower venting. I looked like Aunt Jemima when I got done...

 

We ended up with 16 inches. I snowblowed the driveway twice yesterday and spent all day doing the driveway again, cleaning off the cars, snowblowing the walkways and shoveling the stairs and the 2nd floor deck. Got inside and collapsed in my chair and my wife said we needed pellets. (I keep them in the shed) *sigh* I'll get them after supper. Dreaming of a good meal and a hot shower!

 

edit-you mean the old blower-I'll look at that and see

 

sounds like well deserved

 

Agreed 100% Nothing wrong with that.

I keep bearings on hand and switched to Viton seals instead of plain shielded to keep the grease in them and dirt out. A pack of hardware store thin #10 stainless flat washers to shim armatures with.

Less than $20 instead of $300... call me cheap too!

 

In my business I have boxes of stuff anyway. Owning a machine and fab shop, I seem to 'collect' all sorts of items, little washers included.

Armature end play is kind of irrevelant actually, especially on drives because the drive end of the armature is machined in a angular tooth pattern so long as they fully engage the internal gearing, it's all good.

 

Yep. I keep and rebuild everything, drives, blowers and boards too. Boards are pretty easy as all that really fails on them are the Triacs and those are cheap to buy and all you need is a multimeter to diagnose an issue. I use a Fluke True RMS. Not cheap but a one time buy. Shaded pole motors never wear out except for the bearings and those are all replaceable, even the 660CA bronze ones. Shaded pole motors fail when the bearings get so sloppy the armature starts contacting the field laminations. Key to them is keeping them oiled. I use way lubricant on them. It's tacky and has a high film thickness so it stays there a long time. I'll pull the outboard bearing and retainer and dunk it in a container of way oil and let it sit for a day. They all have felt oil retainers in the housings.

 

NWS is predicting (we all know how right they are usually), 20" for use later in the week, starting on Tuesday evening through Thursday. Guess I'll put the plow and blower on the tractor today or tomorrow, just in case. Supposed to get a new dishwasher installed in one of the rentals on Thursday. That night be interesting. Dishwasher took a dump (I believe the pump failed) and as a rule I don't fiddle with that stuff, I just replace them with new units and have my contractor do the install. it's a tax write off anyway. Here, I'd fix it but in a rental unit, I don't.

...and I don't allow any auxiliary heating appliances in any of my rentals either. In fact one of them had a fireplace in the living room and I had my contractor remove it and the chimney. I don't trust renters when it comes to solid fuel heat. In fact, I don't trust renters at all. Why I require a 2 month security deposit and I do a full credit check up front. Been burned in the past... and no Section 8 either. I don't play fix the place after a section 8 family trashes it. Legally, you cannot refuse but you can make the requirement stringent enough where it excludes them.

 

Two weeks until I join the Harmin, Harmon, Hormone, err, Harman club.

Anyone in CT looking for an insert please reach out. I'll be posting it as well when the times comes.