St Croix hastings

Thanks for the info @Rona and welcome to fhc! Yes my stove has two small holes on each side just above the burn pot. I have blow gun with a flexible copper line that I snaked up those holes and let er rip for a while. The soot and dust that came out was unbelievable. I'm pretty sure I got the stove as clean as possible but wouldn't mind looking at the cutaway photos you have.

 

I found them and with my wifes help I think Smoking Piney should be getting them. Ron A

 

Here's the auburn cut away pics. Thanks again Ron.

 

I'm still in the process of test burning this stove outside and in not sure it's running right. I'm not getting a very big flame even on level 5. The auger seems to be feeding ok and both fans are operating. But the flame is barely an inch or so out of the burn pot most of the time. At startup the flame is 1/4-1/2 way up the brick panel but when the room fan kicks on it drops down quite a bit. I've tried the air intake at full, half and almost closed and it doesn't change it much. Any ideas?

 

It isn't by any chance set for t-stat operation and there is no t-stat installed?

 

Bingo! Right after I posted that I remembered that the mode switch was a little loose so I took the board out to check it out. Turns out the switch had come loose from the board and the contactor in the switch was missing . So it's stuck in "pilot mode". Burning on low setting even though the heat level was showing 5.

 

Oops hope you have the skinny on how to fix that or you are in the market for a new controller.

 

Im guessing a small copper contact goes in that recessed spot in the switch (pic#1) and it connects at the three different tabs on the board. Also in pic #1 on the little orange part, the top tab is smart stat mode, the middle is thermostat mode and the bottom two are manual mode? That's how it seems it would be if the switch was connected. I'm gonna try my best to fix this before i have to order a $300 board for a freakin solder in slide switch.

 

Any numbers on that switch?

 

No number on the switch unfortunately.

I wasn't going to let this thing beat me today so I came back out to do a little test. I stuffed some copper wire between the contacts that I thought were "manual mode" and plugged the board back in. After the normal start up she's now burning hot on level 5. Now to figure a better way to connect them without soldering them together. I don't want it to permanently be in manual mode. Here's how she's supposed to burn

 

alligator clip?

 

That was taken right as it dropped pellets into the hopper. Should it not throw sparks like that when pellets are dropping? Well I got excited a little too early as i went outside after leaving it burn for an hr, the fire was out and the exhaust blower had just shut off and the power light was blinking. So i either have it rigged in "smartstat mode" or there's another problem. Smartstat mode basically get's the stove up to temp then drops to level 1. If it's not calling for anymore heat after an hr, the stove shuts down and the power light blinks. I'll get to the bottom of this by spring i swear!

 

I hate to bring this up but if the stove is operated at 5 for a long period of time it can get shut down by the stove's safety system. It is also possible that if the draft is set wrong for the stove to "blow its fire out". Then there is the possibility that the Jerry rigged switch for it to just not make any contact and shut down.

 

This is why i post here, for everyone input and ideas! All very possible of course. At the time the stove shut down it was only burning on 4 but if i had the draft wrong it could have blown the fire out like you said. The fact that it seemed to go out after about an hr and the stove shut down leaving the on/off light blinking is leading me towards the switch not being rigged in the right spot. In the troubleshooting section it describes those symptoms if it's in smart stat mode and is not calling for heat. I have it running again right now on 3 and im going to check it after an hr and see what happens.

 

Here's the back of my board. The 4 solder points for the switch are just below the black piece center of 1st photo. They're kind of outlined by a white rectangle.