Whitfield Photo Eye Bypass Surgery! Anyone try this? See pics! It works!

Hello

This Whitfield Profile 20 Photo eye was tired and the lens was burned. Since it provides proof of fire, the stove would not stay on once it lit!. This pellet stove would start and smoke but just keep shutting down!
A new photo eye is $64.95 and needs to be cleaned all the time and then if the lens gets smoke stained and burned again we are backed to square one!

There is a cover on the exhaust blower housing for the 140 Deg F ceramic snap so let's use it and do the "Photo Eye Bypass Surgery" !!

Has anyone else done this bypass surgery on a Profile 20 or Profile 30?

Pic 0 - Shows two yellow wires that go from the control panel to the photo eye in the hopper. That is where we cut!
Pic 1 - Remove 2 bolts and remove cover
Pic 2 - New 140 Deg F ceramic snap disc
Pic 3 - Snap disc installed
Pic 4 - New 2 conductor stranded 18 Guage wire connected under snap disc screws with wire ties to hold it in a safe place away from the exhaust manifold
Pic 5 - Close up of new snap disc with wire connected
Pic 6 - Shows yellow wire coming out of control panel on right side of stove going up to photo eye in hopper
Pic 7 - Shows new wire from the snap disc connected to the wire going into the control panel. Also shows connectors on the old yellow wire going to the photo eye. In this way the old photo eye can be easily reconnected if you ever want the same problem back again! LOL

 

Pic 8 - Stove with fire now keeps running!
Pic 9 - Nice flame!

 

Wondering if this will work, since my stove is on a wall thermostat?

 

It sure will, the photo eye has nothing to do with the T-Stat. I have done this to 4 stoves now with no problems.

 

Thx, gonna give it whirl, if I survive the Holiday

 

Let us know how you make out and keep that new wire away from the Hot Stuff!

 

Hmmmm

What I say about all the fancy electronics is simple.

The more they over-think the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain.

Whatever happened to keeping it simple.

 

Whitfields have had T-Stat capability for many years. I like a nice WiFi stat myself. If the Harman circuit board had a nice break in the land on the board that supplies power after the temperature potentiometer is turned on , that would be a perfect spot for an external WiFi T-Stat connection! I have plenty of used boards to play with but no time.
It would be a fantastic setup.

 

Awesome! Works like a charm.

 

Welcome to FHC Rubenski! It's a BYO beer/laughter kind of place Did I forget to mention the pellets again

 

does it make a difference of it's ceramic or not

 

does it have to be a ceramic snap disc

 

I prefer simple.
Small stove for warmer weather and a little heat.
Bigger stove for colder weather and more heat.
Both stoves when its really cold.
A third stove if there is ice forming on the bowl of water for the kitty.

The high tech gizmos are sweeeeet WHEN THEY WORK.
Cost like H*LL WHEN THEY QUIT.

Always quit when there is nobody open to get parts or service and the weather is going sideways at minus something nasty.

Oh did I mention that it will likely be a 0 dark 30

 

thanks

 

X2
They do last much longer!

 

I see that this is a pretty old post so hopefully someone sees this, but I just bought a used pellet stove and the fire keeps going out. So I figured I'd try this procedure. In the simplest of terms, you are just wiring in the new ceramic switch to the photo eye wires (control board side, not photo eye side). Meaning, the wires that came from the control board to the eye now go to the ceramic switch instead. Is this correct?

Thanks.

 

Hello
Yes that is correct!
Let us know how it works out.
Good luck

 

Thanks for the quick response. The switch should be here Friday so I'm going to try over the weekend. I haven't found anything online that suggests that my stove will have the removable cover that you did so I'm hoping to be able to drill my own hole for it. Here's hoping.