Friday, November 20, 2009

Breckwell Pellet Stove

My Father recently acquired a non-working pellet stove. It's a Breckwell p24fs Pellet Stove 1992-1996. manual (propane torch) ignition. I believe I have diagnosed it, but it hasn't been used much yet.

Symptoms
  • Auger won't feed automatically. 
  • Light comes on, 
  • Manual feed button works. 
  • At first the breaker blew when plugged in. (someone had some wires mixed up)
    Diagnosis
    • The previous owner had 2 diagnoses: Their book said: Bad auger control therm-o-disk ($15) and "The guy who works on them" said: Bad control board ($250). 
    • Jumping the thermodisk had no effect so that leads to the control board. 
    • Although not noted anywhere there is a 3/4amp fuse on the control board. You have to disassemble the front (switches, knobs) to access it. Be careful of the stop ring on the fan control switch, it fell off and I had to figure out which hole it goes in. 
    • With a new fuse we still get the same exact symptom. Sounded bad for the board. Now however jumping the thermodisk results in a properly working auger motor!
    Synopsis
    Both diagnosis were correct.
    • A new auger therm-o-disk is needed.
    • If a repair man had come he would undoubtedly have replaced the control board. (although it only needed a $0.50 fuse) 
    • Time will tell if there is an underlying problem or if we can blame it on the switched wire or an unknown cause.
    Notes: at some future point (1997 perhaps) they changed the design of the control board. the fuse(s) are now accessible without disassembling the board. just pop the control module out, fuses are on the back. Smart folks, why wasn't this like that? I wonder how many control boards are replaced for a fuse?