A little more on Whitfield Pellet Stove auger motors that stop. When an auger motor fails it usually just quits. On a very rare occasion you might have one that just seems to get weak. If so, replace it.
DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME trying to repair an auger motor. I have never heard of anyone ever being able to repair one and I’ve had hundreds of people email and call asking how. None successful. Taking it apart and lubricating doesn’t work and if any of the gears are stripped, there is no known source for new ones. Buy a new motor.
See, there you go. I just saved you hours of toil, frustration and labor. Now send me money. Lol.
Back to being serious. The other issue that can cause the auger on your Whitfield Pellet Stove to stop turning is an auger jam. These are a lot of fun. It usually happens when the sharp object you use to open your pellet bag falls into the hopper of your Whitfield Pellet Stove accidentally. It eventually finds it’s way down to the auger and gets caught. If this happens you need to remove all the pellets from the hopper and you may need to removed the auger. As of yet I don’t know of anyone who has destroyed the auger and had to replace it so don’t worry about that.
One final cause of an auger not turning on a Whitfield Pellet Stove is the vacuum switch. The vacuum switch is located right next to the exhaust fan and has a small tube going between it and the exhaust fan. What’s it for? It shuts off your auger motor if your chimney gets full of ash. If you haven’t cleaned your chimney in a year, this may be the cause of your auger not turning. To clean the chimney on a Whitfield Pellet Stove simply remove the cap on the bottom of the chimney right at the back of your stove, turn on your shop-vac to collect the ash, and bang on the side of the chimney with a hammer or wrench until the ash pours out. Start your stove and see if it works.
If it still doesn’t work you may have a bad vacuum switch (like I have right now on my Austroflamm). To test it on a Whitfield Pellet Stove, unplug your stove, take the wires off the switch and connect them together, plug your stove back in and see if it works. The vacuum switch is a safety feature however, if you clean your stove and your chimney every year you’ll never run the risk of it being activated. Therefore, running your stove without it for a period is not dangerous as long as it’s clean. I’ve had my stove for four years without a vacuum switch with not problem.
If you still can’t get it to work…email me support@pelletstovepro.org and we’ll figure it out together.
To see how to buy this part click on the picture below…
