# Breckwell Big E convection blower?



## StoveMiser (Jan 16, 2008)

Hello All. I am new to the site and the world of pellets. Hope you guys can help. Bought A Big E 2 weeks ago. The first 5 days I ran the stove it ran great. Really put out some heat! Then on day six I shut the stove down to clean out the chamber and burnpot. Cleaned everything up and turned the stove back on. Within 45 minutes the stove started making erratic noises that sounded to be like a failing bearing. Shut the stove off and tried again. Same noise after the stove warmed up. I cannot run the stove on setting #4 for more than an hour. Tried running on #3 and the stove will go for a while before the noise starts. sometimes it will take hours before it starts making the noise. The noise seems to be affected by the fan setting and I am almost certain it is the convection blower. The combustion blower only runs at one speed and is not changed by the fan setting...is this correct? If so, I imagine it would have to be the convection blower. Does anyone have some insight on this? I bought the stove online from Homeclick and am not happy with their customer service. I called them a week ago to request warranty service and they said they would get back to me and still havent. Breckwell is telling me to go through homeclick. frustrating to say the least. should have bought the stove from a dealer. live and learn i guess. Anyway...times a wastin and I am taking matters into my own hands and am going to buy another blower to replace mine. I just want to be sure I replace the right part.


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## hearthtools (Jan 16, 2008)

StoveMiser said:
			
		

> Hello All. I am new to the site and the world of pellets. Hope you guys can help. Bought A Big E 2 weeks ago. The first 5 days I ran the stove it ran great. Really put out some heat! Then on day six I shut the stove down to clean out the chamber and burnpot. Cleaned everything up and turned the stove back on. Within 45 minutes the stove started making erratic noises that sounded to be like a failing bearing. Shut the stove off and tried again. Same noise after the stove warmed up. I cannot run the stove on setting #4 for more than an hour. Tried running on #3 and the stove will go for a while before the noise starts. sometimes it will take hours before it starts making the noise. The noise seems to be affected by the fan setting and I am almost certain it is the convection blower. The combustion blower only runs at one speed and is not changed by the fan setting...is this correct? If so, I imagine it would have to be the convection blower. Does anyone have some insight on this? I bought the stove online from Homeclick and am not happy with their customer service. I called them a week ago to request warranty service and they said they would get back to me and still havent. Breckwell is telling me to go through homeclick. frustrating to say the least. should have bought the stove from a dealer. live and learn i guess. Anyway...times a wastin and I am taking matters into my own hands and am going to buy another blower to replace mine. I just want to be sure I replace the right part.



There is a problems with some blowers for breckwell big E due to heat issues
I received a blower back form parts customers that had the NEW replacement blower for 2 weeks and is making noise

I Talked to The Warnantee Manager at Breckwell and they are trying to find a fix.


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## buildingmaint (Jan 16, 2008)

While I was learning alll about my stove---- I got a high pitched whistle coming from my convection blower . I found the problem to be that I had not cleaned the blades in the squire cage at all , and the build up was a the problem. After I cleaned them off and now that I clean them often I have not had the problem.


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## ferrondave (Oct 17, 2008)

Just had my Big E installed Sept. 21st, fired it up the first week of oct. to take the chill off, and noticed a whining noise coming from the convection motor, after about 2 bags of pellets the whining turned into a grinding noise.
We can't run the stove higher than setting #2 ( If you want to be in the same room).
Called the dealer to let him know, that was 2 weeks ago, still no reply, I was just reading the Breckwell warranty and it says I will have to pay a service charge to the dealer to have them fix it.
As far as I'm concerned thats a pretty sad warranty, If the stove is not working right from the start, I feel Breckwell or the dealer should make it right.
Going to call dealer again tomorrow and see if I can get the motor and replace it myself, if not I will be calling breckwell for a new motor.
Also I noticed on the stove that there are welds that are missing around the door, I can see into the fire chamber, thought these were suppose to be air tight?
I'm not done the Gasket on the door also has damage, will probably have to replace that also?
I read alot about Breckwell Big E's ( did my research ) thoght I made the right choice ?
As of right now it dosn't look good, I hope things work out, will keep ya posted.


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## StoveMiser (Oct 18, 2008)

I'm happy with mine. I wasn't at first, but breckwell made good on the room air blower. I haven't had another problem with the stove. Work out the kinks and you will be happy considering what the stove costs. Pretty much half the price of almost any other stove. Replacing the blower yourself is an easy job, but if you bought the stove from a dealer I would be holding them accountable.


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## Marster (Oct 18, 2008)

fire76 said:
			
		

> Called the dealer to let him know, that was 2 weeks ago, still no reply, I was just reading the Breckwell warranty and it says I will have to pay a service charge to the dealer to have them fix it.
> As far as I'm concerned thats a pretty sad warranty, If the stove is not working right from the start, I feel Breckwell or the dealer should make it right.
> Going to call dealer again tomorrow and see if I can get the motor and replace it myself, if not I will be calling breckwell for a new motor.
> .




I agree the warrenty issue with Breckwell stinks! I have been having what appears to be a control board issue with my P23. It sometimes decides not to allow me to change the fan motor speed. I talked to the dealer and the guy who services the stove for this dealership. They both feel it's either the control board or the thermocupler. (sp?) I want to replace before the parts warrenty runs out  or the stove stops working altogether........I told both I wanted to replace myself. The service guy said you need to talk to the dealer. It's up to them if I can do the replacement myself. So I did. They say, they need to talk to the service guy. And something about the insurance if there would be a fire. Sounds like a run around All I want to do is replace the stinken part. Why would I pay 130.00 for the service guy to come and do a 10 min job that I can do myself????? Is there any other way I can get my replacement parts without the dealers voice in all this? Any suggestions???


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## kinsmanstoves (Oct 18, 2008)

Yes the customer can be charged a fee for the service call.  Breckwell will pay a small fee for the technician to replace the part but it is around $20.00.  The Tech is not going to make it rich on your warranty repair.  The part will be covered by Breckwell.  Refer to the last page in your owner's manual (limited warranty), fifth paragraph on the Big E.

Good luck on getting anything done on a warranty repair from Northern or some online store.  That is why there is a price difference from a Dealer and those types of stores.

I would bet the bearing in the blower is bad.  On the fella's question about not being able to switch levels that is a board issue and needs to be replaced.


Eric


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## slls (Oct 18, 2008)

fire76 said:
			
		

> Just had my Big E installed Sept. 21st, fired it up the first week of oct. to take the chill off, and noticed a whining noise coming from the convection motor, after about 2 bags of pellets the whining turned into a grinding noise.
> We can't run the stove higher than setting #2 ( If you want to be in the same room).
> Called the dealer to let him know, that was 2 weeks ago, still no reply, I was just reading the Breckwell warranty and it says I will have to pay a service charge to the dealer to have them fix it.
> As far as I'm concerned thats a pretty sad warranty, If the stove is not working right from the start, I feel Breckwell or the dealer should make it right.
> ...



Pellets stoves are not air tight, in fact they leak like a sieve. Example they leak around the clean out rods for the heat exchanger, mine leaks around the burn pot dump rod. The thing is they are designed to leak and the combustion motor volume is more than enough. Now all the leakage is vacuum, it is just room air going into the combustion area.


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## kinsmanstoves (Oct 19, 2008)

That is one of the reasons they run on a negative pressure system.

Eric


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## johnnywarm (Oct 19, 2008)

slls said:
			
		

> fire76 said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...




When i open up my door it shuts off


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## ronlat (Oct 19, 2008)

I had the same issue's with my Big E.  Fan speed would not change with change in heat setting and bearing on convection blower sounded bad.  Called Breckwell they said a bad batch of control boards were causing a overspeed of the blower which cuased the bearing to fail.  Breckwell replaced both control board and blower, now working great.  If the convection blower speed does not change with changing heat setting I would say the control board is bad. When you open the door with the stove on, after thirty seconds the stove will shut down because the vacum sensor does not sense a vacum, thats what it is supposed to do, safety first.


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## kinsmanstoves (Oct 19, 2008)

Hey Johnnywarm, that means the stove is doing what it should.  The stove runs with a negetive pressure sensor.  The small hole on the back of your firewall.  That same hole you are not to get near with you shop vac.  Did your dealer tell you that?

"I live my life to serve others."
Eric


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## Marster (Oct 19, 2008)

ronlat said:
			
		

> I had the same issue's with my Big E.  Fan speed would not change with change in heat setting and bearing on convection blower sounded bad.  Called Breckwell they said a bad batch of control boards were causing a overspeed of the blower which cuased the bearing to fail.  Breckwell replaced both control board and blower, now working great.  If the convection blower speed does not change with changing heat setting I would say the control board is bad.




Thanks for the confirmation on the control board. How did you get the parts from Breckwell without going through your dealer? Can I just call them and request the parts after they validate my warrenty?

The dealer I am dealing with wants the service guy to do it. Will cost me $130.00.  Plus they're so back logged on installs and cleanings who knows when they would get to me. It's very irratating. Just yesterday I had to shut the stove down, unplug it completely and restart. Then it was fine.


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## Marster (Oct 19, 2008)

kinsman stoves said:
			
		

> Yes the customer can be charged a fee for the service call.  Breckwell will pay a small fee for the technician to replace the part but it is around $20.00.  The Tech is not going to make it rich on your warranty repair.  The part will be covered by Breckwell.
> 
> I would bet the bearing in the blower is bad.  On the fella's question about not being able to switch levels that is a board issue and needs to be replaced.
> 
> ...



Eric,

The sevice man will charge me 130.00 to do the warrenty work. Which is nuts! Are you saying he will get 20.00 on top of what he charges me from Breckwell?


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## Marster (Oct 19, 2008)

kinsman stoves said:
			
		

> Hey Johnnywarm, that means the stove is doing what it should.  The stove runs with a negetive pressure sensor.  The small hole on the back of your firewall.  That same hole you are not to get near with you shop vac.  Did your dealer tell you that?
> 
> "I live my life to serve others."
> Eric



Ok, your spiked my curisity? What hole?


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## johnnywarm (Oct 19, 2008)

kinsman stoves said:
			
		

> Hey Johnnywarm, that means the stove is doing what it should.  The stove runs with a negetive pressure sensor.  The small hole on the back of your firewall.  That same hole you are not to get near with you shop vac.  Did your dealer tell you that?
> 
> "I live my life to serve others."
> Eric




No.lousy dealer.


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## kinsmanstoves (Oct 19, 2008)

Marster.

There is a small hole on the back wall in the upper left corner inside the firebox.  Stay the heck away from it with your shop vac.  It is on all the Breckwell stoves.

Eric


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## Marster (Oct 19, 2008)

kinsman stoves said:
			
		

> Marster.
> 
> There is a small hole on the back wall in the upper left corner inside the firebox.  Stay the heck away from it with your shop vac.  It is on all the Breckwell stoves.
> 
> Eric



Eric

I'll have to look for it once I shut the stove down.  

Thanks for the caution. Dealer didnt tell me about it either.

Marster


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## johnnywarm (Oct 19, 2008)

kinsman stoves said:
			
		

> Marster.
> 
> There is a small hole on the back wall in the upper left corner inside the firebox.  Stay the heck away from it with your shop vac.  It is on all the Breckwell stoves.
> 
> Eric




Thanks eric


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## ferrondave (Oct 30, 2008)

Well it's been 2 weeks and dealer sent a guy out to replace the convection motor,everything sounded good for the first hour on #2 setting , then it started to make a whistling noise again?
I hope it just needs to break in a bit?
If not guess who I'll be calling again =).
Anyone know if you can oil the bearings on the Big E convection motor or are they sealed ?
At work at moment so I won't fire it up again till I get home, if it's anything like the first motor it will only take a couple days before it starts grinding. 
The service guy said breckwell was not the only company that uses these motors and that other stove manufactures were having problems with them also?
I think he  :shut: said the motor was made by Fasco?
Does anyone know of another that will work on the Big E that any better?
Will keep ya posted.


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## StoveMiser (Oct 31, 2008)

Breckwell replaced mine the updated motor. Has a 029 in the part# instead of the 033. Check and see if they replaced it with the updated blower. I have 5 tons through this one and no problems.


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## johnnywarm (Oct 31, 2008)

StoveMiser said:
			
		

> Breckwell replaced mine the updated motor. Has a 029 in the part# instead of the 033. Check and see if they replaced it with the updated blower. I have 5 tons through this one and no problems.




Same here. look at the part number.the blowers dont look the same side by side.


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## ferrondave (Nov 22, 2008)

Latest update, been a few weeks stove is chugging along 24/7 still have a whistling sound on #2 setting, I think it may be just how the air is blowing thru the heat exchanger tubes?
Going to be hooking it up to a programable thermostat tomorrow, after that it will be just feed and clean and watch the oil truck drive by=).
Thx all for the replies.


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## StoveMiser (Nov 22, 2008)

Mine whistles mildly erratically on #2 as well. Kinda sucks, but I only run it on #2 during the beginning and the end of the season. To remedy this I put the high fan on. It runs a little louder, but no whistle and seems to get the heat around the house better. Not an issue now as we are well into #3 and #4 season. 14 degrees and windy outside now. Coldest room in the house is 68 degrees right now. F the oil man


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## johnnywarm (Nov 22, 2008)

Happy big Ein


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## kinsmanstoves (Nov 22, 2008)

Have you cleaned the blower?  

Does moving the damper help?


Eric


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## ferrondave (Nov 25, 2008)

Hooked the programmable Thermostat up over the weekend, running it on 1-3 flame seems a little lazy on 3, but I don't want to give it any more air do to the fact that on 1 it seems it barely is getting enough fuel to keep it going on the 1-4 trim rate.
Other than that I love it, it was 10 deg. outside and my 1300 sq ft house was stay steady at 70 deg first floor and 66 2nd floor and I saw the oil truck drive by again lol.


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## kinsmanstoves (Nov 25, 2008)

fire76 said:
			
		

> Hooked the programmable Thermostat up over the weekend, running it on 1-3 flame seems a little lazy on 3, but I don't want to give it any more air do to the fact that on 1 it seems it barely is getting enough fuel to keep it going on the 1-4 trim rate.
> Other than that I love it, it was 10 deg. outside and my 1300 sq ft house was stay steady at 70 deg first floor and 66 2nd floor and I saw the oil truck drive by again lol.



Thermostat does nothing on level #1

Tstat only works on on/off or high/low but you have to have it on level #2
On level 1-3 or 1-4 have the damper almost all the way in.
Level #2 or higher needs the damper adjusted for a good flame.
Keep good batteries in the tstat.  Change every 2 weeks.

Eric


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## ferrondave (Nov 25, 2008)

Eric, in response to your last post I am running it in Hi - Low mode ,1 being the low and 3 being the high , and when the stove is running in low, I have the trim rate set at it's highest being 1-4.
What I'm saying is that if I don't want the stove to either burn or blowout while in #1, I don't think I'm getting the best burn on #3, because I have to keep the damper adjusted for the # 1 setting.
Unless you know of a way for the damper to automatically adjust its self going from #1 to #3 on a Breckwell Big E  %-P .
That would be awesome, but I don't think the stove is capable.


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## kinsmanstoves (Nov 25, 2008)

fire76 said:
			
		

> Eric, in response to your last post I am running it in Hi - Low mode ,1 being the low and 3 being the high , and when the stove is running in low, I have the trim rate set at it's highest being 1-4.
> What I'm saying is that if I don't want the stove to either burn or blowout while in #1, I don't think I'm getting the best burn on #3, because I have to keep the damper adjusted for the # 1 setting.
> Unless you know of a way for the damper to automatically adjust its self going from #1 to #3 on a Breckwell Big E  %-P .
> That would be awesome, but I don't think the stove is capable.



In the hi/low mode the stove will only drop one level from what ever you set it at.  If you have the stove on #3 it will go down to #2 only.  If you have the stove set at #2 it will drop to #1 only.  Do not set it any higher than level #3.

Eric


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## ferrondave (Nov 25, 2008)

Hmm, this is what it says in the Big E manual.
HIGH/LOW THERMOSTAT MODE
• When engaged in this mode the stove will automatically switch
between two settings. When warm enough, it will switch to the
#1 or low setting. The room air blower will also slow to its lowest
speed.
• The Heat Level Advance setting on the bar graph will stay
where it was initially set. When the house cools below the
thermostat setting, the stove will switch to the feed rate of the
heat level advance setting.


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## buildingmaint (Nov 25, 2008)

Not wanting to make any one mad, but  from what I have seen with my stove in the  HIGH/LOW setting with a stat.
I run mine on the 1-3  , mode , 1 low , 3 the high , my owners manual , say it will drop two settings from high
to low , 3-1, 4-2 . or viceversa, 1-3, 2-4 . My stove is a 2005 model , if that makes any differance.


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## ferrondave (Nov 25, 2008)

Not getting mad here, just want to know how stove works, what I posted earlier was a direct copy from my 2008 manual, I haven't tried my stove on 2-4 setting but if thats how it works, that's even better.
What I said earlier in a post was that I thought I was not getting a clean burn on #3 because I had to keep the damper closed some what to keep the flame on the #1 setting from blowing out. :gulp:


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## kinsmanstoves (Nov 25, 2008)

buildingmaint said:
			
		

> Not wanting to make any one mad, but  from what I have seen with my stove in the  HIGH/LOW setting with a stat.
> I run mine on the 1-3  , mode , 1 low , 3 the high , my owners manual , say it will drop two settings from high
> to low , 3-1, 4-2 . or viceversa, 1-3, 2-4 . My stove is a 2005 model , if that makes any differance.



Yes there is a2004,  2005 manual and a 2007 manual.   But unless something has changed it only adjusts two setting not three.

http://breckwell.com/manuals.asp?model=BIG-E

Eric


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## kinsmanstoves (Nov 25, 2008)

fire76 said:
			
		

> Hmm, this is what it says in the Big E manual.
> HIGH/LOW THERMOSTAT MODE
> • When engaged in this mode the stove will automatically switch
> between two settings. When warm enough, it will switch to the
> ...




When engaged in this mode the stove will automatically switch
between two settings.

Eric


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## buildingmaint (Nov 26, 2008)

In your earlier post Eric you said on HIGH/LOW the stove will go from 3 HIGH to 2 LOW, dropping one leval , when it really drops two . 3 HIGH TO 1 LOW . Just don't want to confuse any new stove owners .


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## kinsmanstoves (Nov 26, 2008)

buildingmaint said:
			
		

> In your earlier post Eric you said on HIGH/LOW the stove will go from 3 HIGH to 2 LOW, dropping one leval , when it really drops two . 3 HIGH TO 1 LOW . Just don't want to confuse any new stove owners .



If you say so, then it does.  From what I seen it it will go from a 3 to 2 or 2 to 1.  Unless The boards I am looking at are not dropping down.

Eric


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## buildingmaint (Nov 26, 2008)

My owners manual says when the stove is warm enough it will switch to the  #1 or low setting , when in the HIGH/LOW setting. It does not say it will go from 3-1 or 4-2 , just says it will go to #1 when stove is warm enough . Now if you have  a board in front of you and you can tell that the manual is incorrect , I'll defer to your expertise . You can't beat the guy who does it every day  lol.


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## kinsmanstoves (Nov 26, 2008)

buildingmaint said:
			
		

> My owners manual says when the stove is warm enough it will switch to the  #1 or low setting , when in the HIGH/LOW setting. It does not say it will go from 3-1 or 4-2 , just says it will go to #1 when stove is warm enough . Now if you have  a board in front of you and you can tell that the manual is incorrect , I'll defer to your expertise . You can't beat the guy who does it every day  lol.



I have a few stoves in front of me but none hooked up to a tstat.  The last one I did have only moved down one number.  I will let you by me a beer.  I do have to run to Oil City soon to p/u a computer.  I will hold a chip till then.

Eric


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