# sweet home stove works?



## rockmom (Mar 2, 2014)

does anyone know anything about sweet home stoveworks model 300?


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## Bioburner (Mar 2, 2014)

rockmom said:


> does anyone know anything about sweet home stoveworks model 300?


Post a picture, some stoves are rebranded.


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## rockmom (Mar 2, 2014)

ugh...my smart phone is way too smart! trying to upload a picture...bare with me pls.


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## begreen (Mar 2, 2014)

Is this a wood stove?


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## rockmom (Mar 2, 2014)

begreen said:


> Is this a wood stove?



no...pellet stove.


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## BrotherBart (Mar 2, 2014)

High Sierra bought the Sweet Home brand from Sierra in Virginia. Once again it is now back to Sierra Products but in California. They have changed the pellet stove line to "EasyFire" and use the Sweet Home name on their pellet grills now.


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## begreen (Mar 2, 2014)

Yes, looks like an old fellow. Here are the pictures.


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## Bioburner (Mar 2, 2014)

I sent off a email to get more info as they have a 12volt stove in the lineup


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## rockmom (Mar 2, 2014)

u guys are great! thanks so much! I replaced the auger motor yday but it doesnt run with any rhyme or reason. Also fans dont kick on or anything. I am worried the brain board went out but it was ok when I took the old motor off....I have no paperwork on this stove so cant really look it up or troubleshoot. I am learning about all aspects of fixing and replacing in my home since my husband passed away. So your help is so very appreciated. :


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## begreen (Mar 2, 2014)

Is there a vacuum switch on the unit? If so, examine that safety system carefully. You should be able to remove the hose from the vacuum switch and determine it is not plugged. The easiest was to do this is suck gently on it. If air passes through the hose then examine the switch itself by jumpering the terminals across it. Unplug the stove first, this is a live circuit. If that restores proper auger and stove operation then replace the switch. If no air passes through the hose then there is a clog that needs to be cleared.


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## rockmom (Mar 3, 2014)

do not see a vacuum switch.


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## Bioburner (Mar 3, 2014)

From what little I have gleaned from their site, the stove shares components with the Thelin stoves. Not good. No vacuum switch. Just two sensors. What I believe to be proof of fire and over fire. The board upgrade if the same as the Thelin is around $600 as there was a thread on this subject of how ugly the prices were for fan and board for the Thelin now. Rockmom what did you pay for the new fan assembly?


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## rockmom (Mar 3, 2014)

the auger motor was 107.00 with shipping about 125.


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## Bioburner (Mar 3, 2014)

rockmom said:


> the auger motor was 107.00 with shipping about 125.


That's not bad. Wish you could post more of the model numbers etc of the stove to see if could track down manuals etc


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## rockmom (Mar 3, 2014)

I will get what i can and post it shortly. Thanks for all of this.


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## rockmom (Mar 3, 2014)

date of mfr...08-88
serial #...PF 00453
Solitaire PFA 2000

Does any of this help? if you know exactly what I need to look for it would help. there is a lot of written material on a sticker on the back of stove. the small box with the "brain" in it says model 300.


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## rockmom (Mar 3, 2014)

I sent an email to Sierra...the response was less than polite saying that although the purchased sweet home they have no help to offer and then a link to their catalog...so that was a dead end.


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## Bioburner (Mar 3, 2014)

I e mailed them for dealer locate and was taken to a web site too. No support for the stoves. Seem to be pushing pellet fired grills.


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## rockmom (Mar 3, 2014)

Bioburner said:


> I e mailed them for dealer locate and was taken to a web site too. No support for the stoves. Seem to be pushing pellet fired grills.


Oh well...at least we tried. I am discouraged. And cold.


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## BrotherBart (Mar 3, 2014)

The company name has been sold at least four times since the original Sierra Stove Works went belly up down in Harrisburg, VA in 1989. When they went under they were building mail carts for the Postal Service trying to stay afloat. I heated this place with one of their wood stoves from 1985 to 2006.

No surprise that they aren't supporting that old stove. Heck finding anybody that supports a 26 year old anything is kinda tough.


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## rockmom (Mar 3, 2014)

should I give up?


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## Bioburner (Mar 3, 2014)

rockmom said:


> should I give up?


It does not look good. Company has been flipped to many times to find a thread of support.


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## BrotherBart (Mar 3, 2014)

Yes. I am still wondering how you figured out what auger motor to buy.

It is gonna be a money pit. And we haven't even asked about how you are/plan to vent it yet.


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## webbie (Mar 3, 2014)

Pellet stoves of that day were (mostly) not made to last longer than about 20 years. It's time to let that one go...unfortunately. Maybe some engineering type will want it to restore.......


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## BrotherBart (Mar 3, 2014)

Ah. I see that the pics BG posted are your stove and piping.


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## rockmom (Mar 3, 2014)

I took the auger motor off and went to Grainger and ordered a like motor....not made for pellet stoves but is exactly the same. what has me so confused is that it worked fine when the old motor went out. now suddenly nothing! Ugh...


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## franz28 (Mar 5, 2014)

Browsing the web trying to find info on a Harman......came across this thread and signed up in order to reply.

I have this stove, and it still works great.  When I get home, I will scan the owners manual and try to load it on here ( if I can figure out how to use these sites).  You might not find your troubleshooting answer in the manual though because it's pretty basic (but you might).  I have 2 pellet stoves in my home.  A brand new Harman heats upstairs, and this Sweet Home PFA heats downstairs.  I compare them to looking under the hood of a 55 Chevy (the Sweet Home) and a 2013 Chevy (the Harman).  Pull off the main cover by unbolting all of those bolts along the back seam and underneath, then sliding it off, and what you find is a very roomy interior (like under the hood of the '55) where the fans and connecting wires are.  If you're pretty good with fixing things, you can figure out problems on this Sweet home.  The bigger problem is finding parts-----some parts.  The "brains" you refer to consists of the circuit board inside the box bolted ont the back.  Not much repair you can do with that except replace it---if it's really the problem, and if you can find a replacement.  All of the fan motors and blowers are used on other stove models or appliances. They are not 100% unique to Sweet Home stoves, and you could find them the same way you found the auger motor (take it to a pellet stove dealer and have them match it.)  If the fan you're saying is out is the distribution fan (there are two distro fans and one combustion fan), the interior is so roomy that you could probably install a different model if the original is not available.  By the way, those distribution fans are old school and has to be oiled as part of your annual maintenence.

So far I have replaced my auger motor (it's the same motor used in current models of other brands) and thermostadt disc by having stove dealers match it.  I have also replaced my burn pot insert by having a metal worker fashion one out from scratch (and he did a great job).

To trouble shoot what you're having with your stove, I would say pull off that main cover like I explained above, and then trace all wires leading from the "brain" to the motors and thermo sensor.  It might be just a disconnected wire connector that got knocked loose when you was installing the auger motor.  If all wires are OK and all fans check out (run a jump wire to it), only then would I rule the brains (circuit board) as being out.

If the stove is not starting up because it went into over fire (like another reader suggested ), the "over fire" LED would be lit up on top of the brains box.  Reset it by turning the main switch off, then turning it back on.

Keep in mind that when you light it, the stove will run for 7 minutes and then shut off.  It will do this every 7 minutes until the thermo disc senses a high enough heat (average about 3 times).

By the way, I bought this stove brand new from a stove dealer in WA back in 90 or 91.  At the time, Sweet Home was a company out of Oregon.  They went out of business sometime in the mid to late 90s I think.


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## rockmom (Mar 5, 2014)

omg! u may be the answer to prayers! I will get to it and stay in contact with u. I know little or less about how to work this thing. ur knowledge is valuable. the overfire has never lit up. but NOTHING runs. except the auger...it ran beautifully when we shut it down because the auger motor was dragging so much and so weak it just kept clogging up. if u cant scan the paperwork i will gladly pay to have u copy it and mail it to me. thank you so much for the help....I will get to work on it asap!


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## rockmom (Mar 5, 2014)

when u light it what is the majic that makes it run for 7 minutes. maybe I have something set wrong...I have a feeling it has something to do with thermostat issues...idk. but I am tearing into it as we speak.


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## franz28 (Mar 5, 2014)

I'm attaching the scanned manual.  Looking at my stove when I got home, my model is the PFA 2000.  I doubt there's much difference in between it and your 300 model though, and the way the parts work are probably similar if not exactly the same.  

If your auger is running but not the fans, here's how I'd do my troubleshoot:

Apparently it's not a blown fuse because the auger runs (fuse is located under that twisty cap on the side of the brain box).

Make sure the distribution fan is turned all the way up.  The knob is located on the back panel's left side as you're looking at it from the back.

Make sure your high and low combustion fan knobs are set somewhere above 0.  It is located on top of e brain box

Hit the START button.  Do you hear the fans running now?  If not........

Remove the main body cover like I explained earlier and trace all wires.  One of them may have become accidently unplugged at it's connector or harness.

As for the question in your second post, the fans should start up and begin it's initial 7 minutes as soon as you hit the START button.  Keep in mind that if the speed on the distribution fan's knob is turned down, the fans would run slow enough so that it's not audible.  Turning it all the way up will let you hear it.  When the stove shuts off at the end of 7 minutes, just hit the START button again before the flame dies out.  After about 3 7-minute cycles like this, the thermostadt will sense it hot enough to keep it running until you shut it down manually or until it runs out of pellets.


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## BrotherBart (Mar 5, 2014)

Hearth.com  strikes again.


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## rockmom (Mar 6, 2014)

I can't find he disributtion fan knob...


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## franz28 (Mar 6, 2014)

rockmom said:


> I can't find he disributtion fan knob...


 
If you were standing behind your stove and facing it, the distribution fan knob would be mounted on the left side of the back panel, or below and to the left of the "brains" box.  It's just a standard plastic knob about 1.5 inches in diameter, so it's obvious enough that you can't miss it.......unless the knob has fallen off and gotten lost?  If so, look for the tiny half-moon metal stub that the knob is supposed to be slipped on to.

Looking at the pictures of that stove posted on the previous page, everything I can see on that stove looks identical to mine even though you're saying it's a 300 model.  So with that, I would assume that everything else that I cannot see---like the distribution knob---will more than likely be in identical places as my 2000 model. The picture of the stove's backside is dark enough where I cannot make out everything that's on it, but the distribution motor knob should be in the bottom left quarter of the picture, or on the left side of that "brain" box. 

The manual I uploaded calls this distribution fan(s) "circulation fan(s)."  Just thought I point that out in case you're trying to bounce things off the manual and I've confused you by using different wordings.


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## franz28 (Mar 6, 2014)

If you find the knob or the stub, turning it counter-clockwise until it clicks and stops would put the fans in the OFF position.  Turning it clockwise past that click turns the fans on.  Just past the click puts the fans in the higest speed and you would definitely hear it runnning.  The more you turn it clockwise from that point, the lower the fan speed will be.  All the way clockwise until it can't turn no more will have the fans in it's lowest speed setting, and you probably would not hear it running.  When my fans are put in the lowest speed, I can't hear it.


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## rockmom (Mar 6, 2014)

it doesnt have the knob or the stud for it. i will try to post a better pic. if my phone wont let me can u msg me a phone number privatly and i can text it ti u?


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## franz28 (Mar 6, 2014)

The knob or stud is pretty obvious in that area, so if you can't see it, then it's just simply not there on your stove.  I'm thinking of two possibilities why......
Perhaps this is a difference in your model from mine, and your stove's knob is located on a different part of the stove?  But then again, that knob would still be obvious even to an unfamiliar person trying to use that stove.....which is why I don't believe---yet---that this is the case.

Another explanation (the case I think it might be) is that the switch assembly came loose and fell inside the cover of the stove.  Look in that area where I said it was supposed to be.  Do you see a small empty hole, about 1/4 to 1/2 inch in diameter?  If so, then that's where your switch is supposed to be, but it fell inside the cover of the stove.  This switch/knob assembly is just a simple variable speed dial switch.  In other words, it looks sort of like a smaller cheap version of the turn dial controls you find on kitchen stoves.  There's the plastic knob which you can pull off.  If you pull that knob it off, you'll see the half-moon metal stud that the plastic knob was attached to.  Around that metal stud is a hex nut which holds the switch in place on the console.  If you remove that hex nut and push on the stud, the entire switch will fall behind the console.......and then you gotta remove the console cover to retrieve it.

On this pellet stove (on mine) that hex nut is cheap and comes loose quite often.  Every now and then I'd have to pull the plastic knob off, re-tighten the nut (using fingers only---it is cheap), then put the knob back on.  There's good chance that your switch, with it's already missing knob, lost it's hex nut and fell into the back of the stove.  To retrieve it, you will have to remove the main cover as I explained in my first post.  Once you retrieve it, make sure the wire is still connected to it before you mount it back into it's hole (with a new hex nut) on the back panel of the stove.

But in any case at all, there HAS TO BE a knob switch somewhere for those distribution fans.  If you have that main cover taken off, you will see the two fans.  One fan on each side of the stove pointing forward towards the heat exchangers.  Follow  the wires coming out of those fans and it will lead you to the switch.  Like I said, it's a '55 Chevy under there.  The only wires are the ones leading to the 2 distro fans, the auger, the thermo disc, and the switches, so it's not confusing like the spagetti wirings you'll find inside "2014 Chevy" pellet stoves.


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## franz28 (Mar 6, 2014)

rockmom said:


> date of mfr...08-88
> serial #...PF 00453
> Solitaire PFA 2000
> 
> Does any of this help? if you know exactly what I need to look for it would help. there is a lot of written material on a sticker on the back of stove. the small box with the "brain" in it says model 300.


 
Looking back at earlier posts, I see that you do have the model PFA 2000.  I misread your "model 300" as being the "brain box" number. 

Anyway, so this verifies that you indeed have the exact same stove models as I do, and the manual I uploaded is the exact manual for your stove.  With that said, I'm more convinced now that your distribution fan switch is located right where I said it should be, but the hex nut came off and it fell inside.


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