# Whitfield Advantage II Pellet stove exhaust fan problem



## Bluenewhall (Jan 17, 2011)

I have about a ten year old Whitfield Advantage II Pellet stove.   This has been a great stove for me for awhile as it heats my entire 1600 sq. ft. home to a warm temperature of about 68 - 72 degrees.  Recently I have had some issues with the stove going out and smoking alot.  A couple of days ago it became impossible for me to keep a fire going in the grate.  It starts to burn and when the coals are red hot and the pellets start coming down, a gust of wind puts the fire out.  Then the auger keeps feeding pellets down causing a "smoker" effect.  I have thoroughly cleaned every part of the stove and vent pipes, hooked it back up and still the same problem.

Upon close examination of turning the stove on with the panels off the back and side of the stove; it appears that the exhaust fan is not turning on.  As it gets hot when I allowed it to run, I believe that it is getting power, but the fan never turned at all.  Hoping it was just dirty I took it apart and was surprised to find out that this fan was supposed to be oiled at two small holes with rubber stoppers, every six months.  I have never oiled this so I fear that perhaps the fan motor has burned out.

My questions are, first would this fan turn on automatically when the stove is started?

Would this fan not working cause the fire in the grate to go out in the manner described?

Can this fan motor be purchased and replaced on a stove that is at least ten years old?

This is the only problem I can find with this powerful and so far trustworthy stove.  Am I on track here?


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## SmokeyTheBear (Jan 17, 2011)

You can get a new motor and impeller.

If the combustion blower doesn't operate the stove will loose its fire.

That motor should turn on when you hit the on switch.

ETA: A link to one source

http://woodheatstoves.com/combustion-blowers-c-292_90_110.html?zenid=31d7582a92oidhk5e8hqlruoq7


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## Bluenewhall (Jan 17, 2011)

Well the combustion fan works.  The fan that doesn't seem to be working is the exhaust fan.  This is on  the left side of the stove, when standing in front.  Will the exhaust fan not working cause these kinds of problems.  And does it turn on when power is turned on?

Thanks for your help.


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## SmokeyTheBear (Jan 17, 2011)

Bluenewhall said:
			
		

> Well the combustion fan works.  The fan that doesn't seem to be working is the exhaust fan.  This is on  the left side of the stove, when standing in front.  Will the exhaust fan not working cause these kinds of problems.  And does it turn on when power is turned on?
> 
> Thanks for your help.



The exhaust fan is the combustion fan.

ETA:  If the combustion fan is running, you likely have an almost fully plugged stove; the vacuum switch, hose, or barbs is respectively, bad, plugged or broken or off a connector, plugged; or the Proof of fire sensor has failed.


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## chris288 (Jan 17, 2011)

motor on the left is exhaust / combustion fan, motor on the right is room distribution fan. My whitfield had the same problem, the replacement whifield one is ~200.00 the aftermarket fasco is ~ 160.00. Takes all of 15 minutes to replace it. good luck


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## Wood Heat Stoves (Jan 17, 2011)

lets get you started with the svc manual...

you say adv. 2, 10 yrs old...

do you mean its a wp2? they stopped making the advantage 2 at serial number 18,145(in th early 90's..)

either 2t, or 2tclassic

pm me the make, serial number, and your email address for a copy of the repair book


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## Bluenewhall (Jan 17, 2011)

Well, you are correct it is a Whitfield WP2 Advantage.  I believe the serial # is WH-62342.
email address is davidmferrante@hotmail.com
Thanks for your help.


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## Pellet-King (Jan 17, 2011)

When was the last time you took your stove all apart for a good cleaning?
If you combustion fan isnt moving you would get a very lazy flame, like the same as if the door was open.


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## Snowy Rivers (Jan 17, 2011)

If the fan has power but is not running, then the motor is shot.

These stoves only have two fans, the exhaust/combustion fan and the room air fan.

The exhaust fan pulls the air through the firepot and then upthrough the heat exchangers and out through the fan and the vent.

Without that fan the stove will not carry a fire.

Just be sure that the voltage to the fan motor is good.

Likely the motor is shot.

Snowy


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## Bluenewhall (Jan 17, 2011)

I clean it out weekly and monthly.  With this episode the entire stove and piping have been thoroughly cleaned.  Still the flame is lazy and goes out from the pellets falling on the flame after a few minutes of burning.  Then it smokes up wicked.  Certainly the fan needs to be replaced if it doesn't turn.

I even cleaned out both fans.

Cleanest the stove has ever been.


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## SmokeyTheBear (Jan 17, 2011)

You can test that fan out of the stove, if it turns at full power then the problem is likely somewhere else like the controller.


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## arnash (Feb 5, 2011)

Maybe it's possible to by-pass the stove's electrical circuitry and connect a live cord directly to the fan motor to see if it runs when not subject to a possibly bad controller.  If it can be done, and the fan works, then you'll have been saved some unnecessary work.  
   In my limited experience with my Advantage WP2 sometimes the combustion/exhaust fan doesn't turn on when I push the switch, but it takes a short while to get started.  Yesterday it did that and made some ugly sounds when it finally started turning.  Today it wouldn't start at all so I pulled out the frame that the burn-pot sits in and had a look at the fan.  It was free-turning in both directions.  I didn't do anything other than empty the ash drawer and then tested the fan 3 times and it started right away all three times.  Then I started the stove and all was normal, but I don't have a clue about why the fan had started so slowly before and then would start normally.  Anyone???

   You said a gust of wind put your fire out after it was running normally.  You must have had one hell of a high-pressure breeze going into your exhaust pipe for that to happen, because it would have to over-come the force of the exhaust fan.  But my guess is that the gust of wind was from a mass of pellets coming the shut along with the "bow-wave" of air that they push ahead of them.   With the fan not turning, the fire isn't hot enough to sustain combustion, which explains why the fire is smokey and then goes out.  
   Hope you can get your fan motor running in place of replacement.  Maybe, if the impeller is stuck and doesn't turn freely with a little finger push, then something might be caught in it, jamming it.  As for the oil that the motor didn't get in the past, mine was probably never oiled and its serial number is less than 7,000 (1988ish) and it still runs fine (though I did give it a few drops during my first maintenance session).  So unless it had some catastropic electrical failure, it has probably not gone bad on you.  If the bearings were going bad I'd expect that it would give lots of advanced warning in the form of ugly noise for days or weeks prior to failure.


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