enviro empress fuses

[mnoack]

We lost power last night. My stove is on a backup battery, just for the purpose of shutting it down correctly in the event of a power outage. I shut it down & everything went as expected. The battery was at about 9% when I turned it (the battery) off. At 5:30 am the power came back on & I turned the battery back on & started the stove. It ran about 10 minutes & then I heard the exhaust fan shut off. I came downstairs to find the stove off & smoking. This morning I pulled the circuit board & found the fuse blown.

I am somewhat surprised to find a blown fuse with the backup battery. It is possible that there was another surge after the power came back on, but I would have thought the battery would have protected it. Should I have waited for the battery to come back to 100% before turning it back on? Has anyone had experience with the Empress blowing fuses, & under what circumstances might this occur? The stove has been running very well, & as I say, it shut down perfectly normally. I vacuumed the exhaust baffles the last time I cleaned it so things are pretty clean. I haven't had a chance yet to go out & get a new fuse.

Also, does the Empress just have the one fuse on the circuit board? I seem to recollect that there might be two?

Mark

 

[mnoack]

I picked up some fuses at Radio Shack - 5amp 125v, which appear to be what was in there. The stove is blowing the fuses immediately - within a minute of turning it on. I thought the battery might be defective so I tried plugging the stove directly into the wall. Same result. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[mnoack]

One more time. I checked all of the wiring. It all looked fine except that where the thermostat wires are plugged together one of the connections was hooded with plastic & the other showed bare metal. This hangs out of the stove in such a way that it is possible that it was touching metal. I taped that up with electric tape & put in another fuse. This time the stove stayed running & the burn pot filled with pellets but the igniter never ignited. I tired twice but no fire.

So might a bad igniter have been blowing the fuses? If so, while I wait for a replacement part can I manually light the stove? What is the best way to do that?

Mark

 

[N-gree]

What kind of inverter are you using? A modified square wave type (cheaper) could be the culprit.

 

[mnoack]

It just a UPS, so I'm not sure if the question applies. (or maybe it does & this is a bad idea). I run the stove with the battery just to get enough time to shut it down so I don't get smoke if the power goes out.

 

[N-gree]

If it is the igniter, you can light it manually and disconnect the igniter. Never had an Empress in my store, but must be similar to other enviros. Just unplug the two wires that run to the igniter (look in your manual at the exploded view) and use a small propane torch, or lighting gel, or whatever to start the fire.

BTW, does your control board have 1 fuse or two?

Jason

 

[mnoack]

If it is the igniter, you can light it manually and disconnect the igniter. Never had an Empress in my store, but must be similar to other enviros. Just unplug the two wires that run to the igniter (look in your manual at the exploded view) and use a small propane torch, or lighting gel, or whatever to start the fire.

BTW, does your control board have 1 fuse or two?

Jason

1 fuse. It was built in November 2007.

 

[N-gree]

what's the wattage rating on the UPS anyway? thses stoves draw 400-500watts on startup, and about 100-120 watts running. test the igniter with a multimeter on ohms - should be a low reading but not 0 or infinite. if you disconnect the igniter and the stove still is popping fuses, i'd have a close look at the control board. if u r comfortable with doing so, unplug the stove from wall, pull plug from the circuit board and inspect both sides for heat damage (bubbled-up trace line). u may not see any, but if u want to go further, u can test the board separately by applying power directly to 2 leads on the board while out of the stove harness.

Jason

 

[mnoack]

what's the wattage rating on the UPS anyway? thses stoves draw 400-500watts on startup, and about 100-120 watts running. test the igniter with a multimeter on ohms - should be a low reading but not 0 or infinite. if you disconnect the igniter and the stove still is popping fuses, i'd have a close look at the control board. if u r comfortable with doing so, unplug the stove from wall, pull plug from the circuit board and inspect both sides for heat damage (bubbled-up trace line). u may not see any, but if u want to go further, u can test the board separately by applying power directly to 2 leads on the board while out of the stove harness.

Jason

It's 1000va rated at 600 watts, so I supposed if the power went out briefly again before it was back up to capacity it could have caused a low power problem. the circuit board looks good.

 

[N-gree]

did u try disconnecting the igniter and runnung the stove? again i've never had my hands on an empress, and i'll have to phone enviro tech support to confirm this, but startup cycle usually drops pellets for 1-2 minutes, stops auger and applies power to igniter for a few minutes, then continues with auger for a few minutes, and if the low limit switch doesn't get tripped on the stove won't continue running.

if you were not comfortable with hooking up the control board to power it up out of the stove harness (120v with alligator clips or probes, please be careful!), i would try running it with igniter unplugged. usually the fastest way to confirm the problem is swap boards, and i've seen more boards with issues than igniters, but your issue is a bit different with the UPS.

If u choose to stop being technician, u could get in touch with a dealer in your area who may be able to help you out - an experienced eye will usually see something not quite right and it may be a simple fix.

Jason

 

[mnoack]

igniter resistance is reading 11 - 12. The igniter does not glow at all on power-up at this point & the stove is no longer blowing fuses.

What is the best method for lighting with gel. It seems as though if I have the stove on, at initial start-up the pellets fall so fast they drown the fire. Should I put in a handful of pellets & wait until they are burning well to start up the stove? Also, I bought some pellet stove lighting gel from Lowes but I also have ignite-o packets that I use for starting campfires. Anyone know whether these will work ok?

 

[mnoack]

Sorry about posting a question that's been asked & answered so many times in the previous post. Just did a search & found the many many answers, & although the Empress does drop pellets with the door open, I was able to get the stove started with the unit on & the door open a bit for 5 minutes or so. No fuses blow yet & it seems to be burning normally.