I own two (2009) Lopi Yankee Pellet stoves and burn about 120 bags of pellets per year. I do all maintenance, etc. so am very familiar with the operations.
As most users have experienced, when the power goes out while the stoves are burning... it is a smokey and unpleasant experience. This will usually happen once during a winter (if the power goes out). We'll call this experience a 'Smoke Out'.
The house power has not gone out in quite a while. I run both stoves and they run normally. We run our stoves very simply... turn the switch to 'Manual', press 'Start'. When done, we turn the switch to 'OFF' and the stoves run the shutdown procedure.
I am having a problem with one of the stoves which I think is possibly the controller board going out.
We start the stoves, they start normally but a while later, the problem stove throws an error and we have a Smoke Out. We have to run around doing a bunch of stuff to deal with the Smoke Out (open lots of windows, take the burning firepot outside, setup fans to air out the building, etc.). When examining the LED error codes, it is full red and indicates an electrical problem. I check the controller board and the 5 amp fuse is blown. I replace the fuse and the stove starts normally but then I notice that the igniter is not working. So I take the stove apart and put in a new igniter (the old igniter shows no outward signs of problems when removed). Now the stove starts and runs normally for a few days.
Then this morning, the stove starts and ignites the pellets but a short while later the stove has a problem and causes another Smoke Out. The error code shown is the same as before. I check the controller board and the fuse does not appear blown but the little plastic cover which covers the fuse is charred where the plastic touches the metal fuse-holding tabs. I have to pry hard to get the plastic cover off the fuse. I put the fuse on my multimeter and it is not blown. Since the igniter ignited the pellets... at this point I'm assuming the igniter is still OK.
The stoves are 15 years old... does this sound like a controller board going out?
Thanks!
As most users have experienced, when the power goes out while the stoves are burning... it is a smokey and unpleasant experience. This will usually happen once during a winter (if the power goes out). We'll call this experience a 'Smoke Out'.
The house power has not gone out in quite a while. I run both stoves and they run normally. We run our stoves very simply... turn the switch to 'Manual', press 'Start'. When done, we turn the switch to 'OFF' and the stoves run the shutdown procedure.
I am having a problem with one of the stoves which I think is possibly the controller board going out.
We start the stoves, they start normally but a while later, the problem stove throws an error and we have a Smoke Out. We have to run around doing a bunch of stuff to deal with the Smoke Out (open lots of windows, take the burning firepot outside, setup fans to air out the building, etc.). When examining the LED error codes, it is full red and indicates an electrical problem. I check the controller board and the 5 amp fuse is blown. I replace the fuse and the stove starts normally but then I notice that the igniter is not working. So I take the stove apart and put in a new igniter (the old igniter shows no outward signs of problems when removed). Now the stove starts and runs normally for a few days.
Then this morning, the stove starts and ignites the pellets but a short while later the stove has a problem and causes another Smoke Out. The error code shown is the same as before. I check the controller board and the fuse does not appear blown but the little plastic cover which covers the fuse is charred where the plastic touches the metal fuse-holding tabs. I have to pry hard to get the plastic cover off the fuse. I put the fuse on my multimeter and it is not blown. Since the igniter ignited the pellets... at this point I'm assuming the igniter is still OK.
The stoves are 15 years old... does this sound like a controller board going out?
Thanks!
