Maxim m-175 lower auger jamming, any ideas?

[rowerwet]

I have not had any problems with my maxim before until I tried some fireside ultra pellets from HD, first I had bridging of the upper auger, which is incredeable as the hopper out port is 3"+ and the feed augers are in the 4" range. I had to clean out the hopper and dumped all 10 bags or so into the wading pool, I noticed the ultras were almost pencil diameter and 2" long quite a bit, the natures heat I have been burning were thinner and a half inch long at most. I mixed the ultras in the pool (only 3 bags) and put it all back in the hopper. this worked for a week.
Friday morning I woke up to the oil burner firing, I went out and found the lower auger motor was trying to turn but couldn't , I pulled out the clean out at the end of the upper auger, it was stuffed full of pellets, the upper auger had no problem turning despite being jammed with pellets. This is bad as the drop from the upper auger to the lower auger is the real burn back protection in a power outage, and the burn back sensor would have been useless anyway as it could not kick in the lower auger any way.
I think it may be my fireside ultra pellets so I found if I use the clean out hook tool and pry up and down on the aerator paddle in the burn cup the lower auger will turn again, I pop one wire off the upper auger motor and hold the auger button until the lower auger stops crunching pellets. right now I am going to let the hopper empty and then see how the stove does on good pellets agian, has anyone here ever taken the lower auger apart? If going back to goog pellets doesn't fix it I will call my dealer as the only other Idea I have is that the lower auger gear box is bad.

 

[tomcat391]

I too have been having the same problem. I have dealt with my dealer who has been out to my home now 4 times to fix the aerator, motor, and auger. I have even dealt with the product manager, Stuart Egg at CB and he too have "never" heard anyone else having the same problems I have had. Like other posts, I have invested approx $7500 and $3000 for pellets and it too has chewed right threw thew pellets.
With respect to the aerator, mine will pop off the shaft after about a weeks worth of use and I have narrow the aerator to the jamming of the auger. When you install your aerator there is a key way to slide it over the shaft of the auger and then you match that up to the key on the shaft. You then turn the aerator to the right and lock it into place. After I do this and is when the problems begin. After about 3 +hours and coming up to temp, the auger will jam at the aerator. However if you put the aerator on the shaft and slide it onto the key and into the keyway of the aerator and do NOT lock it, and just leave it, I have found it will not jam. So, by not locking it onto the shaft, the auger will turn and within a week, as the pellets push out of the auger and over the shaft of the aerator, it works the aerator off the shaft untill it falls off.

So, now I wanted to see if that by locking it on the shaft another way, it could possibly fix this. I bought a second aerator and tapped it and put in a 1/4" cupped allen set screw and slid it over the shaft and onto the key. I did not turn it to lock it on. I then tightened the set screw a small amount. Just enough to hold it on. Within a couple of hours, the auger had locked up and my house was cold again. Next, I use my fire gloves and turn the aerator to the left and I notice the pellets all bunched just like before and I manage to free the auger. I then remove the set screw and put the aerator back on the auger shaft and DO NOT lock it on. The Maxim ran fine. So, today the rep is coming out to replace the auger and aerator b/c Cb thinks that the auger screw was not designed right and when the unit heats up, the expansion of the auger jams itself??? I only see a jamming issue when I lock the aerator on the keyway. If I do not lock it, it run okay and it falls off with a week.

So, rather than loose my money in the stock market, I lost it in CB. I am writing the president of CB today asking for a full refund. Not sure what I will get, nothing, but at least I'll try.
I will post some pics of this issue later today

 

[harttj]

These units have a problem handling the pellets for some reason. I wonder if the quality of the pellets is the problem or the unit itself. I almost bought pellets this year, but then corn came down in price. Now I'm wondering if I should avoid pellets all together. I understand how frustrating it would be to constantly be fighting a unit that doesn't run reliable.

Tomcat, try running the unit without the aerator at all. This has been done with success as posted on iburncorn.

 

[tomcat391]

hear are the pics of the aerator in the burn pot on a weekly basis.

 

[rowerwet]

after I used up the last of the fireside ultras, I ran for a few days, then I got home from work one morning and found the fire out, and the auger jammed so bad it wouldn't turn until after I had pried on the aerator for quite a while. I called my dealer, he said it was most likly bad pellets. I figured this is just dodging stove problems, so I freed the auger, removed the burn pot, unplugged on wire to the upper auger motor, and ran all the pellets in the auger into a bucket. Sure enough I didn't have wet pellets, but I did have crumbly ones, those crumbles will jam the auger. I reassembled the stove and fired it up.
your post about the aerator got me thinking, since that night with the fire out I havn't had another one, I do find the motor trying to run and not turning quite often, if it goes for a while that way it will start turning on its own. when I hear the jam I open the door and pry on the aerator with the hook that comes with the stove, usualy that is all it takes. I havn't tried the loose aerator trick yet.
My thermometer alarm has gone off a few times since then (only when I am at work) but by the time my wife gets out to check on it the stove is burning normaly and the water is back to temp.
I just put the last two bags of natures heat freedom fuel in my stove, I have bought some blazers and will add them after the freedom fuel is gone. I think this will prove if it is a stove problem or a pellet problem.

 

[tomcat391]

Call Stuart b/c the augers were manufactured wrong. And don't take no for an answer. CB needs to supply a new auger and aerator.

Good luck.
Tom

 

[jdeere5220]

Rowerwet-

How did you set up an alarm to know if the boiler is running below temp? I would like to do the same.

I put a snap-disk on my furnace HX and used that to auto-switch to propane if my boiler went out, but now I'm putting a relay on my main circulation pump so the furance HX sensor isn't going to work anymore (it's going to cool down, that's the point). I want the circ pump on a relay because on warm days I'm not getting good efficiency and my house is getting too warm from line losses.

So anyway I basically need a more direct sensor on the Maxim and sounds like you have it figured out.

 

[rowerwet]

I got a maverick remote barbecue thermometer, after a few days of trying different locations for the remote probe (it kept loosing the connection to the remote, and water in the wiring made the probe read up around 300*) I ended up taping the probe to a copper pipe in my basement that was down stream from my HX for the house. This allows me to see how much the house is pulling from the boiler and the recovery time as well. on the maverick there is a temp that you set for an alarm to let you know when the meat is done, I set this 15* below the normal temp drop during a cycle. ( so when the water hits 146* the alarm goes off) this locatin also would let me know if the circulator on the OWB failed (like the furnace kicking in wouldn't be a good clue) and I have never lost the connection between base and remote this way. The temp isn't as exact as if the probe was in the water, but it is close.

As for the auger turning problem, I found that pellets easily wedge between the aerator and the bottom of the burn pot, if the aerator stops with it wedged against a pellet it has trouble turning for the next cycle, then the pellet burns and it is no longer jammed (this only happens at the feed end of the burn pot, as the rest is coals and ashes) BUT now there are extra pellets in the drop from the upper to the lower auger (power failure burnback protection) THIS IS SOMETHING CB NEEDS TO FIX! lowering the burnpot or changing the shape of the wide edges of the aerator could help.

I use a thermocube on my OWB circulator now, it comes on at 35* and goes off at 45*, this works for me this time of year as I have burned up all my pellets and am running on kerosene from work. I have been daydreaming about installing a kerosene/oil burner of some sort in the firebox of my maxim (mounted on the firebox door) so I could heat the house with all the fire outside. (have the oil kick in automaticly if the pellets fail to relight with the propane) I wonder how efficent the system could be. (my furnace is old and every year when they come to clean it they give me another season... mabey)