Santa Fe MBK Convection Blower tried everything

[alex1982]

Please help - at wits end here: After an incomplete repair job by a local dealership, I have read every post on this forum and elsewhere about my stove’s (freestanding santa fe I-MBK) issue, which is failing to start the convection blower when its up to temp. The repair guy put power to the blower to establish that the motor itself is fine, promised to come back with parts and then ghosted me. I have since changed snap disc #1 twice (from two sources), tried reseating the control box and now have even resorted to buying and installing new control box. None of this had any effect on the way the issue presents itself: normal startup, call light comes on when I turn up the thermostat, fire starts normally (stove is clean including chimney) green light and then red light inside the control box come on in sequence but convection blower fails to start. I have tested the motor again myself by jumping snap disc 1 - seems to work flawlessly. I don’t know what else to try here - the manual
makes it sound like I have eliminated all
possible sources of the problem. Thanks for any insights.

 

[johneh]

Did you try heating the snap disc say with a hair dryer on high it has to reach 110
to 120 Deg to turn the convection blower on

 

[alex1982]

Did you try heating the snap disc say with a hair dryer on high it has to reach 110
to 120 Deg to turn the convection blower on

I have not tried that but have replaced
the disc with a new oem part as well as an aftermarket part. Both say 110 F on them as the old one did. Do you mean so as to test if the replacement discs are broken too? Maybe I don’t follow. The stove itself gets well above that temp - the red light comes on which is multiple hundred degree operating temp.

 

[johneh]

All I am saying is if you jump out that switch and the fan works
The switch is no good or if it is mounted over a hole in the exhaust
path that the area it is mounted in is clogged with ash or has a covering
of ash, the switch will not read the exhaust temp until it gets very hot .
Ash is a fantastic insulator. Try clearing the mounting hole with a
screwdriver or even a pencil.

 

[alex1982]

All I am saying is if you jump out that switch and the fan works
The switch is no good or if it is mounted over a hole in the exhaust
path that the area it is mounted in is clogged with ash or has a covering
of ash, the switch will not read the exhaust temp until it gets very hot .
Ash is a fantastic insulator. Try clearing the mounting hole with a
screwdriver or even a pencil.

Ah I see. Well Snap Disc 1 is just sitting up against the metal plating - it has two screw holes for the bracket hold it in place but there is no mounting hole underneath the disc. That seems to be the case on all the pictures I have seen from this model too. But I see your logic, that the disc might work but doesnt get triggered for some reason either due to my installation or buildup somewhere inside the guts of the stove. I will take a look. maybe I can also measure the surface temp of the plating somehow to see if it gets to that temp. Thanks for the idea.

 

[alex1982]

Strange result: Thanks again, johneh for your suggestion to put a hair dryer on snap disc 1 to see if it triggers. That did indeed work and the convection blower came on but turned off again, a minute or sonafter switching the hair drier off. That makes sense. However, after that, the stove didn’t reach the red light temp and shut down. Now the call light wont come on when I start it up. I figure somehow testing disc one this way triggered disc 2 or 3 - I tried manually resetting 3. 2 is supposed to reset itself. No luck so far to get the stove to feed. Checked the fuse, it’s fine. I have no idea what to make of this at all. Somehow the stove is not coming up to temp, I guess, even though it did advance from green to red. I also investigated your idea about ash buildup: snap 1 is directly mounted onto the metal of the firebox and the other side of that wall is clean. I considered wether the thermocouple is faulty and the red light wasnt accurate but it still should trigger disc 1 and turn on the blower: I ran it for 20 mins before and had a good flame. I hope I can get it back to starting up. but any other insight is much appreciated.

 

[Ssyko]

The stove will have to cool down. If you pull the plug for a min or so it should reset. When you plug in the combustion motor will run for 12-15 min then shut off. Then turn up your thermostat and see if it comes up to temp and runs normal.

Also check your door seals, ash-pan seals, etc. im feeling you dont have enough vacuum to draw the flame up to temp

 

[alex1982]

The stove will have to cool down. If you pull the plug for a min or so it should reset. When you plug in the combustion motor will run for 12-15 min then shut off. Then turn up your thermostat and see if it comes up to temp and runs normal.

Also check your door seals, ash-pan seals, etc. im feeling you dont have enough vacuum to draw the flame up to temp

I have not been able to get the call
light to come back on. Did what you suggested above. Also waited a day. Then tried to eliminate any new issues: jumped both the thermostat as suggested by the manual when the call light doesn’t come on, as well as snap 3 l, which controls the pellet auger as far as I understand. Nothing. only the exhaust fan comes on. Im 300 bucks and 2 months of daily tinkering into this and am now thinking this stove is done. Any other ideas much appreciated.

 

[Ssyko]

Na they are just so hard to troubleshoot over the internet and schedules. We will get it figured out 😎. By the way is the fuse good?

 

[alex1982]

Na they are just so hard to troubleshoot over the internet and schedules. We will get it figured out 😎. By the way is the fuse good?

It seems completely intact - the pictures I saw online of blown ones looked like there was scorching and deformation of the metal strip, neither of which is the case here. My best theory at the moment is that the auger motor randomly got fried in addition to whatever else is going on, but I don't really know how to test for that. Putting power to the motor seems beyond my abilities. The tech that did that for the convection blower had some sort of rig he carried to do that.

 

[Ssyko]

A few things to double check.

1: thermocouple is touching end of ceramic tube.
2: thermocouple tube sticks out over the burn pot at least an inch.
3: good outlet, plugged into stove securely.
4: fuse is good.
5: #3 snap disc is for overheat protection, controls power to stove in normal conditions, kills power when stove goes over temp..
6: check your hopper lid safety switch.

 

[Ssyko]

It seems completely intact - the pictures I saw online of blown ones looked like there was scorching and deformation of the metal strip, neither of which is the case here. My best theory at the moment is that the auger motor randomly got fried in addition to whatever else is going on, but I don't really know how to test for that. Putting power to the motor seems beyond my abilities. The tech that did that for the convection blower had some sort of rig he carried to do that.

Im just trying to figure out why you have no call light. If The auger is cooked it will not feed. But you should still have power