USSC Stove Model 6041 TP auger issue

[BarkBoy]

So I purchased a replacement auger motor

Amazon product ASIN B004V7FQCU
It doesnt seem to be feeding the pellets in the correct direction. very little outflow and pellets seem to be climbing up the auger. Some pellets are coming out but i think its just by luck that they are falling thru. We got it going but the agitator eventully burned out.

Am i doing something wrong. When putting my specs in the "does this fit your model" it said it was a fit

 

[ARC]

It doesnt seem to be feeding the pellets in the correct direction

If rotating the wrong way just unsrew stator and flip it over.

https://woodgears.ca/reader/walters/reverse_motor.html

 

[SidecarFlip]

I think you mean 'flip the field laminations 180 degrees. Shaded pole motors all reverse by physically flipping the field laminations and it's a darn good time to apply some additional lubricant (light machine oil) to the outboard armature bearing). The inboard is lubricated by the grease in the gearbox and that should be addressed as well but that is for another time. The recent influx of China made gearboxes leave a lot to be desired as far as internal lubrication. Suffice to say that a couple small gobs of cheap Chinese vaseline won't cut the mustard very long.

Sysko and I both modify the quad reduction gearboxes (Firepot Pete does as well) to greatly increase their useful life.

 

[BarkBoy]

Ok I guess I am an idiot, it looks as though its turning the correct way but I think the motor I have now is a 1.0 RPM instend of a 1.5 and the unit was set at the lowest feed setting.

I turned it up all the way and it ran for an hour and went out as it seems the pellets arent feeding fast enough. I just checked the online manual, I guess its possible to run with the 1.0 if i adjust the settings? Changed c-3 to 6.25 from 5 should that make a difference?

 

[BarkBoy]

Ok I guess I am an idiot, it looks as though its turning the correct way but I think the motor I have now is a 1.0 RPM instend of a 1.5 and the unit was set at the lowest feed setting.

I turned it up all the way and it ran for an hour and went out as it seems the pellets arent feeding fast enough. I just checked the online manual, I guess its possible to run with the 1.0 if i adjust the settings? Changed c-3 to 6.25 from 5 should that make a difference?

Ok guys, gonna need some help still if you can offer

After turning up C-3 to 6.25 feed I let it run for about an hour on 4 and came back in the gargage to the photos below. Not much flame but a ton of smoke and pellets shooting everywhere like a sparkler. My exterior pipe was shooting smoke like crazy.

My damper was open about an inch. Did i feed it too much? Is my agitator not agitating enough? Appreicate any advice.....Thanks

 

[Ssyko]

Yeah thats a lot of air (exhaust) fireflies galore! But it still looks like some poor burning pellets, large particles of ash. Have you tried any other brands?

 

[BarkBoy]

Yeah thats a lot of air (exhaust) fireflies galore! But it still looks like some poor burning pellets, large particles of ash. Have you tried any other brands?

I have not tried burning anything else and I hope thats not the case, I have like 2 tons of it.

It seemed to be burning fine initially just would run out of pellets in the agitator bowl. I cranked it up and thats what you see in the photos

 

[Ssyko]

The picture of the stove burning indicates it has a lot of air blowing pellets out still burning almost contradicts the pic of the burn pot full of ash even with an agitator. Im at a loss other than poor pellets. I would try a couple diff brands and see if it makes a difference. What does the flame look like while it’s burning?

 

[BarkBoy]

The picture of the stove burning indicates it has a lot of air blowing pellets out still burning almost contradicts the pic of the burn pot full of ash even with an agitator. Im at a loss other than poor pellets. I would try a couple diff brands and see if it makes a difference. What does the flame look like while it’s burning?
View attachment 275539

When I intially left the garage it looked like a nice campfire flame similar to the top pic in your image. It seemed to be buring pretty good but like i said the hopper wasnt feeding fast enough and my agitator was empty after about 45 mins. I went back out and turned c-3 up to 6.25 on level 4. Let it go for an hour and came out and seen the sparks like crazy the agitator was filled up with red hot pellets sparking everywhere with a very small flame. Smoke everywhere outside

 

[Ssyko]

Sidecar and ARC are more educated on the trim settings than i am. But sounds like your original fire just needed a lil bit more exhaust air. What was C:3 originally at before going to 6.25? Can it goo down to 6.0?

 

[BarkBoy]

Sidecar and ARC are more educated on the trim settings than i am. But sounds like your original fire just needed a lil bit more exhaust air. What was C:3 originally at before going to 6.25? Can it goo down to 6.0?

Yes, from what I am understanding from the manual the heat settings 3-5 are set at 5.00. My dish would burn out in 45 mins to an hour running on setting 4-5. I moved it up to 6.25 (i think 6.50 is max) but i could move to any number incrementally from 5.00 to 6.50. Keep in mind I did this because I believe my replacemnt motor is a 1.0 rpm as opposed to the 1.5 rpm that was initially in there. Thats why I thought I wasnt getting enough pellets in the burner to keep up.

Not sure if there is anything else I should be adjusting ( agitator speed etc.)

 

[SidecarFlip]

First things first. Shut it down, let it cool off, pull the pot and stirrer and soak them in a bucket of water for 30 minutes and clean them up. they look like hell. Scrape the crap out of the pot and use some Scotchbrite on the inside and get it clean.

Secondly, turn the AUX up equal to the HR setting, example, if you have it on HR5, the AUX (agitator needs to be on 5 as well. I don't but then I run corn and that is a different animal.

You don't have nearly enough agitation for the amount of pellets you are trying to burn.

 

[BarkBoy]

First things first. Shut it down, let it cool off, pull the pot and stirrer and soak them in a bucket of water for 30 minutes and clean them up. they look like hell. Scrape the crap out of the pot and use some Scotchbrite on the inside and get it clean.

Secondly, turn the AUX up equal to the HR setting, example, if you have it on HR5, the AUX (agitator needs to be on 5 as well. I don't but then I run corn and that is a different animal.

You don't have nearly enough agitation for the amount of pellets you are trying to burn.

Ya after that run the pot looked bad, I wasnt sure what the AUX was supposed to be on so that may have been my problem. Ill do what you said and give it another this evening.

Appreciate the advise

 

[ARC]

After turning up C-3 to 6.25 feed I let it run for about an hour on 4

Are you sure it was not feeding enough pellets or is it feeding to many pellets and tripped the overheat disk and put stove into shutdown mode. That is a real red hot bed of coals in the pictures. If not feeding enough pellets I would not think it would have that big of a bed of coals. Changing C3 to 6.25 just added more pellets and maybe to many pellets and caused stove to go into shut down mode.

I thought 1 rpm auger was standard for 6041 but your right US Stove says 1.5 rpm. When you change C2 you change what the feed rate on HR1 is and when you change C3 you change feed rate for HR5. HR 2-4 change incrementally between those two settings. The AUX controls the agitator/stirrer rate usually when burning pellets just leave it in Auto.

 

[BarkBoy]

Are you sure it was not feeding enough pellets or is it feeding to many pellets and tripped the overheat disk and put stove into shutdown mode. That is a real red hot bed of coals in the pictures. If not feeding enough pellets I would not think it would have that big of a bed of coals. Changing C3 to 6.25 just added more pellets and maybe to many pellets and caused stove to go into shut down mode.

I thought 1 rpm auger was standard for 6041 but your right US Stove says 1.5 rpm. When you change C2 you change what the feed rate on HR1 is and when you change C3 you change feed rate for HR5. HR 2-4 change incrementally between those two settings. The AUX controls the agitator/stirrer rate usually when burning pellets just leave it in Auto.

Good to know to leave the auger/aux on auto ( im guessing its temp controlled on auto?)

And that pic with the hot bed of coals was when i adjusted C3 to 6.25 and put it on 4. I dont even know what aux was set at at that point. The first time around it was on default modes I believe and I was not getting enough pellets. The box was dwindling down to nothing and I let it go to see what would happen and 45 mins later I had nothinig.

I have it in an garage with insulated walls but no ceiling insulation yet. Just trying to get her a little warm and melt the snow. Im guessing i am just gonna need to play with it a little and see where Im at. I set c-2 at 2.25 its running now on HR-2, I adjusted c-3 to 5.25 in case i want to run it a little higher at some point. I am assuming becasue of the 1.0 RPM I was going to have to compensate on the feed rate a little See where this takes me

Any suggestions are welcome

 

[SidecarFlip]

when burning pellets just leave it in Auto.

Should have posted that and didn't. By no means turn it off however. The burn pot is designed to be swept by the stirrer when running.

 

[BarkBoy]

So back again. Was running on HR 3 with the setting i listed above. Went inside to get the kids ready for bed and laid with them a little. I come back out to the garage to err-2, the dish was empty besides a hot pellet or 2. What fun

 

[SidecarFlip]

Not a dish, a burnpot. Dish is for cat food. You need to go over all the connections and make sure the feed motor is spinning easily.

 

[BarkBoy]

Not a dish, a burnpot. Dish is for cat food. You need to go over all the connections and make sure the feed motor is spinning easily.

Ill open it up and take a look. This is my 1st pellet that was gifted so learning all the terms, I run a woodstove all winter so not used to this fun. Roughly how many pellets should be dropping when the auger moves. Im getting like 2-3 pellets.

 

[ARC]

I set c-2 at 2.25 its running now on HR-2, I adjusted c-3 to 5.25 i

That is what I was going to tell you to do, now change C-2 to 2.50 and C-3 to 5.50. If that does not work go another .25 on both C Codes small adjustments soon the flame will look like it use to or the burn pot will start over filling. If burn pot starts over filling then lower both settings by .10 or .05 just keep making small adjustments and you will get it tuned in.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Ill open it up and take a look. This is my 1st pellet that was gifted so learning all the terms, I run a woodstove all winter so not used to this fun. Roughly how many pellets should be dropping when the auger moves. Im getting like 2-3 pellets.

Depends on a lot of things like the pitch of the auger flighting, how far the auger rotates each time, the length of the fuel pellet and how many pellets fill the gap in the flighting each time it rotates. IOW, you may get 3 or you may get 10. Will NEVER be a consistent number each time.

 

[SidecarFlip]

I will say it took me years literally to get mine to do exactly what I wanted it to do (which is why mine is running a custom program) and I still have to fiddle with it almost every day to get the efficient burn I want.

Biomass stoves are all like carburetors on older cars where you can adjust the A/F mixture for the best economy or the most power. well, most. Harman's aren't but then Harman's are way more costly and they don't work for me, they don't burn corn.