whitfield stove catching fire

[mouseguy]

i just got back to find that my stove was on fire over the weekend. it went back into the where the pellets are stored and burned them up.
fortunatly nothing else caught fire.
now the auger keeps getting locked up. has anybody had this happen before, and how can i fix the binding auger?
thanks, james

[sundancer87]

It would probably be a good idea to see what is causing the feed auger to bind.<p>Are you using a different pellet than normal. Does the auger seem to be sloppy on the shaft, indicating a bad bearing or bushing?

[jwax]

mouseguy- Glad the whole place didn't burn!
You Whitfield owners ought to let Whitfield know that they need their own forum!
There should be some fail-safe device to prevent "burn up entire fuel supply" event! I wouldn't trust that stove alone again.

[dacflyer]

in Austria a friend has a sort of pellet stove..but it uses wood chips..the auger sounds like a monster in the celler at night..turning on every few min. for a short time..anyway..along the auger path is a open spot about 2 ft from the burning pot..yes..its like a cement pot,,cement lid etc..fire swirls around inside..really interesting..anyway just before this is a open spot in the augre path..and a fine wire that passes above it,,i inquired what it was and i was told that it is the fire extinguisher device..if the flame burns back into aguer area..the wire would melt and trigger the system,,,which would open a spring loaded valve from a tub of water..this would douse the fire in the auger as well as in the burning pot..simple , crude..but effective..the wire is made of something like plumbers solider.. hope this gives you some ideas.

[mouseguy]

the auger seems kind of sloppy.
i probably need a bearing.
does anyone know where to find one?
thanks for all of your help.
james
PS. i'm starting to think that the company Whitfield went out of business, because of this liability reason. Lennox Hearth Products uses the name, but it is a different company.

[Mike6158]

Look at the face of the bearing. Usually the number is stamped on it somewhere. There is a company, called Bearing Supply, near where I live. I have been able to find all kinds of bearings there ( for ceiling fans, weed eaters, you name it). They are an industrial supplier but I don't know if they are a national chain or not.

[frhrwa]

what ever you do, do not oil or grease the auger!... oil and grease are flamable and the fire will travel up the auger tube to the pellet bin and you will have a fire.. the transmission comes out pretty easy, sounds like your binding up somewhere in it.. the auger motor/trans should be on a slip mounting and should be free to move around to eliminate it binding up on you.. if or should I say when, you take the trans apart to check the gears and grease them, take a digital picture of the inside "as you disasemble" it.. I took mine apart, fixed everything, packed it with high temp grease, and began the week long chinese puzzle of putting it back together.. got it.. finally, but now its time to do it again I'm sure... its beginning to make noises, so I must have missed something the first go around.. I understand the auger motor and other parts are available on E-Bay, if you want to search them out, also another friend over in Idaho has figured out how to adapt parts from other stoves, at a much cheaper price I might add, to his Whitfield.. we're hanging on to see if they are more dependable now.. just remember, when you do work on oiling, greasing or any other lube in the rear of that stove, clean the heck out it, don't just leave a little here or there.. it does get hot, and it will ignite.. and I turn mine off when I leave home.. I leave the furnace on low instead.. oh yes.. Lennox bought out Whitfield and I would highly doubt they would support anything made in the old Whitfield factory, much less care about the problems they had early on.. since they don't even support the older style control boards now.. and the chips used on them were hybrids that aren't available from anyone, nor does anyone admit to having schematics or flow charts of what those IC's even did..<p>[ December 29, 2004: Message edited by: wayne ]</p>

[patcmontgomery]

I don't know if they let you post webites here but here it goes... http://www.hearthtools.com/parts/index.html<p>These guys have a pretty good supply of Whitfield parts. But they are by far the most expensive. If you look hard enough you can find cheaper. Sounds like a shot bearing to me... I always wondered if they could catch fire in there. I shut mine off too. That's what insurance is for I guess! Let her burn he he.