Hyfire II Blowers Stop

I've had my Hyfire II running on one burner for several days. Twice so far, I've heard a very subtle, very brief grinding/rumbling sound and both of the circulating blowers have stopped. Sounds like something briefly gets caught in an impeller. Both events were early am (5ish) which coincides with the system "waking up". I have it set to turn down at 7pm and start up again at 4:30am. The first time this happened the blowers started up almost immediately. This morning, the blowers would not run even when I plugged each into an extension cord to remove the controller from the equation. After several minutes, I tried again and they both started on the extension cord and are running now via the controller.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks....

have you cleaned and oiled them?


Eric

Yes, did a major cleaning/maintenance on the entire stove recently.

You might have to turn the SCFM? Up in the advanced menu on the Coaltrol. Maybe they can't handle a slow speed when the Feed Rate starts to rise. They may heat up and stop on very low RPM, some motors don't like to run at very slow speeds. I think the factory setting is 25 or 30 for the CFM, I think I raised mine to 35 or 40 so they kick up to a certain min. speed.

Just a thought.

OR maybe you are getting a bit of coal out the stoker and dropping onto the blower motors, maybe put a cover or something over the motor to keep any coal that backs out of the feeder and dropping onto the blower.?

Thanks very much for your reply. I had an email from a Coaltrol rep that suggested the same thing you did. I've made the change to 40 and will report back with the results.

Thanks again!

I had another "incident" this morning. Approximately the same time, shortly after going to full heat. The motors were running at full speed for at least 30 minutes before they stopped. Same sound and then they both stopped. I went to the stove and both impellers were turning at the same speed, however, just barely. Just enough movement to know they were spinning. I detected a faint "overheating electrical" odor and unplugged the fans from the controller. I immediately plugged each into the extension cord that I had at the stove from the last time this occurred and they both spun at high speed, plugged them right back into the controller and they spun there as well. Both have been running at full speed ever since.

BBNX

Get a hold of CoalTrol or LL, something doesn't sound right. What's the FR on the Thermostat and was it calling for heat at the time?

Can you go in to the menu and change the FSA (Fan speed AUto) and increase and decrease the speed (FSM Fan Speed Manual) and raise them up to a certain speed and see if they stay there? This overrides the automatic settings and the blowers will stay at that speed until you set them back to 0.

I emailed the CoalTrol rep yesterday. I'm sure he will respond during the week.

The stove was calling for heat at the time. I have not tried running the fans manually in the morning to see if that makes a difference. I have thought about putting the fans on an extension and timer, disconnecting them from the controller until I learn what is happening.

I have been in contact with the Coal-Trol rep and have gone thru the suggestions. At this point, I have one blower plugged into the controller and one plugged into the wall. With that configuration, I experienced the same blower shut down issue yesterday about an hour after the thermostat called for heat. The blower that was plugged into the controller stopped, the other one continued to run. The difference this time is that it happened in the afternoon (instead of the morning), however STILL about an hour or so after the thermostat called for heat. It's not an overheat issue as both blowers are warm, not hot to the touch.

When the blowers shut down there is ALWAYS a grinding type of noise that is relatively loud and precedes the shutdown. There are no debris in the impellers. I'm wondering if the controller is calling for 100% blower speed and then, for reasons unknown yet, immediately changes that request to 10% as an example. The blowers are spinning 100% and then they are directed to run at 10%, I'm curious to know if that scenario would generate the noise I am hearing.

In any event, the rep suggested I call Neil or Ed. I will do so as soon as my schedule permits.

bbnx wrote:I have been in contact with the Coal-Trol rep and have gone thru the suggestions. At this point, I have one blower plugged into the controller and one plugged into the wall. With that configuration, I experienced the same blower shut down issue yesterday about an hour after the thermostat called for heat. The blower that was plugged into the controller stopped, the other one continued to run. The difference this time is that it happened in the afternoon (instead of the morning), however STILL about an hour or so after the thermostat called for heat. It's not an overheat issue as both blowers are warm, not hot to the touch.

When the blowers shut down there is ALWAYS a grinding type of noise that is relatively loud and precedes the shutdown. There are no debris in the impellers. I'm wondering if the controller is calling for 100% blower speed and then, for reasons unknown yet, immediately changes that request to 10% as an example. The blowers are spinning 100% and then they are directed to run at 10%, I'm curious to know if that scenario would generate the noise I am hearing.

In any event, the rep suggested I call Neil or Ed. I will do so as soon as my schedule permits.

Sounding like the Coaltrol has a defective printed circuit board component...triact??? They,re going through all the motions with you to rule out that the blowers are not the problem...then you'll get the warranty. Keep Pressing

I had this same problem but have since sold the Hyfire. You may find some helpful info in my old threads. Good luck....

Check your CFM setting? or CFT (Convection Fan Threshold) in the Advanced menu. Sometimes the blowers don't like to run at SLOW speeds and will sound like grinding. I think I had to raise mine to 30 or 40 on the menu.

But to STOP, when calling for heat is kinda weird? The fan speed is based on Feed Rate, so as it calls for heat, does your FR go up accordingly? If so, the fans should increase slowly in speed. it does take a while for everything to come up to temp and speed.
If your FR is 99, the fans should be running almost full speed to keep up with the burn rate.

But, yes, call the guys at Coaltrol.....