I have a mt vernon AE insert, just had its 3rd birthday at the beginning on the month and its been actually working great. Probably has close to 8t of pellets through it so far, and not a hicup until tonight on the coldest day in the past 3 years.

I come down stairs to find it chilly, so I looked at the screen and it said check ash pan. So knowing that I had just cleaned it out 2 nights ago I knew there shouldnt be any issue, pulled the ash pan open with no issue, and went back and pushed the retry button. I can hear the motor run, but it does not appear that the floor really moves that much. It opens about 1/3 of the way and thats it. It will sit and run and get the error again.

I proceeded to start looking around a bit. I took the linkage off the motor arm and I am able to move the floor by hand, although its a little tough in a spot or two, I am able to mvoe it back and forth by hand.

I also actuated the motor with it disconnected and it moves fine as well, although one thing that concerns me is that I am able to move the arm back and forth without the motor turning, so I am wondering if whatever is holding the arm to the motor shaft has somehow come loose? I did pull the bolt out that holds the motor to the stove itself, but don't have any idea how to go about getting the motor out of there.

Any help or insite would be greatly appreciated. I am having a hard time understanding the exploded parts diagram to understand how it is connected to the motor shaft.

I will also try and put some anti seize on the rails, but I am not convinced that is causing the issue.

Sorry for the long story.

Tim

Unplug stove.Remove left side panel. Remove control board. Remember that those wire harness connections are very fragile. If you need more room, remove the conv. fan. Remove small panel that covers auto-clean motor. This will expose the motor to see if arm screw is loose. Kap

Thanks for the info Kap. I was able to find the motor and everything seemed tight and fine. I put the control box back in with the rest of the stove apart to see what was going on, but I can't seem to figure anything more out.

I also took the sliding floor arms down and pulled the floor out at the recommendation of my stove store to check for any build-up, but there was really nothing there, I went ahead and used a wire brush and cleaned it all up, and put it all back togehter with some never seize on the arms just for good measure, but it appears that none of that helps the situation any better.

It seems that the only thing that really makes sense is the motor is actually bad.

My stove guy also said that I am within my warranty for another day or two, and that the 2yr warrant can cover any electrical products, so I will check back with him tomorrow to see if he can come and service it tomorrow.

I cant find anywhere from anyone else talking about this motor going bad, so I guess it seems like a fluke I hope.

We shall see.

It could also be the auto-clean micro switch. No matter what it is,you are under warranty, and will be taken care off. I would scrape the pot floor for good measure too. Keep us informed on what they find. Kap

Thanks Kap. I don't believe it is related to the micro switch because the motor runs like it should be moving, just fails to actually move the floor.

I talked to my dealer and my warranty runs out at the end if the month and he doesn't have a tech till next Saturday, which is past the warranty period. He agreed to try and submit the motor under warranty for me, but I have to install it myself instead. And he also said that if it not actually the motor, and turned out to be the control board or something like that, that he would not be able to submit that under warranty as well. So I have my fingers crossed.

I'll let you know how the motor install goes tonight, luckily they had one or else I would have probably been screwed.

Tim

Oh and I did pull the whole floor out last night and checked for buildup. Was relatively clean, but I gave it a good cleaning for good measure. I also looked at the rails and they err not very rusty at all, but I put some lube on them as we'll incase.

Your issue was reported before your warranty ran out! If they fixed it after the warranty date, it would still be covered! Just because they don't have a tech available is no reason for the warranty to not cover it. You shouldn't have to be installing it for them.Don't know why they are thinking like they are. And even if it is the control board, it should still be covered, because it was reported before warranty was out! Kap

If you pulled the pot floor, did you remove the pot? If so, you will need a new pot gasket if the old one got tore up. Kap

tgh117 wrote:

I love dealers that try to pull this sh*t. If it's reported and it's an ongoing issue why the hell would they think the warranty stops just because the time has passed! Too many crooks out there, not saying that is the case with him but maybe he is just uninformed or uneducated on warranty procedure. Kind of sounds like he might not wanna accept the $55 dollars HHT pays to do the job so that's why "he doesn't have a tech available". I have had to replace 1 autoclean motor since we started selling these things when they came out.

Maybe he is accepting the 55, but doesn't have to pay a tech!