Farmer1
I had the same problem, the fan filled up with creosote. I tried to clean the blades off but could not get them clean enough to really push any air. The whole blade needs to be clean so it can cut and lift the air.

I tried cleaning the blower 2-3 times but could not get the performance. I ended up moving the tube and buying a new blower (2C067) it was easier than trying to clean the blower.

do you know if you can take the bolts out of the motor you can reverse the direction by simply turning the stator around

Homemade
I have two motors here as spares, they are both Surplus Center motors. One is 4.6 RPM and the other is a 2 RPM.

The 2 RPM is an ECM motor, the stator can not be flipped over. The winding is offset and hits the gearbox case by almos a quarter of an inch.

The 6 RPM is a W&W, the winding on this motor is not offset and can be flipped over. This did reverse the direction of rotation.

Great idea Homemade! Just measure the offset before taking the motor apart.

Farmer1,

I'm back to running (1) fan. Sunday morning I did a complete clean-out of the burnpot, bin, replaced auger flighting, etc. Green Roof had many specific operating details that worked for him, so I'm using those principles to get to "square one". We have mild weather this week so I can learn now, what I should have been learning in October. WIth this weather, there is plenty of time on lowfire. This morning, I had a big glowing "crustation". I probed around the pot to break it free from the walls and let the lower holes provide some air and then, off to work!! I'll see how it looks this afternoon.

I know you get by burning anything, (ie cracked corn). I need to stick to the basics until I can figure out what normal is. I made a simple screen (1/4" mesh) for cleaning before it goes in the bin. I cleaned about 70 gals of corn last night, and collected about 1 gal of fines. The Cardinals will love it!! Doesn't seem like too much, but at least I can say it's clean. Running 15% pellets. Based on my erratic operation, I had lots of unburned pellet fines, ash, etc. in the burnpot. I know you said you haven't seen your burn auger in 1.5 years. I'll only be burning for the heating season.

I tried to make an emperical moisture test while my wife was using a hot-air popper to pop corn (store bought) for my little boys. I did get some of my corn to pop within (1) min. but the kernels don't like to stay in the popper. Oh-well!!

Thanks for all the help in the past weeks!

Tim

Guys, I can't say for sure, but some of the motors have Helical Cut gears on the motor shaft. Probably intended to favor (1) direction of rotation, but not limited to that direction. To dispute myself, a tractor transmission & differential would be an example of helical gears that provide power in both directions. Just a thought!

I was not aware of the air tube modification until after I had started burning for the season. I keep a spare fan, and my ritual for each of the prior three seasons has been to clean the spare fan during free time, and install a clean one to start each season.
My cleaning method, is to dis-assemble motor from housing and squirrel cage from motor. I soak the housing and squirrel cage in a strong solution of Simple Green and really, really hot water. Usually softens the creasote to a point that I can scrub the parts clean with a red scotch brite pad.
Air tube mod. is planned for the next time the fire is out. I am thinking of using 3/4" sweat copper fittings (just dry fit) to avoid flexible hoses that could collapse.

Once you change the air tube you will never have to touch the fan again.Most definitely anyone who hasn't changed theirs yet will want to throw the plastic elbow out that screws into the Y and replace it with a strait nipple I used a 3/4 brass nipple for pex tubing. cuts down on the restriction of the air flow.A lot of times I found the plastic elbow plugged solid. You can even change it out with the stove running it's a simple but one of the most important upgrades the stove will run completely different.

Here's a picture of my flame burning my mixed grain and crack corn.

Hi Guys,

Mostly idling along in Wis. Mostly 40's this week. Lost alot/most of the snow on the flats. Can't really judge my system performance until we get cold again.

My low fire timers are 20on 12off. Still consumes plenty of corn. It's really visual for me since I'm filling the 14bushel bin manually. Plent of excess charred corn, that haven't turned to clinkers. I'm not using for DHW, so I'll just leave the times at the typical settings and wait for winter to come back.

Thanks to all that helped me get to this point.

Tim