Another 1557M Furnace question....

[cableguy256]

Long time lurker, first time poster.... first off, I love the site and have read through many of the threads.... I do have a question to ask now..... I have a us stove model 1557M purchased from Tractor Supply... I am currently using this furnace as my main/only heat source as I have a pretty much unlimited supply of firewood.... the problem I am having is this... I originally installed the supplied twin blowers when installed (october of '08)... towards the end of the season this year, the blowers started making TONS of noise... now, the start of this season, i have burnt for a few nights and one of the blowers seized up and the other rattles worse than a 1974 ford... since I do not have the money to purchase new blowers, I rigged a blower from an old oil furnace too it... well, it lasted a whole week and seized up.... my question is could this be caused from not having a cold air return hooked up? As of now, the blowers are just exposed to the open basement/garage..... sorry for being so long winded but wanted to include the details... Thanks in advance for any answers.

--Mike

 

[johnnylabguy]

two blowers burned up? hmmm... wondering if there's too much dust dirt getting into them. You may want to try an air filter box around them if they're not hooked up to your cold air return.

Could it be your power source? Not enough or improper current to the motors? I'm not an electrician in the least but that's just another thought to chew on. Good luck!

 

[cableguy256]

two blowers burned up? hmmm... wondering if there's too much dust dirt getting into them. You may want to try an air filter box around them if they're not hooked up to your cold air return.

Could it be your power source? Not enough or improper current to the motors? I'm not an electrician in the least but that's just another thought to chew on. Good luck!

Thank you for the quick response... I also thought maybe it was dirty air, however when I took the motors apart, they were surprisingly clean including the coil and magnet.....

I, too, thought of the power source issue and tested the outlet and it's pulling the typical 113 volts a/c to the blower motors when the thermodisc kicks them on...

 

[bohawg1]

my 1557 would make a rattle noise from tike to time so i just shimmed up under my motors with something and it has kept them quiet now. Thats what you need to do just lift them up some , i think they are alittle bit to heavy for the sheet metal that there on. Havent had any problems with mine at all, I have added a shot of oil once a year and been going good, 3 years now...

 

[cableguy256]

my 1557 would make a rattle noise from tike to time so i just shimmed up under my motors with something and it has kept them quiet now. Thats what you need to do just lift them up some , i think they are alittle bit to heavy for the sheet metal that there on. Havent had any problems with mine at all, I have added a shot of oil once a year and been going good, 3 years now...

yep... been through that part too.. lol had to shim them up about 2 months into the first winter of use. that is part of the rattling I get but also if you look at the cage while it's running you can see that it's off balance/bearings are worn.... another thing is, the blowers run pretty much constantly when I have a fire going enough to keep the temps up... have a hard time adjusting it to where they don't run all the time and still keep it hot enough to prevent creosote.

 

[Junkfxr]

We have an older US Stove 1500 with dual blowers also. It sits in the basement with no cold air return or filters on them. We are also off grid and power our house with a pair of modified sine wave inverters so the power is not nearly as clean as utility power. I installed the stove in October 1996, have never even oiled the blowers and never had any problems with them yet. You might just have a bad (imported?) set of blowers. Can you tell where the rattle is coming from? Maybe that they are just vibrating and need to be blocked up like bohawg1 says.

 

[cableguy256]

We have an older US Stove 1500 with dual blowers also. It sits in the basement with no cold air return or filters on them. We are also off grid and power our house with a pair of modified sine wave inverters so the power is not nearly as clean as utility power. I installed the stove in October 1996, have never even oiled the blowers and never had any problems with them yet. You might just have a bad (imported?) set of blowers. Can you tell where the rattle is coming from? Maybe that they are just vibrating and need to be blocked up like bohawg1 says.

the rattle appears to be coming from the cage itself... it's LOUD... well, the one is loud..... the other has completely quit working... according to the serial numbers on them, they are imported from japan and cannot find any info on the japanese company.... the great news is I did call US Stove and they are shipping me out a new set of blowers under warranty but I wanted to ask this question so as to not burn up the new blowers...