Clearing a Jammed Auger

To kick off the addition of Regency to our line of stoves, and their Greenfire pellet stove, I will take you folks through my procedure to clear a jammed pellet stove auger and hopefully you can save yourselves a service call.

Pellet stoves require regular maintenance.  Part of this maintenance I recommend to my customers is about once a month letting the stove run out of pellets and vacuuming the hopper and auger area really well with a shop vac.  Pellet crumbs settle to the bottom of the hopper and these are usually what jam augers and vacuuming reduces this risk greatly.

So your auger is jammed?  No problem.  Here is what I do.  First, you’ll need some basic tools and some minor tinkering skills.  Unplug the appliance!  Remove the back or side covers as necessary to give yourself plenty of room.  You may need to disconnect the venting system.  Be careful, soot may come out.  Next I loosen the auger set screw between the auger motor  and auger and gently pull or pry the auger motor off the auger shaft.  A bracket may need to be removed depending on your brand.  Now that the auger is out of the way, wedge a screwdriver or wrench in the set screw hole in the auger shaft and use that to pry the whole assembly around.  You should be a bit careful here and work slowly, but eventually you will be able to turn the auger the whole way around.  Vacuum out the auger area while turning the auger and once it turns freely, you can reassemble the stove.  Once reassembled, hook up the venting, plug the stove in, and add only a few handfuls of pellets first.  Turn the stove on and make sure everything is working properly.  If it is, you’re back in business!  If not, try again.

As I said, auger jams are common and hopefully the above information will get you back in business sooner and save you a service call!  Enjoy the early spring weather!!

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