A mate asked me to work out why his powered flue gas fire was no longer
working. The setup is an inset style coal effect gas fire with an input
of about 6.2kW. It has an add on powered flue fitted since it sits in a
fake chimney breast that does not have a real chimney above.

The lighting procedure was to turn on the flue (via a switched FCU
beside the fireplace), then go through the pilot lighting sequence using
the control on the fire. First obvious problem was the flue was not
powering up. I am not sure how the ignition inhibit between flue and
fire works, although I assume that there is one, since it was not
possible to even light the pilot.

I took the external box apart and found a blown internal 20mm glass
cartridge fuse. Replaced it with the spare conveniently cable tied to
the inside of the box! reassembled, powered it up and it sprang into
life again. Was just about to try lighting the fire when the flue
stopped again - presumably having blown the new fuse. It was late, dark
and cold, so we suspended deeper investigations until later. (Alas, I
was not able to locate a make or model number on the flue)

So, any suggestions for typical failure modes and diagnostic procedures
for these things? The motor/fan sounded like it was spinning freely when
it ran briefly. My initial plan was to measure the current consumption
as a starting point to see how far from the fuse value it actually is.

One issue I did notice however was that the mains voltage at the time
was very low (about 205V - which apparently is common in the evening in
his neck of the woods). I presume these units have induction motors to
drive the fan, but would they typically fuse them with so little margin
that the current rise caused by a low supply voltage would take out the
fuse?



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Cheers,

John.

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John Rumm formulated the question :

One issue I did notice however was that the mains voltage at the time was
very low (about 205V - which apparently is common in the evening in his neck
of the woods). I presume these units have induction motors to drive the fan,
but would they typically fuse them with so little margin that the current
rise caused by a low supply voltage would take out the fuse?

I don't know anything about powered flues, but the fact that it does
run for a while suggests that the current being drawn is just slightly
greater than the fuse's rating. That might well be due to the under
voltage.

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Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

replying to John Rumm, malcolm huscroft wrote:
hello john, just wondering if you sorted this problem out from years ago , as
I have now got the same issue and was wondering if you found the answer ?
thanks

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