OK, got a strange one for me. I'm no electrician, so if this sounds serious, I got a friend I can call.
A couple days ago at the beginning of this cold snap, I got outside to feed the OWB and noticed it had a red light blinking. Probably out of wood, I thought. I pulled the smoke bypass lever and nothing happened - the draft fan usually kicks on. So I opened the firebox door anyway and there was a full load of wood. Water temp was down to 106°. I pushed the cold start button and again, nothing. After a quick read of the manual, and a phone call, and another quick read of the manual ('cus I am stoopid sometimes
) I found out that there is a 2A fuse that controls the fan motor. Didn't have any 2A fuses but I had a 5A fuse, so I put that in until I could get to the store. The 5A fuse worked fine. I did check the fan for operation, made sure it wasn't stuck or anything, and it spun freely with no resistance.
So here's the strange part. Got back with the 2A fuses, put one in, buttoned it all back up, and ..... nothing. Took it all back apart and the new fuse was blown. I put the 5A fuse back in and everything's fine again, it's working like normal. I checked the fuse I took out to make sure it was 2A and yes it was.
Questions for the forum - first, what could have caused the fuse to blow? I did have the smoke bypass open the night before while I was feeding it, and the firebox was HOT, roaring blaze hot. I think that the flames were nipping at the fan & motor. It allegedly has a overheat shutoff, but I am wondering if I ruined something by letting too much heat get to the fan area and that is causing or contributing to the problem.
Second - why is it working fine with a 5A fuse but it now blows the 2A fuse? Wondering if I had a bad fuse? They're cheap enough I can try a few of them and see if one works, but I had a similar problem on my old Central Boiler and it turned out to be a bad solenoid on the door damper. But it was doing the same thing, blowing fuses. A larger fuse would work but a correct fuse would not.