This rookie enjoyed the give-and-take among the pros. Learned a lot just listening to the discussion from the sidelines. Very good!!

 

If I may repeat myself, the missing logic had me going around in circles for about 3 days. Doing service calls were always, "as fast as you can do it" and I was forced to replace heater elements, timers, and limit switches without really understanding it all. It was the first Kenmore dryer that I owned and had time to study. Over and over, I (much like Inwo) came up with, "It can't work that way". Finally, I postulated the "Am I on?" switch.

To this day, I haven't autopsied a dryer timer to prove the switch is in there. I probably never will because everything uses digital timers now. I could be wrong, but the theory works, and a working theory is almost as good as the truth.

 

Further poteniometer question(s)....I undertand the concept that it is a variable resistor but am uncertain on several aspects of it as it applies to my pellet stove.

The pot controls the rate at which pellets are fed by the auger motor into the stove, but I do not see how it does this.

I thought at first that it must reduce/increase the rate at which the auger turns, but with no pellets in the stove and the auger visible, it is apparant the the motor turns at a uniform speed regardless of pot dial setting. (This was very disappointing to notice, for I thought I had finally grasped the role of the pot.)

What does change with pot dial setting is the delay period of the auger motor drop. So...like this.....
Low pot setting = 2 second auger rotation (with pellet drop), 10 second pause, repeat, repeat .....
Hight pot setting = 2second auger rotation, 2 second pause, repeat, repeat....

So what is he pot controlling if it isn't the motor's speed? I understand the pot is reducing the current flow as it is dialed up, but so what? How does reduced current through the pot translate to delay periods on the motor?
thanks again to one and all for sharing your knowledge, scott