2004 quadfire castile

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jvm115

New Member
Jan 17, 2012
14
lakes, NH
New pellet insert owner. I bought a used quadfire inserrt in august. Had it installed worked great until the other night. I have cleaned it completly. removed the bricks etc. When i start it via the themostat pellets drop I get a fire then no more pellets will drop. I hit the reset and it does the same thing, pellets drop for the initial fire but then no more come out, if i continer to hit the reset pellets drop but not on their own. Anyone have any suggestions to help me?
Thanks
Julia
 
SmokeyTheBear said:
Make sure your thermocouple's end is against the ceramic cover.

Yep. Also make sure the ceramic cover is sticking out into and over the pot by a half inch (1/2" at least). Making sure the thermocouple is touching the inside tip of cover.

Def sounds like the stove is not sensing the Fire in time.
 
well i tried what you suggested and made sure the wire is tight inside against the cover and sticking approx 1/2 inch into the pot. I thought it worked because it drop some pellets but then stopped. The lights on the control box were both lit. (the green on top and red on bottom) then the red light went out. So i am thinking maybe i need to replace the thermcouple and may as well put on a pretty clean new cover. Is this a good idea? Its going to get cold again so i need my stove. Thanks for your help.
Julia
 
It will still continue to feed with the green light on and not the red. The green is the proof of fire and will tell the stove to feed. The red tells the igniter to shut off, if it hasn't already shut off by the internal timer. It sounds like you have the old style control box. The newer style are clear and the red and green lights are internal and are a single LED that changes color.

By the red light, you aren't talking about the 'call' light from the thermostat, are you?

If just the green light is on, it means you have a very low flame and very little heat. By my experience, if you are running on LOW and have little flame or draft, your vacuum switch might not have enough vacuum to pull in. Have you adjusted your flame height to 4" above the burn pot in HIGH? Adjusting the feed gate is NOT a set and forget thing.
 
If you've got the old, original style control box it's a wonder that its lasted this long. I had a 2004 Santa Fe and the control box went bad the second year I owned it. It would start feeding pellets when it started up...and then keep feeding, non-stop.

Anyway, sounds like a bad thermocouple or a bad control box, but if I had to guess, it's the control box. The cover on the thermocouple doesn't go bad, it's just a ceramic piece. You can easily slip it off and clean it yourself if you really want to. The control boxes are very easy to replace, literally plug and play. You can have the old one out and the new one in within a couple minutes. They're not cheap though - I think they run in the $200 to $300 range.

If you have a Quad dealer near you, see if they have a control box in stock. You might even want them do a service call and install it - that way if the control box isn't bad, you're not stuck spending a bunch of money just throwing parts at the stove.
 
I'd be testing the thermocouple before getting a control box.
 
well i think i really did it now. I took off the vacum tube and blew some air thru it with my can of pc air. I heard a pop when i did it. Now the stove is dead. It will not feed any pellets at all and no lights come on at the control box. The red reset light does come on but now when i push it nothing happens.Now what should i do?? Call the tech?
 
Did you blow toward the vacuum switch? Should have pulled hose off of vacuum end and blew through hose to stove.

Uh oh.... May need a new vacuum switch
 
jvm115 said:
well i think i really did it now. I took off the vacum tube and blew some air thru it with my can of pc air. I heard a pop when i did it. Now the stove is dead. It will not feed any pellets at all and no lights come on at the control box. The red reset light does come on but now when i push it nothing happens.Now what should i do?? Call the tech?

Let me guess you had the stove plugged in while playing.

I'd look for a blown fuse (make certain the stove is unplugged), before calling for a tech.
 
i did blow the hose from the stove part to the vacum yikes. but i did unplug it before i did this. which fuse may have blown?
 
jvm115 said:
i did blow the hose from the stove part to the vacum yikes. but i did unplug it before i did this. which fuse may have blown?

Sounds like you blew out the diaphragm in the vacuum switch.

No vacuum, means no operation. Thats why your getting a call light and no control board lights. IMO. Dont think its a fuse. You can check.
 
I am ordering a new vacum. i hope its not to difficult to install . but i did hear a pop noise i bet thats what i heard.
 
Just a word from someone that's been there, done that and learned from my mistakes: throwing parts at a problem can get expensive quick. Just speaking of troubleshooting in general, not about your particular stove situation. I've spent much money on various endeavors in the past attempting to solve a problem, and the actual solution ended up being relatively simple and cheap. I could have saved myself a ton of money by finding the actual problem to begin with, rather than guessing and buying parts.

Do you have a Quad dealer relatively close to you? If so, check the cost of his parts versus the cost of ordering from an online vendor.

Case in point: I bought a top vent adapter for my Santa Fe online - $185 versus $300 at the dealer. Well worth buying off Ebay. But when my combustion motor went bad, the local dealer was only about $20 more than the cheapest price I could find on Ebay. And he had it in stock, and I was back up and running the same day. So it pays to check the local dealer before you order from an online vendor.

Anyway, that's my two cents, precisely what my advice is worth :)
 
i called the local dealer and you are right. There price is cheaper then what I found on line..64.00 versus about 84.00 plus shipping. i also looked where i had to install this part and it doesn't look easy. so i will wait for the part and the service tech to install it for me
Thanks to all who have helped me. too bad i got to pay the oil man again
 
You might want to try and jumper the vac switch. Just to be sure. This is a guess, based on your info.

The would tell you if the vac switch is bad.
 
With the stove off and unplugged, locate the vacuum switch there are two wires going to it. Fashion a jumper and wire the two ends together.

Then after making certain they don't short against anything plug your stove back in and hit the start button.

ETA: Do not run your stove other than to verify that the vacuum switch is now the issue. This is one of the two most important safeties on the stove. The stove should not be operated this way.
 
SmokeyTheBear said:
With the stove off and unplugged, locate the vacuum switch there are two wires going to it. Fashion a jumper and wire the two ends together.

Then after making certain they don't short against anything plug your stove back in and hit the start button.

ETA: Do not run you stove other than to verify that the vacuum switch is now the issue. This is one of the two most important safeties on the stove. The stove should not be operated this way.

Just like that.. A simple wire between the two.

Very Carefully.....
 
Just an update for you helpful men. I jumped the wire and waa laa, not only did it fire up it is dropping pellets. Make me want to run it like this until the serviceman gets here on monday. But i want to thank all of you for all your help.
 
Not familiar with this particular vacuum switch... but can you take it apart? You might have just blown the diaphragm loose, or perhaps a hole in it. Some silicone might repair it for ya. If it's roll-crimped and sealed, never mind taking it apart.
 
its a 2004 and i think its in the round silver thingy mounted in the lower back right side of the stove. It is criomped and thats where i pulled the wires to do the vacum switch test. I have no idea how to get in there so the tech is fixing it
 
Now i really need your advice. Theres quite alot of work that needs to be done for this stove and i wonder if maybe i should juty get another. i am waiting for the estimate but heres the list thats needs replacement, exhaust blower, auger , convection fan...not including labor. Crossing my fingers and keeps the stove running. How much is a 2004 stove worth? maybe i should sell it
 
You can look up prices of the parts on a number of on line web sites and easy is a relative thing. How do you get along with tools, sharp corners, wiring, and other things that can bite?
 
I like to think of myself as a handygirl and if something bites me i usually bite back. However not know really what i am doing and playing with fire i don't want to get burnt
 
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