Quadra-Fire Castile Insert - Burn Pot Overfill

Hi-

I have a 4-year (or so) old Quadra-Fire Castile pellet insert that up until very recently has been running like a champ. Now about 3-weeks ago I noticed that the Combustion Blower was making a weird noise. Also, from time-to-time I have to manually get the black wheel spinning for it to work - not ideal.

My father-in-law and I pulled the stove out and checked it out and from what we could tell, the combustion blower needs to be replaced as the black wheel that is attached to it seems to have a faulty bearing and is a bit wobbly when spinning (and it makes a bit of a grinding noise). Thinking I could limp the stove through the holidays - I did just that.

So I get home last night and fire the stove up and proceed to snow blow my driveway. When I came back in about an hour later the burn pot was filled with pellets, on fire.

My question is this; could the failing Combustion Blower cause the auger to continue to drop pellets into a burning pile of pellets (in the burn pot)? Possibly due to reduced air flow in the burn chamber so that the signal to 'stop dropping' never gets sent to the computer/auger?

Thanks for any insight!

I clean the burn chamber daily (I'm obsessed with keeping that clean) and the stove has a major cleaning done annually by our local dealer. Outside of that, I have vacuumed around the combustion blower (located on the right-hand side of the stove) but I have not yet (I don't think) vacuumed behind any access panels. Can you post a picture of this?

Also, is the motor you posted part of this assembly > http://www.amazon.com/Quadrafire-Pellet-Exhaust-Combustion-812-4400/dp/B005DSB0NK

I've been under the impression (perhaps due to lack of info/experience) that I need to replace the entire assembly, but if it's just the motor, that would be quite a bit less.

Finally, is the exhaust blower located on the back of the stove or is the exhaust blower the same as the combustion blower (sorry, I'm a bit of a noob about this)? Oh, and if I do pull it off, should I be prepared to replace the gasket(s)?

Thanks for all the help!!

Oh yes, I do take those panels out once a week to clean out the ash that collects behind the panels and on the heat exchange tubes.

Sorry for the delayed response - in laws in town this weekend.

I don't have an attachment like that, but could probably get one...actually, I could use my Dust-buster, which has a hose attachment like that.

I'll pull the stove out tonight and let you know what I find.

Out of curiosity, how loud should a Castile insert be? Are these stove inserts expected to be loud (i.e. on high setting, I can't really watch TV in the same room without really turning up the TV)?

Thanks!

I wanted to follow-up on this post...

I pulled out my Castile this weekend and as suggested, inspected and cleaned the combustion/exhaust blower. Based on this, I ended up purchasing a new unit at the local dealer - got it for a steal after some whining on my part, but still expensive. At any rate, I successfully swapped out the motor and replaced the housing gasket. While I had the thing out I also took the time to do some cleaning and inspection, something I have never done. I'm glad I did as I discovered about 4-cups of ash being held in the cup (not exactly sure what this is called, but on my stove it's a detachable 'cup' that sits at the base of the flex-liner and the exhaust blower intersection) at the base of the flex-liner. Now I thought the good folks who service my stove annually would clean this out, but apparently not...unless this ash build-up is from 2-months of running the stove (service tech. was in 2-months ago to clean the stove)?

I also took the time to put small pieces of Velcro between the parts of the stove where metal meets metal - thinking here is that this will cut down on the vibration noises I hear when the stove is running...I think I read something on here about doing that and thought I'd give it a try. So far, so good. Next I vacuumed out the convection blower located on the back of the insert - it looked pretty clean but I figured it couldn't hurt. I also checked and tightened every single screw I could find - actually found a few loose ones which seems to have helped with the noise. At the very least, it makes me feel better knowing all screws are tight.

Sort of related to all this, I noticed my insert was set to 4 in the control box and I read somewhere the correct setting for the Castile insert is 6. Anyone know which setting is correct and does it make any difference?

Finally, I think I may have to pull the damn thing out again as I'm noticing a bit of smoke leakage when the insert starts up. It's coming somewhere from the back - my guess is either at the connection between the flex-liner and the exhaust blower or that the exhaust blower gasket didn't seal all the way. It's not enough smoke that I'm real concerned, but I feel that I should investigate in the near future...which means pulling the beast out again.

Thanks. I did look in the manual this weekend but couldn't find the setting. I'll take a closer look this evening!

Mine is an '08 and my manual says 6 blinks.

Yea, my manual is at 6 blinks but the green light comes on at 200 (or so it says). I guess I'll leave it at 6 blinks like the manual says, but very confusing. What does changing this setting actually do to the stove?