"Check ashpan"

Have a Quadrafire Mt. Vernon AE. Since replacing the high watt ignitor with the lower one stove has not given us any trouble in 3 years. Came home to find it not running, thermostat said check ashpan. Firepot floor was not closed. Took the ashpan out, removed the bolt from the linkage and tried to move it. Was stuck. Took the firepot out....floor moved but it was notch feeling. Figured it was just some carbon, moved the floor several times and it fixed it. Put the pot back in, with bolts loose floor moved freely. Tightened the bolts and floor got notch feeling. Tried to run it, stove worked . Fast forward a few weeks...woke up to 58* in here today. Floor was stuck all the way to the right. Took a screwdriver and wiggled the floor, shut the door and cleared the t-stat. Stove is again running. Huh? What do I need to be looking at here?
Any and all help will be greatly appreciated...

After I posted this I put my glasses on and grabbed a bright flashlight. The floor plate was pretty crusty. Couple minutes with a dremel....so far so good...

BigJohnfromCT said:

Doug, I also have a Quad AE and have often wondered about using a Dreml to clean the fireprot. What attachment did you use? Sandpaper, rotary stone, rasp,etc. Sometimes there are some really crusty deposits that I battle with a screwdriver to remove. BRAVO for having the courage to use a Dreml. Any comments/suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you.

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I just used a small grinding wheel. I also removed the firepot, make getting to the floor a bit easier. That being said....

Last night was a bit cooler than we have been. Was in the high teens. About 4 this morning started to get cold. Stove was cold. House dropped from 72* to 58*. Have a pair of African Greys so I try to keep the house warm...pot floor was stuck open again. Wiggled it. Took stove 4 or 5 cycles to light.
Will be lighting the other one shortly so I can scrape the floor again....apparently I missed a chunk or two. Will post a picture of the dremel stone I use. Apparently I don't have the ignitor in correctly. Prior to taking it apart the stove was lighting on the first try in under 5 minutes every time.
My wife has several health problems....and likes the house warm so I need to resolve this...

kappel15 said:

What year stove do you have? And what revision control box? Another thing to check is the auto-clean motor mounting bolt. It is behind ashpan on back wall. it can come loose, and cause issues like this too. In earlier year stoves, they had an issue with lack of power on the return stroke of the auto-clean motor, and put a revision in a new control box, to take care of it. kap

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We got the stove in the spring of 09. How do I tell what revision box I have?
I took the firepot out today. I missed a bunch of carbon last I cleaned it. Prior to the start of this I had never cleaned the floor of the pot. Stove had about 25 tons of pellets thru it prior to having a problem. In the future I will be cleaning the floor prior to first fire of the new season. This is the bit I used in the dremel to clean it...