Quadrafire CB1200-1 fires unpredictably

I have a new freestanding CB1200. It hasn't missed a single ignition so far this season.

Based upon your description I would suspect a problem with the remote. Is it possible you could hook up a regular thermostat instead of the remote to test it ? I have never used a remote but mine is hooked up to a programmable thermostat. On warmer days it ignites several times per hour.

We purchased a Quadrafire CB 1200 Insert three years ago.

From the we had problems with high flame on start up.

We also have problem with very high flame if Thermostat is turned up and stove is still warm.

It is so bad that back baffles blacken. It is a dangerous situation.

It appears the auger does not stop feeding pellets before the stove lites.

Does anyone have this problem?

warmer said:

We purchased a Quadrafire CB 1200 Insert three years ago.

From the we had problems with high flame on start up.

We also have problem with very high flame if Thermostat is turned up and stove is still warm.

It is so bad that back baffles blacken. It is a dangerous situation.

It appears the auger does not stop feeding pellets before the stove lites.

Does anyone have this problem?

Click to expand...

I have had some high flames particularly at start-up but I wouldn't call it dangerous. By "back baffles" I assume you mean the angled panels that are directly over & behind the firepot... Mine have been in direct contact with flames for extended periods of time and I am convinced there is nothing to worry about there... Have you ever slipped the baffles off ? They just cover the convection tubes.

I run it 24/7 on a programmable thermostat and have no worries at all.

warmer said:

We purchased a Quadrafire CB 1200 Insert three years ago.

From the we had problems with high flame on start up.

We also have problem with very high flame if Thermostat is turned up and stove is still warm.

It is so bad that back baffles blacken. It is a dangerous situation.

It appears the auger does not stop feeding pellets before the stove lites.

Does anyone have this problem?

Click to expand...

I've had problems with my CB1200i with excessively high flame on start-up. I have mitigated this problem by backing off the feed rate. Also, it doesn't seem to be an issue if the stove has been allowed to cool (restart after cleaning for example). Lately its been cold enough that it's running 24/7 so it hasn't been restarting enough for me to know if the problem is completely solved.

warmer said:

We purchased a Quadrafire CB 1200 Insert three years ago.

From the we had problems with high flame on start up.

We also have problem with very high flame if Thermostat is turned up and stove is still warm.

It is so bad that back baffles blacken. It is a dangerous situation.

It appears the auger does not stop feeding pellets before the stove lites.

Does anyone have this problem?

Click to expand...

The pellets should stop dropping before the fire, with mine there is a delay between the end of dropping and actual fire. When the temp reaches 200 deg F the green light will come on, the pellets will again start dropping.

I'm on my second season with the the CB1200i. I have seen problems when firing the stove back up when it is still hot. Flame is way too high for too long in my opinion. If that happens I turn it off with the remote and let it cool at least an hour before relighting. When firing the stove up the first time for the day there has never been a problem with the flame height. I'd never run it by itself on the thermostat. I don't trust it. I still have a tough time leaving home with it running.

I keep the feed rate as low as possible FWTW. All in all I'm fairly pleased with the stove even if it was welded in China. I've found out that you must change the batteries every year.

thx,
Jim

I purchased a Quadra-Fire CB 1200i in Fall 08. I have a problem with large flames on start up with this CB 1200i.

I think I identified the problem.

The insert is programmed to deliver pellets, stop, pellets are ignited, flames heat the thermocouple sensor above the fire pot, when the thermocouple senses 200F the green light goes on and the insert resumes feeding pellets, and from there the normal burning cycle continues until the room is warm and the insert shuts off.

After the insert shuts off THE GREEN LIGHT STAYS ON FOR SOME TIME. This is because the temperature inside the burning chamber is over 200F

What happens if the room cools off and the thermostat calls for heat before the green light turns off?

You guessed it - The insert will not stop delivering pellets, but will continue to deliver pellets without stopping (because the green light is on, i.e., the temp inside the insert is over 200F, "fooling" the control board to think that a fire is on) the continuous feeding of pellets overloads the fire pot, and the result is huge flames that could pose a risk to the system. In addition, when the fire pot is overloaded with pellets, (when there is no break during the ignition cycle) the ignition is much "harder" and smokier, and sometime almost explosive. On several occasions visible puffs of smoke came out of the heat exchanger, causing the whole house to smell of smoke.

In my opinion, this is a serious design flaw by Quadra-Fire. It has to be mitigated ASAP. I am working with my dealer and Quadra-Fire on it, and will keep you posted. I would really appreciate any suggestion or comment you may have.

I also have the CB1200i and this is my second season with it.

I had an issue last year where I had to relight it say within five minutes of it going out after being run for hours. It got very very smoky inside and took forever to ignite. When it finally did ignite, if had a considerable explosive force behind it and a good amount of smoke actually came out from the bottom of the door. I was not impressed. Actually I was scared and concerned.

I also had a lot of tall flames at start up and during the actual heating run until I adjusted the feed mechanism close to the minimum setting. I probably can only get 18 hours out of a bag of pellets if its run on the lowest setting. I typically run on the low setting after getting the room up to temp on medium. High is too loud with fan noise for me. I think this stove eats pellets on medium much too fast.

Finally, I left the wife with it last year and she blew the breaker on the circuit the stove is on. She knows how to reset the breaker so she did. I believe she turned the stove back one within five minutes of the breaker mishap and as you would imagine, it went crazy with extremely tall flames at startup.

Now last night we had a power outage where the power went out for two seconds. I was in the room with the stove and it recovered completely and continued to run for hours like nothing happened.

I hate to leave the house with the stove running. If I do, it's on low and I'm back within a couple of hours. I like the heat from the stove, I'm sitting in a 18 x 20 room with 9 foot ceilings and its 71.4 degrees right now. The sales droid who sold me this was a huge dick (so was the store). I like the stove, but really it is a glorified space heater albeit an expensive one.

jim

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barsen said:

I purchased a Quadra-Fire CB 1200i in Fall 08. I have a problem with large flames on start up with this CB 1200i.

I think I identified the problem.

The insert is programmed to deliver pellets, stop, pellets are ignited, flames heat the thermocouple sensor above the fire pot, when the thermocouple senses 200F the green light goes on and the insert resumes feeding pellets, and from there the normal burning cycle continues until the room is warm and the insert shuts off.

After the insert shuts off THE GREEN LIGHT STAYS ON FOR SOME TIME. This is because the temperature inside the burning chamber is over 200F

What happens if the room cools off and the thermostat calls for heat before the green light turns off?

You guessed it - The insert will not stop delivering pellets, but will continue to deliver pellets without stopping (because the green light is on, i.e., the temp inside the insert is over 200F, "fooling" the control board to think that a fire is on) the continuous feeding of pellets overloads the fire pot, and the result is huge flames that could pose a risk to the system. In addition, when the fire pot is overloaded with pellets, (when there is no break during the ignition cycle) the ignition is much "harder" and smokier, and sometime almost explosive. On several occasions visible puffs of smoke came out of the heat exchanger, causing the whole house to smell of smoke.

In my opinion, this is a serious design flaw by Quadra-Fire. It has to be mitigated ASAP. I am working with my dealer and Quadra-Fire on it, and will keep you posted. I would really appreciate any suggestion or comment you may have.

Click to expand...

I don't see how the green light can still be on when the stove is calling for heat again. With mine the convection fan runs for about 15 to 20 minutes after the red call light for heat goes out, increasing room temperature. The green does stay on a long time after the red call light goes out but goes out before the convection fan stops. My house is well insulated, walls, ceiling, doors and windows.

The stove is cycling too often... the thermostat needs to have a higher (longer) anticipator setting....there should be at least 2 - 3 deg F swing in order to avoid this..the manual thermostat that comes with the quad may seem cheap but at least the anticipator is set properly. Many programmable stats have several options for the anticipator...check them out and pick the one to give you the least number of cycles per hour ....or the maximum degree swing.

SLLS, this is good input.

My house is not well insulated. Second, and most importantly, my CB 1200i shuts off long before the green light goes out. I measured it and got the following:

1. Step 1: House is at 70F, remote thermostat signals no more heat, heat call light goes out, pellet feed stops
2. Step 1 plus 3 minutes: flame goes out
3. Step 1 plus 4 minutes: Red light (indicating 600 F in thermocouple) changes to green light
4. Step 1 plus 9 min: convection fan out. air into the room still warm when convection fan goes out
5. Step 1 plus 10 min: combustion fan out. Green light still on
6. Step 1 plus 32 min: green light (200F) goes out.

It took 22 minutes from the time the combustion fan went out until the green light did. Had the stove turned back on during that time it would have experienced the start up cycle without a break to stop the pellet feed and let ignition take place, and would have resulted in smokey and slow ignition followed by big flames.

I am sure that Quadra-Fire, as a responsible firm, would like to correct a situation like this ASAP.

barsen, thanks for posting this excellent analysis. I now know exactly what is happening with my stove. I agree with you that this is a situation that Quadrafire should address ASAP and in fact should never have let happen. I haven't had to worry about this lately only because I've kept the thermostat set higher than the stove can heat the room to on a low feed rate set at low. This has worked most of the winter for me but as it gets warmer this spring I will probably be turning my stove off when I leave the house. Please keep us posted as to any feedback you receive from the manufacturer.

barsen said:

SLLS, this is good input.

My house is not well insulated. Second, and most importantly, my CB 1200i shuts off long before the green light goes out. I measured it and got the following:

1. Step 1: House is at 70F, remote thermostat signals no more heat, heat call light goes out, pellet feed stops
2. Step 1 plus 3 minutes: flame goes out
3. Step 1 plus 4 minutes: Red light (indicating 600 F in thermocouple) changes to green light
4. Step 1 plus 9 min: convection fan out. air into the room still warm when convection fan goes out
5. Step 1 plus 10 min: combustion fan out. Green light still on
6. Step 1 plus 32 min: green light (200F) goes out.

It took 22 minutes from the time the combustion fan went out until the green light did. Had the stove turned back on during that time it would have experienced the start up cycle without a break to stop the pellet feed and let ignition take place, and would have resulted in smokey and slow ignition followed by big flames.

I am sure that Quadra-Fire, as a responsible firm, would like to correct a situation like this ASAP.

Click to expand...

Interesting, I have not been running my stove lately, oil is cheap and pellets are high. When I do, I am going to call for more heat when the green light is still on and see what happens. Let us know how you make out with Quad.

I have a Quad Castile insert and it does the same thing as your Classic Bay does, the green light often stays on for a while after shut down, however I use a skytech remote and I run it manually instead of using a thermostat.

barsen said:

SLLS, this is good input.

My house is not well insulated. Second, and most importantly, my CB 1200i shuts off long before the green light goes out. I measured it and got the following:

1. Step 1: House is at 70F, remote thermostat signals no more heat, heat call light goes out, pellet feed stops
2. Step 1 plus 3 minutes: flame goes out
3. Step 1 plus 4 minutes: Red light (indicating 600 F in thermocouple) changes to green light
4. Step 1 plus 9 min: convection fan out. air into the room still warm when convection fan goes out
5. Step 1 plus 10 min: combustion fan out. Green light still on
6. Step 1 plus 32 min: green light (200F) goes out.

It took 22 minutes from the time the combustion fan went out until the green light did. Had the stove turned back on during that time it would have experienced the start up cycle without a break to stop the pellet feed and let ignition take place, and would have resulted in smokey and slow ignition followed by big flames.

I am sure that Quadra-Fire, as a responsible firm, would like to correct a situation like this ASAP.

Click to expand...

Mine does this too. Maybe its an insert issue. You would think that either fans would continue to blow if the green light was still on to assist in the firebox cooling down. My CB1200-i thermostat often cycles back on before the green light goes off and as a result: high flames and often the rolling smoke followed by the "belch" of smoke blowed out from behind the door gaskets at startup. I have a very well insulated house, but the thermostat is right next to the stove.

So would adjusting the swing/anticipator setting on the t-stat mitigate this problem until Quad addresses the issue?

It must be insert thing. I noticed in the sequence barsen said the convection goes out before the combustion fan, my convection fan runs 15 after the combustion fan goes out. I do run on medium all the time. I set my cheap Lux that came with the unit to long delay on the anticipator.