Quadrafire 1000 Pellets stopped feeding (faulty Firepot gasket maybe?)

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gimmeagig

New Member
Nov 21, 2010
18
Northern Idaho
Hi,
I'm new to this forum and my stove.
This season I'm using my Quadrafire 1000 pellet stove for the first time.It was in the house that I bought and I'm guessing it is about 10 years old.
Pretty much every day I have to pull out the cleanout plug and scrape out klinkers out of the firepot or the stove won't light.
No problem I'm OK with that.Today after I did my routine, the stove started lighting, almost started to get going but then the pellets stopped feeding. So I checked the fuel and there was some moisture in it and a whole lot of sawdust.The bag must have gotten wet on the inside.I removed all the fuel and vacuumed out the chute, put fresh fuel in and restarted it. Same result.
I then checked the gasket that the firepot sits in and it has a tear in it. There was a gap, so it did not form a complete seal.
Since I don't have a spare I ended up remolding it around the point of contact with the firepot a little to form a tighter seal and it worked.
The stove is now burning like it should again.
But now I have a few questions.

1 Is is possible that the leaky seal on the burner gasket was the reason why the auger stopped feeding pellets?Is there a relation between the vacuum switch and a failing firepot seal?

2 The firepot sits on the gasket loosely.It is not attached or held in place by anything other than it's own weight.So when I scrape it out it can happen that it shifts a little, possibly disturbing the seal, which its why the fabric might have gotten damaged in the first place.Is that the way it should be or is there a part missing on my stove that would somehow secure the firepot in place?

3 I read about the vacuum switch and a line that ends somewhere in the chute near the auger.I didn't mess with it this time but is it possible that it might have become plugged up from the sawdust and that I might have cleared it out when I stuck my shopvac hose into the chute?

4 What material is the gasket made of and where can I get a replacement? The material is probably about 1" -2" wide and it is some type of woven light colored fabric.



I just want to know a little more about troubleshooting the stove so that I'm not tapping in the dark so much next time I have a problem.
Thanks
 
gimmeagig said:
No responses? I was hoping to get at least a little bit of info here.
Click to expand...

Perhaps you would attract more comments if the post topic had the make and model of the stove in it.

Your pellet feed problem could be a number of things from the stove not reaching temperature to loss of vacuum to the stove over firing to a bum auger motor or a bad starting capacitor on the auger motor if your model has such a critter. Quadrafire stoves have been known to run their augers in alternate directions or completely backwards as a result of a bad capacitor in the auger motor wiring.
 
Thanks for the message. I just changed the title, hopefully I'll get more input this time.
So when you talk about loss of vacuum are you talking about the gasket around the firepot not sealing properly? It is really shot and I tried to wedge it around the pot to create a tight seal as best as I could.
There also was a sizeable chunk of klinker obstructing the opening at the top of the firepot plug. I had to actually break it loose with needlenose pliers. Filing did not work because the material is too hard.
I lost a little of the material from the fire pot and I'm wondering how long it will be before I need to replace it. I realize I could have easily cracked it, but the chunk was kind of loose already but not loose enough to get it out any other way. These klinkers seem to accumulate in the firepot every day so that in the morning I always have to take out the plug and clean the inside of the pot. Is that normal?
Are those firepots hard to come by and are they expensive? It might be good to have a spare just in case.
By the way the auger seems to be functioning as intended and it is not reversing direction.So I'm ok on that. It's just some other thing that must have stopped the auger from turning altogether. Maybe the moist fuel that was loaded with sawdust.Ever since i changed that out there was no more problem with the auger.
 
The vacuum switch is supposed to detect a low pressure in the firepot area.

If the firebox does not have a slight lower pressure (.5 inches water column) the switch will not close.

If the ECM does not see a signal from the thermal probe then the auger will not restart once the fire comes up.

You may not be getting a heat signal from the Thermal probe.

Check the vacuum switch to see if its working, if it is then look into the thermal probes functioning.


Snowy
 
gimmeagig,

Is that fire pot ceramic? When you said plug it caught my attention. The ceramic pot had a different gasket than the cast pot. FYI only
 
j-takeman said:
gimmeagig,

Is that fire pot ceramic? When you said plug it caught my attention. The ceramic pot had a different gasket than the cast pot. FYI only
Click to expand...

Yes, the firepot is made of porcelain and it has a plug made of the same material. The kilnkers stic to the porcelain and when removed they take some of the material with them.I since learned that those fire pots will eventually wear through and develop a hole in the bottom.
I also found out that they do not make the porcelain ones and that the new ones are made of cast iron. I called a dealer and was told there is a conversion kit available and it costs 500.- (ouch!!!)
I just found out all of this about a couple of hours ago. The seals are also no longer available.
I just saw the link where it is 289.- ( thanks for that), that's much better but would I need additional parts to make it work in my older stove?
 
gimmeagig said:
Thanks for the message. I just changed the title, hopefully I'll get more input this time.
So when you talk about loss of vacuum are you talking about the gasket around the firepot not sealing properly? It is really shot and I tried to wedge it around the pot to create a tight seal as best as I could.
There also was a sizeable chunk of klinker obstructing the opening at the top of the firepot plug. I had to actually break it loose with needlenose pliers. Filing did not work because the material is too hard.
I lost a little of the material from the fire pot and I'm wondering how long it will be before I need to replace it. I realize I could have easily cracked it, but the chunk was kind of loose already but not loose enough to get it out any other way. These klinkers seem to accumulate in the firepot every day so that in the morning I always have to take out the plug and clean the inside of the pot. Is that normal?
Are those firepots hard to come by and are they expensive? It might be good to have a spare just in case.
By the way the auger seems to be functioning as intended and it is not reversing direction.So I'm ok on that. It's just some other thing that must have stopped the auger from turning altogether. Maybe the moist fuel that was loaded with sawdust.Ever since i changed that out there was no more problem with the auger.
Click to expand...

No I was not talking about the fire pot when I mentioned loss of vacuum. The gasket issue if any would not likely cause a loss of vacuum it would be something like a door gasket or the door being open or the tube that goes to the vacuum switch being clogged, crimped shut, or broken.

You first need to find out which of several switches or sensors isn't allowing power to flow to the auger then you can further narrow things down to the actual cause.

It can take a bit of time to narrow things down.

I can't talk about the sintered ash situation in regards to what is or is not normal with your particular stove. In general clinker formation happens when ash is heated at the proper temperature in the presence of proper moisture and minerals (usually salts). Dirt that gets in the pellet fiber is the number one cause of clinkers.
 
gimmeagig said:
j-takeman said:
gimmeagig,

Is that fire pot ceramic? When you said plug it caught my attention. The ceramic pot had a different gasket than the cast pot. FYI only
Click to expand...

Yes, the firepot is made of porcelain and it has a plug made of the same material. The kilnkers stic to the porcelain and when removed they take some of the material with them.I since learned that those fire pots will eventually wear through and develop a hole in the bottom.
I also found out that they do not make the porcelain ones and that the new ones are made of cast iron. I called a dealer and was told there is a conversion kit available and it costs 500.- (ouch!!!)
I just found out all of this about a couple of hours ago. The seals are also no longer available.
I just saw the link where it is 289.- ( thanks for that), that's much better but would I need additional parts to make it work in my older stove?
Click to expand...

You will need the kit and it should include (firepot-gasket-linkage or ash dump lever and the igniter). Its an easy install as there are only 4 holes to drill. 3 for the burnpot and one for the linkage. The kit comes with the drill templetes to make it even easier.
 
"There also was a sizeable chunk of klinker obstructing the opening at the top of the firepot plug. I had to actually break it loose with needlenose pliers. Filing did not work because the material is too hard."

That clinker can be what caused your auger to shut down.

I'm not familiar with your stove but can propose the following two scenarios as possible.

1. The clinker caused the fire to die allowing the thermocouple to no longer signal proof of fire thus shutting down the auger.
2. The clinker blocked the air flow through the stove and this caused the vacuum sensor to stop the auger.

Scenario number two would depend on where the sensor system is connected (in other words if it senses pressure instead of vacuum both are possible functions of "vacuum" switches).
 
hi, i have had a 1000 for 20 years , go on ebay buy all your parts from jason at 2/3 the cost get the new cast pot with the lever outside to clean. if you buy good pellets you will have no klunker just ash. i think your problem is the vaccum switch. i hate my 1000 its to costly parts and pellets$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ am going back to a wood jotul or blaze king. denis
 
We have two Quad 1000 here.
I dont use the one upstairs much anymore as I prefer the Whitfields running on the cheap nut shells.

OK

The Quad 1000's had some serious firepot updates back in their hayday.

You really need to get the later all steel firepot which also has a metal loop type igniter.

The gasket is not a real biggy. Just use a piece of the thin flat stove gasket thats about an inch or so wide.

Secure the gasket to the inside of the firebox floor with high temp silicone.

Just loop the flat gasket strip around the opening in the firebox floor and butt the ends.

Once the silicone is cured you can cut gasket as required.

The metal firepot upgrade is a much needed change.

The original ceramic igniters were poor at best and prone to failure

The gray ceramic/clay ?? firepots were also prone to breaking and failure.

Here are some piccy's of the new steel pot.

I got this one from the dealer as it was going to be tossed out. It has a cracked weld in the upper ring that can easily be rewelded. The pot will then be as good as new.

This is spare should I ever need one.

Both our pots were replaced about 2 years after we bought the stoves.

One was replaced after it failed (bottom fell out of the ceramic pot)


Now the stove should feed pellets for a short time (Handfull in the pot) then the feed stops.
The fire should lite and once the temp probe senses heat, the feed starts again .

No heat and the stove will shut off within about 5 minutes.

The original ceramic ignitors were very sensative to CLINKERS
The later steel pot and loop ignitor will tollerate a lot of crap and still lite the fire

The firebox on these stoves runs under a slight negative pressure and unless the pressure switch sees a neg pressure the auger will not feed at all even at start up.

Hope this helps some.

Snowy
 

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I also had a 1000 for about 15 years. We moved so it stayed with our townhouse. The pot was upgraded the year we moved which was a great upgrade. as far as feeding pellets, you have to make sure the vacuum switch is working. on the right side of the stove is the panel and control box behind that. if you use a small jewelers screwdriver you can tweak the switch. make sure you have a good seal on the door 1st! then the switch should stop the auger feed when the door is open.....mine was a tank, put out some great heat! it also has snap discs for other controls.....I was suprised how easy it was to work on! I had the manual and a great supplier to help me when needed at that time. good luck.
 
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