Hastings intermediate start up problem.

[oldhouse]

I have been reading posts on here for a couple of years. My stove starting having a problem that no one else seems to have. It is a St. Croix Hastings bought new in October 2007. The first two years it workes great. The only problem was the auger motor quit. Warranty covered it. Last year we started burning some Rocky Mt. pine pellets. That is the ONLY thing different. We run it on the smartstat mode unless it gets real cold then we leave it on T-stat mode. Now the problem nobody has been able to figure out. Once in a while when it starts up it does not go thru the normal start up program of combustion fan and room fan on for 30 seconds then starting to auger pellets and light. It just starts with both fans on and starts to auger pellets. It will do this in any mode not just the smartstat mode. We were home and able to shut down the stove everytime but once while we were asleep. The carbon monoxide detector went off and woke us. The stove got real hot because of the immediate augering of the pellets. It has not shown a code on the control board except then and it was high limit. The dealer replace the thermostat and the control board. He has never seen it happen to any stove including mine. he called his rep and he had never heard of that before. I have gave it several thurough cleanings according to this forum. Now the igniter has quit. My dealer is willing to trade it in for a new one. I don't think he believes it is doing what I told him. I went back to using hardwood pellets and it still does it. Anybody else ever heard of this. I have searched here and everywhere else but have found nothing. Thanks.

 

[imacman]

Not real familiar with that stove, but otherwise never heard of this type of problem.

Why don't you let the dealer take the stove back to their store and see if they can get it to run correctly. If they can, and they can show you that while they have it, then take the stove back.

Otherwise, if the dealer sees the same issue while he has it, then let them take the stove back and get something else.

What other stoves do they sell?

 

[unklechuckles19]

What happened when the dealer replaced the control board with a new one?? Same symptoms? When it's starting itself up and not going through the proper startup mode (fans running, and checking for vacuum) is this after the stove has shut itself down on SmartStat and it's now restarting?

 

[oldhouse]

We replaced the thermostat first then the control board. It was always when starting up on smart-stat. It may do it three times in a week, once a week or once a month. I cleaned it and started it up last week to run a few hours and it was fine. Last Saturday I tried to start it up and it wouldn't work right. I always unplug the power and push the high limit reset when it won't start up right. It took three tries before it would come on right. So unplugging and pushing reset may not have anything to do with it. I unhooked the thermostat wires and put it on manual and tried to start it. It did not start up then either. Now the igniter doesn't work.

 

[Bkins]

I agree with imacman in that somebody with a vast knowledge of you model and brand of stove needs to go over it from top to bottom. I would start off by making sure all wires are in good shape and that the ends are tight. This would require checking each and every wire on the stove. This is just a guess. On some Quads the wire harness connecting the circuit board works it way slightly lose and can cause all kinds of erratic behavior. Was the tech that did the circuit board replacement trained on that stove and did he/she seem knowledgeable?

 

[smwilliamson]

You want to separate the contact leads from the igniter and power them with 120v direct. does the igniter coil heat up? If so, check the ground wire terminal bus above the power inlet. There are two terminals in the upside down position and when the rear stove panel is put back on they often are nudged downward and fail to make proper contact. Additionally, you could run a continuity test with a DMM through each wire in the circuit to find out whether or not you have a terminal disconnect which may have a bad crimp. If the igniter does not power up...well, you just may have worn it out with all of that lazy T-stat like usage...it happens. Oh, and you may want to give a look see to the fore front of the air chamber in the versa grate burn pot area, just under where the igniter resides and beyond where the bottom plate of the burn pot pushes to...you can get a whole lotta ash built up in the area and the burn pot sidewall grate may not be seating properly and the hot air is leaking around the base.

Check it out.

 

[Nicholas440]

Sorry to hear about your problem, the stove sounds like it's very unreliable and unpredictable as well. My personal thought is that I'd trade that rascal in and get a new one where you could have peace of mind knowing that you can sleep at night without worrying if your carbon monoxide detector is going to go off.

 

[oldhouse]

The dealer has tried everything he could think of. He didn't charge for the new control panel. I don't think he is up on the electrical side as much as the mechanical. I unplugged the igniter and put my meter on it and started up the stove. It showed that it had power. I did not take the igniter out and try to rig up a cord to check it. I checked all the connection by hand to see if they were loose and didn't find any. That does seem like a good possibility. It is going to cool down the next couple of days and I will see how it does. Too hot to have it running today. Thanks for all the suggestions.

 

[Ironhorse74]

The dealer has tried everything he could think of. He didn't charge for the new control panel. I don't think he is up on the electrical side as much as the mechanical. I unplugged the igniter and put my meter on it and started up the stove. It showed that it had power. I did not take the igniter out and try to rig up a cord to check it. I checked all the connection by hand to see if they were loose and didn't find any. That does seem like a good possibility. It is going to cool down the next couple of days and I will see how it does. Too hot to have it running today. Thanks for all the suggestions.

I think the burn pot is plugged or the combustion fan is slow. Can you post a picture of the burn pot?

Brad