Help needed - Quadra Fire Santa Fe feed issue

[gdeangel]

I have had an ongoing issue with my Santa Fe stove that sometimes, for NO reason other than normal operational vibration, the metal fire box plate that you remove to clean the convection tubes will come loose and fall over the fire pot. The Auger continues to run happily, dumping pellets on top of the plate, not in the firepot. I have done all kinds of checks after cleaning to make sure the plate tab is in the notch that secures it, but still happens every once in a while. When it has in the past, the firebox gets starved of fuel, the fire dies, the sensors detect a fire fail, and it goes into a fault mode. In the past, I just cleaned out the fire box of all the spilled pellets, put the plate back in place, and hit the reset button.

Now this is not great for a number of reasons, but today it got worse. I went down and discovered the plate was over the firepot, and the pellets had backed up. When I did the reset, the auger in the feed tube did not feed the pellets in the firebox. I could hear the auger motor running, but it wasn't the "normal" sound. Thinking the feed tube might be clogged, I shut it down, emptied the hopper and vacuumed out all the pellets from the feed tube. Then I put in a small amount of pellets and tried to start it up (hopper door closed, of course), and the auger motor did not turn on at all - I couldn't hear it.

I know there are some sensors that are supposed to detect feed jams, as well as overheat, etc. but don't really know where to start on troubleshooting this. Can anyone here help?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Don2222]

Hello

I never had that problem with the top baffle plate, but I can see it might happen if the top baffle plate is not secured properly.

Does your top baffle plate have the hooks like the Quadrafire Contour like the first two pics below?
If it has the hooks then make sure both hooks go into the corresponding holes in the back of the fire box.
Or
Does your top baffle plate have a tab that seats in a square hole like the Next two pics below?
If it has the tab then make sure the tab is properly seated in the square hole in the back of the fire box.

Also make sure the fire box door is closed all the way so the auger will turn. There is a vacuum switch that will sense no vacuum if the door is open. The vacuum hose is connected to the auger flight tube. You can check to make sure the tube is clean inside and properly connected to the auger flight tube and connected to the vacuum switch. Also check the vacuum switch, I have seen the switch be pulled out of the metal case. If so put it back or the diaphragm will not work.

See Auger Flight tube vacuum switch hose connection below and metal vacuum switch in last 2 pics

I also worked on a Santa Fe insert once that had an auger jam. In this case I had to pull the auger and buff off the black carbon and clean it up, I also use spray dry moly to give it a nice high temp smooth protective coating. Then I put it all back together and it has been feeding pellets ever since!

Click on pics below to see entire image and follow yellow arrows.

 

[tjnamtiw]

With the hopper empty, my stoves will NOT get enough vacuum to pull in the switch for the auger. Since the cover for the hopper is literally open all the time with a massive gap, air goes right down into the auger area and then into the fire area essentially killing the vacuum.
I never had the plates fall in mine. Granted, there isn't much holding them in place AND the Chinese have been known to ONCE IN A GREAT WHILE not make things to spec, but I haven't had the problem. Perhaps it might be worth while to grind away some of the flat area on the back side to make the tab more prominent for a more secure fit.