I'm posting first some info about how the Quadrafire Classic Bay 1200i works, and then asking for some advice.
We've been running the 1200i with a fairly low feed rate and heat output switch set to low. Fire looks nice, but we noticed it takes more than 30 minutes after fire ignite for the convection blower to come on. By this time, the unit seems crackling hot, so we wondered why the snap disc thinks it's not. We got out our handy temperature meter with thermocouple wire (we're scientist, so have such stuff lying around) and slightly unscrewed snap disc #1 to insert the thermocouple wire so it's touching the disc, retighten, and then we could measure the temperature at the snap disc location. (BTW - snap disc #1 and #2 are behind the LEFT side door, not the RIGHT side door as it says in the manual. At least they got the wire colors right, #1 has purple wires.)
Our thermocouple indicated that the snap disc #1 turns on the convention blower when the disc reaches about 125F, just like the manual says it should. So that means our sneaker thermocouple is making good thermal contact so we can know what's going on, and that indeed the snap disc is functioning as indicated on the tin. As I said, before the snap disc says its 125F, the nice fire has much of the insert crackling hot, but at the snap disc location it's staying cool. Indeed, we measured the temperature at the heat exchanger tubes at >300F while the snap disc location is still below 125F. It took more than 30 minutes of a nice fire for the snap disc to finally reach 125F. How silly is that? Behind the right side door where the electronics are, it feels much hotter to touch than it does behind the left side door where the snap discs are. Again, just how silly is that? We conclude we're using more pellets than necessary to heat the room because this convention blower is so slow to come on.
Next step (after unit cooled down) was to restart, but this time with the blower set on high. We did not change the feed rate. Once ignited in 2 minutes, we had a really blazing fire - it was scary big to our eyes. Just ten minutes after the fire ignited, our thermocouple and snap disc are at 125F and the convention blower comes on - blasting out almost unbearable heat. Prior to the convention fan coming on, the snap disc area was heating up fast - it only took about 3 minutes to go from 100 to 125F. But after the convention fan came on, the temperature in that area stablized and held around 127F. That's all good stuff. Except I don't really want to listen to the noise of all the fans running on high.
I'm currently waiting for the unit to cool, so I run the test again at Medium heat setting, but in the meantime, I thought I would post this info, as I see some older posting where people are thrashing with this same problem. They always seem to decide to run on high to get the convection fan to turn on faster (which our tests show definitely does work if you don't mind a scary blinding fire and lots of noisy fans).
I'm wondering about 2 possible alternatives:
1) Change to a fan control snap disc that turns on at 100F. Using our sneaker thermocouple, we decided that 100F at the left side would be a good temp for the convention blower to come on with the heat output on low. I've searched the internet for a replacement snap disc, but the only one that looks like the quadrafire snap disc is this one from Senasys being sold exclusively via Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Senasys-100°...ch/dp/B0026RYU4W/ref=pd_ts_hi_10?ie=UTF8&s=hi
The description says this is 3/4", which no matter how you measure it, seems lots bigger than the snap disc quadrafire are using. I tried sending the vendor an email asking for dimensions, but I guess for a <$10 part, no one was interested enough to respond.
So my question is - does anyone know where I can get a properly sized snap disc that closes at 100F?
2)OR - we thought maybe we could keep the 125F snap disc, but add a little copper braid (or some other material that transfers heat well) between a heat exchanger tube the the snap disc to allow the heat to get to the left area better. Like I said, there must be better thermal contact between the right side of unit than the left side where the snap discs are, because the right gets lots hotter than the left. And remember, my heat exchanger tubes are way over 300F while the snap disc area is still around 100F. If we could just get a little more heat flow to the left, then the snap disc would activate sooner.
So my question is - has anyone tried delivering more heat over to the left side where the snap discs are?
And finally, if there are any Quadrafire designers who reads this posting, could you please consider changing the position of your snap discs so they are in a better location to sense the insert temperature. That left side is just too chilly a location for the snap disc. Maybe you should have stuck with the right side where its hotter, which is where the manual says they are supposed to be located.
I guess that means a third alternative is for us to physically move the 125F snap disc over to the right side. We've not looked into that yet, so don't know how changing the wire locations would work out.
Of course, all 3 of my proposed mods are going to void my warranty, so I really wish Quadrafire would come out with an approved solution.
We've been running the 1200i with a fairly low feed rate and heat output switch set to low. Fire looks nice, but we noticed it takes more than 30 minutes after fire ignite for the convection blower to come on. By this time, the unit seems crackling hot, so we wondered why the snap disc thinks it's not. We got out our handy temperature meter with thermocouple wire (we're scientist, so have such stuff lying around) and slightly unscrewed snap disc #1 to insert the thermocouple wire so it's touching the disc, retighten, and then we could measure the temperature at the snap disc location. (BTW - snap disc #1 and #2 are behind the LEFT side door, not the RIGHT side door as it says in the manual. At least they got the wire colors right, #1 has purple wires.)
Our thermocouple indicated that the snap disc #1 turns on the convention blower when the disc reaches about 125F, just like the manual says it should. So that means our sneaker thermocouple is making good thermal contact so we can know what's going on, and that indeed the snap disc is functioning as indicated on the tin. As I said, before the snap disc says its 125F, the nice fire has much of the insert crackling hot, but at the snap disc location it's staying cool. Indeed, we measured the temperature at the heat exchanger tubes at >300F while the snap disc location is still below 125F. It took more than 30 minutes of a nice fire for the snap disc to finally reach 125F. How silly is that? Behind the right side door where the electronics are, it feels much hotter to touch than it does behind the left side door where the snap discs are. Again, just how silly is that? We conclude we're using more pellets than necessary to heat the room because this convention blower is so slow to come on.
Next step (after unit cooled down) was to restart, but this time with the blower set on high. We did not change the feed rate. Once ignited in 2 minutes, we had a really blazing fire - it was scary big to our eyes. Just ten minutes after the fire ignited, our thermocouple and snap disc are at 125F and the convention blower comes on - blasting out almost unbearable heat. Prior to the convention fan coming on, the snap disc area was heating up fast - it only took about 3 minutes to go from 100 to 125F. But after the convention fan came on, the temperature in that area stablized and held around 127F. That's all good stuff. Except I don't really want to listen to the noise of all the fans running on high.
I'm currently waiting for the unit to cool, so I run the test again at Medium heat setting, but in the meantime, I thought I would post this info, as I see some older posting where people are thrashing with this same problem. They always seem to decide to run on high to get the convection fan to turn on faster (which our tests show definitely does work if you don't mind a scary blinding fire and lots of noisy fans).
I'm wondering about 2 possible alternatives:
1) Change to a fan control snap disc that turns on at 100F. Using our sneaker thermocouple, we decided that 100F at the left side would be a good temp for the convention blower to come on with the heat output on low. I've searched the internet for a replacement snap disc, but the only one that looks like the quadrafire snap disc is this one from Senasys being sold exclusively via Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Senasys-100°...ch/dp/B0026RYU4W/ref=pd_ts_hi_10?ie=UTF8&s=hi
The description says this is 3/4", which no matter how you measure it, seems lots bigger than the snap disc quadrafire are using. I tried sending the vendor an email asking for dimensions, but I guess for a <$10 part, no one was interested enough to respond.
So my question is - does anyone know where I can get a properly sized snap disc that closes at 100F?
2)OR - we thought maybe we could keep the 125F snap disc, but add a little copper braid (or some other material that transfers heat well) between a heat exchanger tube the the snap disc to allow the heat to get to the left area better. Like I said, there must be better thermal contact between the right side of unit than the left side where the snap discs are, because the right gets lots hotter than the left. And remember, my heat exchanger tubes are way over 300F while the snap disc area is still around 100F. If we could just get a little more heat flow to the left, then the snap disc would activate sooner.
So my question is - has anyone tried delivering more heat over to the left side where the snap discs are?
And finally, if there are any Quadrafire designers who reads this posting, could you please consider changing the position of your snap discs so they are in a better location to sense the insert temperature. That left side is just too chilly a location for the snap disc. Maybe you should have stuck with the right side where its hotter, which is where the manual says they are supposed to be located.
I guess that means a third alternative is for us to physically move the 125F snap disc over to the right side. We've not looked into that yet, so don't know how changing the wire locations would work out.
Of course, all 3 of my proposed mods are going to void my warranty, so I really wish Quadrafire would come out with an approved solution.
