Quadrafire SantaFe-have to press reset button to light.

[crf450ish]

Here is what I know:

*Igniter works perfectly....just put a brand new one in

*Stove has been maintained well. Burn pot holes are clear.

*Augur motor works and feeds pellets fine. Vacuum line is clean and free of dust & debris.

*Brand of pellets is North Idaho Energy logs-been using them with no problems for over a year.

*There is about 3/16 inch of gap on the opposite side of the burnpot cleanout door hinge. (maybe I will tighten it up to a dime thickness gap)


I have watched what happens when the stove is turned on and have documented it. It is as follows:

-Combustion motor starts and red call light comes on (not red light inside of control box)

-Pellets begin feeding (didn't time it)

-Ignitor heats up and begins turning orange.

-Heres where I am stumped...

Sometimes it will light and a small flame appears. At which point I wait for the red light inside the control box to come on & pellets to begin feeding. The red light does come on everytime which indicates the augar to feed pellets. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't. Why? When it doesn't is when the pellets that are in there from the start up process just fizzle out and the stove shuts off and the red light in the control box is still on as well as the call light....

Again, vacuum hose to augar motor is clean and free of debris & burn pot holes are clean. Entire stove inside and out is always kept showroom cleanliness, vacuumed twice a week. Chimney (exhaust) piping flap is cleaned out etc. I am replacing the tadpole gasket around the door when it arrives in the mail. Didn't do the $ bill trick (yet). Really...the only thing I can think of is the snap discs. I have located two of them, is there a third? What's the procedure for testing them?

Thanks.

 

[Former Farmer]

*There is about 3/16 inch of gap on the opposite side of the burnpot cleanout door hinge. (maybe I will tighten it up to a dime thickness gap)

I would tighten up the gap first. Sounds like not enough air running over igniter for starting pellets.

 

[stovelark]

I'd second tightening the gap a little if possible. As far as the thermocouple function. Initial proof of ignition is a green light on the control board (200 degrees is the green light) followed by red light meaning a 600 deg temp in burnpot thermocouple reading. When the green light (200 deg) is achieved, the control board gets that signal and the auger continues to feed. It sounds like a lack of airflow through the stove either from it not being clean enough or perhaps that gap at the bottom of the burnpot being a factor.... Does the flame look brisk in its movement in the burnpot or is it kinda lazy??
Something to check.... Something else, does the initial pellet feed load look normal?? I'm wondering if the feed motor is delivering full charge initially to get things going...

 

[reallyte]

Ensure the thermocouple is all the way to the end of the ceramic cover also.

 

[smalltown]

I agree check that your getting a good amount of pellets in the burn pot to start with. You could drop a good handful in the burn pot before you start to test things.
If it's still a small flame that to me sounds like your not getting enough air flow up through the burn pot. a lot of times when my stove starts if it's clean I can hear a whistling of air that must be from the burn pot air pot holes.

I always take a mirror and look up the drop chute to see if there are any obstructions. Pellet dust can build up at the end of the augur. I clean that with a long plastic hose attached to a stove vacuum.

Don't forget there is a gasket under the lip of the burn pot. If that gasket leaks air will go around the burn pot.
You can see the air holes in the burn pot on the sides and rear, but it takes a mirror to see the 4 (I think) on either side of the igniter hole.

My door gaskets seem to last 2 years before they get frayed.

My Quad Castile has a round hole under the stove to draw in air for combustion maybe the Santa Fe has the same? Might be blocked somehow?

If you need later today I will start my stove from cold, and time everything?

As I remember it when you first call for heat the red call light will come on, and the exhaust fan will start up on high setting.
Augur starts to drop the initial "charge" of pellets. Control box at this time has red light lit.
Augur stops feeding pellets, and (hopefully) fire starts in burn pot.
Exhaust fan drops back to whatever speed you have the rear rocker switch set on.
If fire builds up enough heat as stovelark stated to 200 degrees (there is a timer going on here) red control box lamp turns to green signaling the augur to start feeding pellets.
If fire continues to grow to 600 degrees green (another timer going on) control box lamp now turns to red, and everything should run normal.

If you have a weak flame your control box may never light the green lamp, and the stove will auto shutdown.

P.S. Not sure what you meant by sometimes it feeds pellets and sometimes not. In my stove each pulse of the augur doesn't always produce pellets dropping. I just think it's the way the augur has grabbed pellets as it turns. One pulse maybe no pellets the next pulse a few, and another a lot. I imagine that's what causes the fire to rise and fall while it's running normal.

Have I written too much ?

 

[crf450ish]

I agree check that your getting a good amount of pellets in the burn pot to start with. You could drop a good handful in the burn pot before you start to test things.
If it's still a small flame that to me sounds like your not getting enough air flow up through the burn pot. a lot of times when my stove starts if it's clean I can hear a whistling of air that must be from the burn pot air pot holes.

I always take a mirror and look up the drop chute to see if there are any obstructions. Pellet dust can build up at the end of the augur. I clean that with a long plastic hose attached to a stove vacuum.

Don't forget there is a gasket under the lip of the burn pot. If that gasket leaks air will go around the burn pot.
You can see the air holes in the burn pot on the sides and rear, but it takes a mirror to see the 4 (I think) on either side of the igniter hole.

My door gaskets seem to last 2 years before they get frayed.

My Quad Castile has a round hole under the stove to draw in air for combustion maybe the Santa Fe has the same? Might be blocked somehow?

If you need later today I will start my stove from cold, and time everything?

As I remember it when you first call for heat the red call light will come on, and the exhaust fan will start up on high setting.
Augur starts to drop the initial "charge" of pellets. Control box at this time has red light lit.
Augur stops feeding pellets, and (hopefully) fire starts in burn pot.
Exhaust fan drops back to whatever speed you have the rear rocker switch set on.
If fire builds up enough heat as stovelark stated to 200 degrees (there is a timer going on here) red control box lamp turns to green signaling the augur to start feeding pellets.
If fire continues to grow to 600 degrees green (another timer going on) control box lamp now turns to red, and everything should run normal.

If you have a weak flame your control box may never light the green lamp, and the stove will auto shutdown.

P.S. Not sure what you meant by sometimes it feeds pellets and sometimes not. In my stove each pulse of the augur doesn't always produce pellets dropping. I just think it's the way the augur has grabbed pellets as it turns. One pulse maybe no pellets the next pulse a few, and another a lot. I imagine that's what causes the fire to rise and fall while it's running normal.

Have I written too much ?

You did not write too much. In fact, I appreciate the information you have provided.

I did tighten up the gap and she lights now on her own every time so far, 12 different times.

I have a new tadpole door gasket coming as well. The burnpot gasket is new as of mid season last season, haven't touched it since, and I know its good.

I also actually physically removed the burnpot (had to to replace old gasket late last fall) and noticed the holes were clogged. I took a drill bit that was a hair smaller in diameter than the holes and gently wallowed the debris out of the holes and then took a chainsaw file to the holes to fine tune them back to near brand new looking. They are all still in good shape and free of debris.

I do need to get a mirror and look up into the chute to see of there is any obstructions. Is there any other way to clean the dust out without using a special stove vacuum? Couldn't I take a piece of rubber hose small enough in diameter to fit up into the chute and duct tape it to the end of my shop vac and just fish it up in there and vacuum it out and then take another look with the mirror to see if I got it all and rinse and repeat if necessary? Thanks again.

 

[smalltown]

Glad to read your stove is starting up as it should !

I mention a stove vacuum as that's what I have, and use for my cleaning routine.
I think any hose/vacuum will work ok. The hose I am using is ~ 1/2" outside dia., and ~3/8" inside Dia. Since your pushing it up into the augur area it will get caught sometimes: no worry it will come out with some twisting. I usually find residue at the end of the augur that cleans out very easily.

The best mirror I have found is those cheap round telescoping ones. I also find it helpful to wear a an inexpensive headlamp. that way both your hands are free. It also helps to be able to guide the hose toward the augur.

One thing I will mention that has nothing to do with your issue that I thought might help somebody in the future. I have found that the burn pot door will sometimes be hard to open because of built up carbon. I used to start pulling hard on the cleanout handle to get the door moving.
It has become my personal opinion that pulling hard like that on the handle puts too much stress on the burn pot, and eventually the burn pot starts to "wiggle" as the two bolts start to loosen. Once that starts your burn pot gasket is getting chewed up. If my door does not want to open easily I scrape it from above with cheap chisel. Mine is 5/8" wide. I few scrapes, and the door is sliding freely.

 

[stovelark]

Good to hear she is back working so far, sounds like you got the culprit.....

 

[crf450ish]

Hey who here has run their stoves on a generator? I am looking at purchasing a 8,500 running watt generator, but the 110v receptacles are only 20 amps. I have no idea how many amps the combustion motor & ignitor sucks during start up, and how many amps the stove is sucking all together whilst running.... thats my main worry....dropping a decent amount of coin on a generator only to discover it pops breakers when I have the stoves hooked up....that would ruin my wife and kids day when the power was out.

Here is a few that I am looking at, spec sheet:

http://gens.lccdn.com/generaccorpor...power/gp series/0196620-a-gp6500.pdf?ext=.pdf


https://www.manualslib.com/manual/593057/Honeywell-Hw7500e.html?page=41#manual


http://north40.com/catalog/product/view/id/44415/



OR.....couild I just buy a couple REALLY high quality surge protectors and use them?

 

[smalltown]

crf450ish I can get you the amperage specs. for my Quadrafire Castile, but you will find that current draw is not the issue with running the stove on a generator. The real issue is something called harmonic distortion. It has to do with the recreation of a sine wave (AC signal). To get a good clean AC signal for my Castile, and I imagine most pellet stoves you need a generator that outputs very low harmonic distortion. For instance my Castile pellet stove will not run on my Generac portable generator. Motors/ fans may not turn properly, or make noises etc.. You could get a better generator such as a Generac XP series, and that should run your pellet stove ok, but at a cost.

What I finally decided to do was buy a good Generac generator I think mine is a XG 8000 peak wattage model made in the USA that was on sale. I wired an external AC connector on the side of the house, and installed a manual transfer switch in my service panel. I can run everything I would want or need in a power outage. The pellet stove would be unplugged, and I would heat my home with my oil fired boiler until power was restored. I simulated a power outage with my generator and was very satisfied at what I could run including my 220 volt well pump.


P.S. Castile start up 4.1 amps, running 1.1 amps. (the 4.1 is most likely do to the igniter on at start up) So they don't take that much.

 

[smalltown]

I wanted to add that there are inverter generators that would run you stove. I think people use them to run just a stove, and maybe something else small. If you search on here there are threads about generators.

 

[kappel15]

It needs pure sine wave power, with a surge protector. kap