Sante Fe Insert shut down has us stumped

[jeffp]

Hi
I have a QuadraFire Santa Fee insert, about 7-8 years old. After going through the full start up cycle the stove will shut down after about 30-min to an hour. Red call light is still on and temp on remote thermostat has not be reached. Hitting the reset button on the stove or the on and off from the remote will start pellets dropping and the cycle starting again thought sometimes it will require a 5-10 minute cool down before this will work. It will then go on for a period of time then shut down again.

This has me and the repair tech stumped. The stove is totally clean, had the chimney swept in case there was an air flow problem, a new vacuum switch was tried as was a new thermocouple. Neither have corrected the problem. I totally emptied the hopper and vacuumed out the auger and the tech confirmed there were no jams at the the upper end of the auger chute. Fortunately the tech is a great guy and has been willing to try new parts then putting the old ones back in if it doesn't work but we seem to be running low on ideas.

I read elsewhere about the a faulty auger capacitor causing the auger to run backwards and stop feeding pellets. The tech hadn't heard this before.

How would I identify if the capacitor is a problem or are there any ideas on what might be causing this?

Thanks

 

[smwilliamson]

Is the room air blower blowing enough air? Try jumping the auto reset high limit disc... That cuts off the auger until it cools down

 

[SwineFlue]

You can look to see if the auger is running backwards if you empty the hopper.

The tech replaced the vacuum switch, but did he try to jumper (bypass) it? An airflow problem (intake or exhaust) will cause the vacuum switch to stop the auger.

And, as smwilliamson said,

Did the tech clean the convection (room air) blower and verify normal airflow is coming out? It does sound like it might be overheating. What setting is the stove on?

Did he check the "fuel delivery snap disk"? (It's the #2 snap disk on the Castile, I assume the Santa Fe is similar.) This will stop the auger if it gets too hot.

 

[jeffp]

You can look to see if the auger is running backwards if you empty the hopper.

The tech replaced the vacuum switch, but did he try to jumper (bypass) it? An airflow problem (intake or exhaust) will cause the vacuum switch to stop the auger.

And, as smwilliamson said,

Did the tech clean the convection (room air) blower and verify normal airflow is coming out? It does sound like it might be overheating. What setting is the stove on?

Did he check the "fuel delivery snap disk"? (It's the #2 snap disk on the Castile, I assume the Santa Fe is similar.) This will stop the auger if it gets too hot.

The auger won't run on an empty hopper so I can't check the direction.

He did try to jumper the vacuum switch. He replaced it only because nothing obvious was wrong and put the old one back when it didn't make a difference. I don't believe he cleaned the convection blower but did check the room airflow which seems normal. I have tried the fan setting low, med and high with the same result. Don't know if snap disk was checked. I will suggest these when he comes back.

 

[smwilliamson]

Pull the auger out two Phillip head screws top and bottom hold it in if you have the newer sante the I doubt you have a back spinning auger

 

[smwilliamson]

A pellet stove needs to be 100% cleaned and problems go away don't let the tech sit there and guess at it...damn it man, be a tech not a palm reader

 

[jeffp]

Thanks for the input. I have been cleaning everything that is visible and thought that was a total clean. But as I am learning through this process, there is a lot that isn't visible or easily reachable to the amateur.
I will turn him loose on the cleaning and see if that takes care of it. Hopefully it will.

 

[tjnamtiw]

After 7 or 8 years, it could very well be the capacitor allowing the auger to turn backwards from time to time when it gets under load. And you're right, you can't check the auger with the hopper empty because you won't get enough vacuum to close the vacuum switch. On our stoves, it's just about impossible to see if the auger is turning backwards. The good news is that the replacement capacitor just plugs in line and only costs about $12. That would be my next move. Unless you have one helluva roaring fire, you're not going to trip those high temp snap discs. He could check the connections to them, though, and even replace them to eliminate the possibility.
After running it 8 years, I am also assuming you know how to adjust the flame height and feed gate for proper feeding so those possibilities are probably 'back burner' ones.
You've eliminated the other obvious ones like pellets bridging at the feed gate and at the top of the chute so go for the capacitor, IMHO.

 

[DexterDay]

What heat setting are you running on? Is the flame height set according to the manual?

I know it sounds trivial, but to little fuel will extinguish a fire.

 

[jeffp]

Thanks for the replies. I think we have found the answer in the wireless remote not sending a consistent signal that the temp had not been reached and the stove was shutting down. The stove did respond to the remote when manually engaged but not during the ongoing cycle. It seemed to be loosing the signal after about an hour and shuts down. I tested it last night by setting the thermostat 5 degrees higher and the stove stayed on all night. A new remote is on order and that is expected to be it.