Sante Fe startup problem

[despalmy]

Greetings all,

Gleaned a lot of info here over the past 5 years and appreciate all the good advice given, but now I
have a question...

Background first, I own a 2005 Quadrafire Sante Fe. Have been running it with the original thermostat and it worked fine, cycling on and off normally. Recently, it will not turn on without pushing the reset button. Installed a new Honeywell digital thermostat and it still exhibits the same behavior. I cleaned it thorougly as well--no exhaust blockage, etc. I'm stumped... thanks for any input.

 

[gpcollen1]

Did you eliminate the thermostat altogether just to make sure? All you have to do is hook short wires up to the thermo terminals and connect them to turn it on.

As for pushing the reset button to start it, that is odd. I do not remember reading anything about that? I just got my 2005 running, new to me, and I had issues that were apparently solved by cleaning up every connection and cleaning everything very well.

I would start with checking/cleaning some of the connections and removing the thermo temporarily like I said.

 

[Bkins]

Have you changed pellet brands?

 

[jtp10181]

Check the ignitor slot in the bottom of the firepot for blockage.

Unplug the stove.
Also take the black hose off the vacuum switch and then blow through it, then reconnect to the vac switch. NEVER blow into the vacuum switch.

See if that helps, if not:
Do you get a lot of smoke on startup, like rolling smoke in the firebox?

 

[slls]

Are you saying it will not drop any pellets at all on start up, until you hit the reset button. Then it will run good?

 

[despalmy]

Thanks to all for the advice.
My start-up problem was not thermostat related , but it seems jtp1081's advice for cleaning the firepot ignition slot did it. I'm fairly anal about cleaning, but obviously missed that one! A piece of heavy gauge wire cleaned the slot and all has been normal since.
Funny, I give it a rough cleaning and vacuum it daily , then a thorough cleaning after each ton or so, I'm guessing that wasn't enough. The Juniata pellets, from from PA I've been using lately are very dark in color and pretty dirty, maybe that contributed to my problem. Been running like a champ since. Again, thanks to all who replied!

 

[jtp10181]

Hitting the reset button was making the ignitor run another cycle, building up enough heat to finally get a fire going. With the slot clean it can ignite normally again.

If you were getting a lot of smoke before, check everything over and remove all the soot buildup.