2008 Mt Vernon AE won't ignite

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debbiec

New Member
Dec 23, 2021
4
Middleofnowhere, Utah
Our 2008 Mt Vernon AE won't ignite pellets. At start up, the combustion blower turns on at a slow speed and begins to speed up at the 90 second mark. Pellets begin dropping within seconds after. The element begins to glow at 3 minutes and the combustion blower slows back down approx 30 seconds later. There it sits, element glowing, pellets in the pot and the blower on slow speed. At 18 minutes, the stove goes into auto-clean mode. The element is still glowing throughout the auto-clean mode. Once auto-clean is done, the stove will go right back into start up mode....and repeat with no ignition ever happening. It is a never-ending cycle. Turning the Quadrafire wall thermostat to off doesn't stop the stove from repeating its cycles over and over. The only way to stop it, is to unplug the stove from the outlet. There are a few charred pellets in the ash pan each time it dumps.

We have cleaned the stove, firepot (holes and slot), motors, vacuum switch tubing and 10 feet up the chimney. I estimate the chimney run is approx 30 feet on two story house with a very steep roof. The chimney was professionally cleaned 2 years ago. The ignitor was new in October and is a genuine Quadrafire ignitor.

Above the control box are two lights, green and amber. They are both on. Under the cover of the control box, down in the lower part, there is a red light blinking. It blinks continuously every 2 seconds. I can see a solid red light in the upper portion of the box. It has never blinked.

The thermostat doesn't ever show any errors except for once. At the beginning of the season, the stove would usually ignite on it's second start-up attempt. We allowed it to start up early on its own one morning. It failed to ignite and did give a missed ignition error on the thermostat. I didn't bother with it for several hours and then discovered the combustion blower was still running on low speed the whole time. The only way to shut it down was by unplugging the stove.

We live in the middle of nowhere and have no service technician for our area. I hate to buy a new stove if this one has a simple problem. The owner's manual isn't of much help. I've browsed this forum for months and can not find a similiar problem. If anyone has any ideas I would love to hear them.
 
There are some smart Quad people here, they should check in soon. But does sound to me like poor airflow, dirty stove,flue, or restricted air intake. It is normal on some stoves for the combustion blower to run slower for ignition, makes for an easier start. But we shall see what they say. But you can check and make sure burn pot goes all the way closed after a cleaning cycle.
 
There are some smart Quad people here, they should check in soon. But does sound to me like poor airflow, dirty stove,flue, or restricted air intake. It is normal on some stoves for the combustion blower to run slower for ignition, makes for an easier start. But we shall see what they say. But you can check and make sure burn pot goes all the way closed after a cleaning cycle.
Thanks Bob.... I'll double check the burn pot closing. I too feel it is an airflow problem. I've stuck a piece of tubing into every opening I could find to vacuum out. Other than mountain climbing on the roof, I think I have it clean on the inside. I wish the manual told me what the red blinking light was all about.
 
This is from the 2006 manual
. Locate the heat output control knob mounted on the upper right corner of the side panel. See Figure 20.1 on page 20. Turn it to the “quad” setting by turning clockwise until it stops and then adjust the thermostat to its highest setting. The red call light located on the upper right corner on the back of the appliance will be on. See Figure 21.1. This indicates the thermostat is calling for heat.

This is where I got it hope it helps

 
This is from the 2006 manual
. Locate the heat output control knob mounted on the upper right corner of the side panel. See Figure 20.1 on page 20. Turn it to the “quad” setting by turning clockwise until it stops and then adjust the thermostat to its highest setting. The red call light located on the upper right corner on the back of the appliance will be on. See Figure 21.1. This indicates the thermostat is calling for heat.

This is where I got it hope it helps

Thank you Johneh. Unfortunately, I have the AE model. It has no knobs and lights in the locations this manual mentions. In fact, it has no knobs anywhere. It is totally controlled by the thermostat. I can't even light a fire manually without hooking up to a deep cell battery from what I can figure out.
 
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Use a flashlight and a small mirror and look at inside bottom of firepot. There is a slit there, for the igniter heat to start fuel on fire. Sometimes they can be blocked by clinker debris. Also the igniter housing could be full of ash, blocking heat.And you should be able to manually look and see if pot floor is closing up against bottom of pot. And you can manually start a fire. Just wait till fuel has dropped, open door and light fuel. Close door and stove should continue on its cycle. You will get some smoke in house. kap
 
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Use a flashlight and a small mirror and look at inside bottom of firepot. There is a slit there, for the igniter heat to start fuel on fire. Sometimes they can be blocked by clinker debris. Also the igniter housing could be full of ash, blocking heat.And you should be able to manually look and see if pot floor is closing up against bottom of pot. And you can manually start a fire. Just wait till fuel has dropped, open door and light fuel. Close door and stove should continue on its cycle. You will get some smoke in house. kap
Kap... I will double check the slit and the ignitor housing. The pot floor is closing all the way and everything appears to be aligned properly. When I light the pellets manually, will the stove cycle correctly with the red blinking light in the control box? I assume the red blink is an error. It would be wonderful to have heat from the stove in here again...I will happily put up with smoke in exchange for heat! Thank you!
 
Red light has nothing to do with errors. It is suppose to blink. And make sure of where the igniter wires are(they go into a slot above auto clean to keep em from being rubbed and shorting out)
. kap
 
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Might try bypassing the vacuum switch and see if it lights. If so need gaskets or new vacuum switch.
 
Gotcha. Been a while since I ran a pellet stove. I can’t even remember how I ended up over here. LOL.