Castile confused...

[twill]

Hello,

New to the pellet stove world. Bought a used 2006 castile insert last year. Ran fine last year, this year after firing it up it would come on green light, red light stay lit for 2 mins and cut off. It can't run on low at all anymore.

So my silly questions:

1: is the red call might supposed to turn off at some point? I don't recall this being constantly lit before

2: how do you clean/check the vacuum switch? I'm looking at the exploded view and totally confused as there are two fan like items that look similar.

3: I replaced the thermocouple and it still shut down after a few minutes and in my travels found that the thermostat pieces that connect the little wires were bent funny so I bent them back and now they seem to be ok. Could that have caused my problems?

Thanks ahead of time for being patient with a newbie with a willingness to learn!

 

[bags]

There are pretty many Castile people around and they will chime in soon enough. Welcome!

 

[kappel15]

A little more exact explanation of what is going on would help. The red call light is not suppose to stay on all the time. Only when stove is running. Once room temp is satisfied, it is suppose to shut off. You said you replaced the thermocouple. Did you make sure it is touching the inside end of the cover, and that it is sticking into the firepot at least 3/4 to 1 inch?. Are the wire connectors making good contact? Have you made sure the exhaust path is clean? This means thru the stove and exhaust pipe? If you have a fresh air return, is it clear?. The green and red lights in the control box are temp sensors. Have you set the flame height? You may not be feeding enough fuel to keep heat up to specs. Exploded view in your owners manual on page 39, shows vac switch as # 40. Usually a square box or round. There is a rubber vacuum hose that runs from it to a nipple on the auger tube. Pull it off and blow thru it to make sure it is clear. Then take a small wire and poke thru hole in nipple to make sure it is clear. You can also jump the vac switch wires together to see if there are any vac issues, or to see if vac switch is bad. Can you tell if auger is still running when things happen? Looking from auger motor end, it is suppose to turn clockwise. If it is running opposite, your capacitor could be bad, and you would need a capacitor jumper. kap

 

[twill]

A little more exact explanation of what is going on would help. The red call light is not suppose to stay on all the time. Only when stove is running. Once room temp is satisfied, it is suppose to shut off. You said you replaced the thermocouple. Did you make sure it is touching the inside end of the cover, and that it is sticking into the firepot at least 3/4 to 1 inch?. Are the wire connectors making good contact? Have you made sure the exhaust path is clean? This means thru the stove and exhaust pipe? If you have a fresh air return, is it clear?. The green and red lights in the control box are temp sensors. Have you set the flame height? You may not be feeding enough fuel to keep heat up to specs. Exploded view in your owners manual on page 39, shows vac switch as # 40. Usually a square box or round. There is a rubber vacuum hose that runs from it to a nipple on the auger tube. Pull it off and blow thru it to make sure it is clear. Then take a small wire and poke thru hole in nipple to make sure it is clear. You can also jump the vac switch wires together to see if there are any vac issues, or to see if vac switch is bad. Can you tell if auger is still running when things happen? Looking from auger motor end, it is suppose to turn clockwise. If it is running opposite, your capacitor could be bad, and you would need a capacitor jumper. kap

 

[twill]

hi kap! Thanks for your help. I cleaned out the vent and the tube and now it appears that the feeder is blocked. I vacuumed out the hopper and stuck the vacuum up the chute where pellets fall out but it seems jammed. Stupid question. The thing in the hopper that controls the feed volume is up most and down nothing? Also last night it ran for a while on medium and quit in the middle of the night. I'm guessing due to blockage? So how do you take that apart to clean if there is blockage? Thanks again!

 

[twill]

I can hear it trying to send pellets but they aren't coming out. Sorry for my lack of technical terms!

 

[DMKNLD]

Hi twill - welcome from a fellow early generation Castile owner !! You can take a small mirror and a flashlight and shine it up the pellet drop chute from the fire box end and see if it blocked by pellet gunk or bridged with long pellets at the top, or could be anything. I found a chunk of a conveyor belt from the pellet mill that got into a bag of my pellets. Luckily I saw it before the auger sucked it up.

Take a coat hanger and bend it to a small hook with a straight section and root around from the fire box end up to the auger to loosen anything that might be obstructing the pellet drop. Worse case its' not to hard to take the auger out - 2 nuts screw onto a bolted bracket to hold it. You can then bench test the auger electrical function with it out the stove. UNPLUG THE STOVE before you disconnect any of the electrical connections so you don't defibrillate your control board or yourself!

Cheers !

 

[kappel15]

You can use a mirror and flashlight to shine up drop chute to see if any blockage is up there. Just stick small mirror above firepot and shine flashlight into it. Otherwise, unplug stove. Unplug auger motor wire harness. At motor end of auger, there are two screws. One on top, and one on bottom. Take these out(use a magnetic screwdriver as these little buggers like to fall and disappear), and then pull auger assy out. Some pellets will come with it. Check on blockage. Make sure set screw is holding auger spring to motor shaft and is not slipping at this time. You can also plug things back in and turn stove on to see how auger turns. Just make sure to jump vac switch wires together to make this possible. kap

 

[DMKNLD]

Dualing Quad posts, Kap Poor twill gets tag teamed on his first forum posts God help him......

 

[kappel15]

ROFLMAO

 

[twill]

Dualing Quad posts, Kap Poor twill gets tag teamed on his first forum posts God help him......

 

[twill]

Thanks guys! I opened the lid so I could see what the auger was doing and it turns and then pop/bangs (I only put a handful of pellets in to see what would happen). Could something be stuck in the middle? I'm a little intimidated by taking the auger off.

 

[lowcostheat]

I have had an auger that for some reason was catching on a screw that was sticking through into the auger tube too far? Used a shorter screw and it turned ok without the snap/bang!

 

[reallyte]

Taking the augur out is very easy. It is the best way to clear the clog.

 

[twill]

I was so proud... I cleaned thoroughly did the vacuum tube took out auger motor and it Worked for 3 hrs and then turned off. Womp womp. Any other thoughts?

 

[twill]

Another clue: the firepot looks greasy now?

 

[twill]

Also now the auger isn't working

 

[kappel15]

Did you find anything when you took the auger out?

 

[DMKNLD]

I was so proud... I cleaned thoroughly did the vacuum tube took out auger motor and it Worked for 3 hrs and then turned off. Womp womp. Any other thoughts?

Good on you do, brother! You are already onto a big part of what this forum and pellet stove ownership is about - the satisfaction of practical self-sufficiency ! Did you spray lube the auger shaft or use anything to clean / polish the auger tube? If so, your pellets may have just picked some of that up as they spiraled up the auger shaft, especially as the tube warms up and liquefies that stuff more. *Shouldn't* be a problem, but keep an eye on it for the next few burns at least.

A little lube in the fire pot isn't bad - at least a couple times a week I spritz some non-stick cooking spray into mine after I do a quick pot scrape and air hole cleaning with the appropriate 2 hex wrench sizes - I think they're 3mm and 5mm sized (?). The spray seems to keep the fire pot pull out 'trap door' from ash welding quite so much, as well as helping keep the spring and trap door latch release mechanism lubricated. Work the 'trap door' a couple times with a dusting of spray in the firepot and you will be surprised how easy the spring / latch system works.

Some folks swear by HT High Temp silicone spray lube, but I haven't found that the $8 spray can of silicone works appreciably better than the $2 can of generic cooking spray. "YMMV" - your mileage may vary, as we say allot on this forum as a standard disclaimer.

Twill - If you've got the 'hinkering for tinkering', as they say, with your new found "cruel mistress" (your stove, that is bro), which I just believe you do, then use the search link in the upper right to look up "Quad mods" or "Quadrafire modifications". Several of us have followed into the modification 'jet wash' of a couple of the Quad Castile 'consummate tinkers' on this forum; B-mod, tj, and Swine Flue among others.

They found some simple ways to squeeze a good bit more btu heat output from our stoves, especially the older model Castiles like you and I have. Do you have the 8 tube heat exchanger tube config or the newer version 10 tube heat exchanger? I have the 8 tube version, so I've enjoyed a significant heat boost to mine over prior heating seasons. There's some long threads that sometimes wander off topic a bit, but take a look at some of the posts and see if it something you're interested in.

Here's a start on a little 'light reading': https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/quadrafire-castile-experiment.58216/ Contact me on the PM - private message via your Inbox link and we can chat off - post if you want to.

Cheers, and happy burning !

 

[DMKNLD]

One step forward, 3 back, 1 sideways, 2 back.........

Auger set screw sounded suspect maybe ? Or the auger bushing is frigged up in there maybe? Is the auger seized ?

You got the 'Quad wizard' Kap hot on the scent, so he'll get you dialed in.

 

[twill]

Did you find anything when you took the auger out?

Nothing noteworthy although I don't know what to look for other than a jam?

 

[DMKNLD]

Nothing noteworthy although I don't know what to look for other than a jam?

Does it sound like the auger is trying to turn? Or is it NADA ?

 

[kappel15]

When you pulled the auger out, did a bunch of pellets come with it? When it quit, did it make the same bang noises, or just quit working? When you had auger out, did you make sure the set screw that holds the auger is not slipping? You can run the auger out of tube by jumping vac switch wires. That way you can check it and see. Just remember that auger is only running for a minute on initial start up. I would unplug igniter too so as not to waste it being on when testing as you will be hitting the reset button a few times to keep auger going. kap

 

[twill]

Nada

Does it sound like the auger is trying to turn? Or is it NADA ?

nada now...

 

[kappel15]

Did you jump the vac switch wires?