Classic Bay 1200 smoke issue, Please help

[hookthefish]

I have a 1999 model that ran perfectly last year but this year I am having a small puff of smoke that comes out from were the auger motor is during start up.
When this problem first started I replaced the exhaust motor thinking that this may solve the problem but continued with the new motor.
I checked/cleaned my pipe and liner, hardly had any thing in it, took off the auger motor checked the gasket which looked good and reinstalled the auger motor but sill for some reason smoke is coming out from that area.

Dose any one know what I can do to try to stop this from happening?

I still have the older style auger motor with a rectangle nylon bearing, could this be worn out to the point were smoke can escape out?

 

[JDenyer236]

I don't really know anything about this stove but
I'll give you a bump so someone who knows can help. Kap is the resident quad guru here so maybe he'll see it.

 

[Lake Girl]

I would suspect that it is possible that the bearing is worn (If it's been used steady - 15 years!). I also want to point out that just above the auger on my stove there is a lot of high temp silicone to seal the bottom edges of the hopper where it runs along the top of the auger. Might want to make sure that silicone is still intact on your stove...

 

[kappel15]

I would make sure that is exactly where the smoke is coming from. Yes, that gasket can be worn, or the screws were not tight enough to make a good seal? I would also check the exhaust path in the stove itself to make sure there is no blockage, and pipe again, as something is forcing the smoke up the dropchute and thru the auger tube. kap

 

[Lake Girl]

How long have you had the stove? All along or new to you?

 

[DBCOOPER]

Isn't the auger motor inside the pellet bin like it is on a newer 1200i?

 

[hookthefish]

I believe I'm on my 3rd winter with this stove but this past summer I moved it to another area of the home and connected it to a 4" chimney liner up a chimney. I checked the liner this past fall before burning season and no blockage was there, pulled my stove pipe from the chimney liner today and again nothing was there.
The puff of smoke is defiantly coming from the auger area and it only happens on start up, after it lights there is no smoke and it burns like a charm, fast white flame, hardly any ash build up and no lazy carbon flame.

 

[DBCOOPER]

Is it on a thermostat?

 

[hookthefish]

Yes I believe its like the the CB 1200i, it like almost underneath with a cover on it in the pellet hopper.

Yes it is on it's original quadra-fire thermostat. It hasn't been cycling on or off to often and usually the convection fan turns off before it cycles back on again. Now that it's colder tonight it's not cycling off.

 

[kappel15]

Isn't the auger motor inside the pellet bin like it is on a newer 1200i?

Yes it is

 

[DBCOOPER]

Does the the thermostat have a "swing" setting? My stove will light off with a puff of smoke thru the air wash and pellet chute if it doesn't have a chance to cool down between lightings. Was cured with a thermostat that has a swing setting set at 1.5 degrees.

 

[hookthefish]

When this first started to happen I called Quadra-fire and told them every thing on how it was connected with length/ size pipe, elbows, t's and liner size and length and they suggested for me to replace my exhaust motor which I did but did not solve the problem.

 

[DBCOOPER]

The Quad stat is junk. You need a thermostat with a differential that lets it cool down some between cycles. Or you could just ignore it. The stove runs on a negative pressure except when you get what I call an explosive light off. It will smoulder until conditions are just right and then the combustable gasses light off with a pop and than the stove runs fine.

 

[hookthefish]

Correction, it's not a Quad stat. I forgot that I switched it to a Honeywell manual not digital stat.

The stove has been cooling down to 120 degrees for the snap disk to shut off all the blowers and sometimes turns back on 5 minutes later.

 

[DBCOOPER]

Its caused by the thermocouple still being warm enough on start up that the stove thinks that the fire has already been established so it starts feeding pellets right on top of the start up pellets. You probably end up with a pretty high flame on start up also.

 

[DBCOOPER]

Look at the lights on the control box between cycles, you'll see the blue light is still lit on start up.

 

[DBCOOPER]

It can also happen if the fire pot gets clogged in between the pellets and igniter. Causes a slow real smokey start up.

 

[hookthefish]

Well actually not an overly high flame on start up, it will get about 6 inches above the burn pot .
I will check the light soon, it just cycled off and it dose take a long time to cool.

 

[hookthefish]

Well it looks like I will have to check for the lights on the control board tomorrow, my pellets are to high in the hopper to take the cover off.
What dose the blue light stand for?

 

[DBCOOPER]

Sorry its a green light. It means the thermocouple is making 2.5 millivolts +/- .5 millivolts. It does this when there is enough heat from the fire in the burn pot to prove that the stove lit. There can be enough residual heat to make the stove think that there is fire established even if there is no flame. The combustion fan works on time not temperature and the convection fan works off the snap switch. I went thru this same problem. You need to have enough time between cycles for the thermocouple to cool off.

 

[Jaymaine34]

I agree with DBCOOPER the stove is short cycling . Need a swing set of at least 1.5 I run mine at 2 . Also do you have a gasket in the clean out T ? I know that's not where your seeing the smoke but its under pressure and will take the easiest way out .

 

[hookthefish]

I don't know if my Honeywell stat can adjust the swing set, its a spring coil type but I do have a older Shytech wireless digital stat, I need to check if this one has a swing setting. The Shytech uses a lot of batteries and I got tired of changing them so I went back to the basic mechanical stat.
Last night the outside temps dropped in the low 20's so I just turned the stat all the way up and left the stove on medium so it wouldn't keep cycling.


Jaymaine34, My first clean out T is connected directly to my stove and I did notice a while back ago that the bottom cap for clean out did have some holes so I silicone them up.

 

[kappel15]

Regardless of what the stove does, it shouldn't smoke out the auger.

 

[hookthefish]

Another strange thing I should mention, after I replaced the exhaust motor I noticed that it really built up a ton of smoke and did a poof ignition. I thought that maybe it was getting to much draft so I experimented by holding my hand over the fresh air intake hole and it actually limited the smoke build up, stopped the poof or flash ignition, a lot lesser smoke would come out by the auger and it still had a clean vigorous fire after lit.

Ps, this pic is not my stove, I just grabbed it online to show where my air intake is.

 

[kappel15]

How often do you clean the pot by dumping ash? And are all your holes in pot clean? Is the pot floor closing good on bottom of pot, as far as closing all the way, and no large gap? There should be no more then a dimes width gap on the back of the pot between the pot floor and the pot. Have you used a mirror and flashlight to look in pot and see if igniter slit is clear of any ash or clinker? And have you checked your flame height to make sure you are not feeding too much fuel? kap