Classic Bay FS 1200 will do nothing. Started it two days before Thanksgiving and it ran for one day

[ontheprairie]

Re-cleaned stove. Put a few pellets in firepot. Pushed reset button. Fan came on, pellets in pot ignited but no auger feeding more to sustain it. Went through troubleshooting guide. Had "professional"cleaner out to"inspect" my cleaning. He said it was fine but thought our auger motor was burnt out. He was willing to order me one for $256. Ordered motor online for $174. Installed it. Still no feeding of pellets.

Called "local" dealer who had to call Quadrafire support. Tried jumping the vacuum switch wires. After more phone calls between the dealer to techsupport and back to us, the consensus was that we needed a new control box. Dealer happy to order it for me and sell it to me for $246 +tax. Found it online for under $200. Ordered it and talked to customer support from the company I ordered it from. They suggested to jump snap disc #2 simultaneously as the vac switch to make sure. Attempted. Now NOTHING, no fan, no little red light, no reassuring click/pause in fan from pushing reset button. Double checked fuse-looks fine.

New control box arrives yesterday; Hooked up, still nothing. Went to dealer's store today conveniently located 45 miles away, purchased snap discs #1 and #2 and some more fuses just in case. Hooked up new SD #2 and new fuse, plugged in stove, still NOTHING. Went through the less than helpful troubleshooting guide again. Attempted to reset SD # 3 by auger motor. Little button will not push in. First time I've attempted this by the way, Still NOTHING when I plug in stove. YES, the outlet is fine. Going to call local dealer in am again-just hoping someone reading here is quicker and more cost effective than they seem to be.

Help if you can spare the time. . .Merry Christmas! Getting colder and tired of spending $ on parts ontheprairie

 

[bcarton]

There are plenty of knowledgeable people here who can help, so you probably shouldn't spend any more money, or at least big money, until some wise folks can join in and give you some tips. I'm new to pellet stoves, but I won't let that stop me from adding my two cents:

There are two no-cost things you could try before replacing any more parts: check for a bad thermostat by jumpering the thermostat block. If jumpering out the thermostat lets the stove start up, then it could be the thermostat or the wire going to it. And check snap disk #3 with a meter if you have one. If it's open it'll be infinite ohms, and since you already tried resetting it and the button wouldn't push in, replacing it would be the next step.

You might have multiple failures going on, which makes troubleshooting many times more difficult. The first thing you need to fix is the "nothing" symptom. Once you get past that, you may still have an auger feed issue to resolve, too.

 

[kappel15]

bcarton has you on the right track by jumping snap disc #3. And no red call light is either a bad connection with wires, or bad thermostat. As he said, jump screws across with wire where tstat wires hook to stove. Ends may just need cut off to find good wire again. And when removing and installing control boxes, always unplug stove first or you will toast the boxes. And check for bad connections at wire ends. Snap disc #1 only runs the convection fan, nothing else. What year stove do you have? Newer ones have a switch on hopper lid that shuts down auger when open, and if not positioned right, won't make contact when closed. Why do you have to throw some pellets in pot? And make sure firepot thermocouple is touching the inside end of the cover. kap

 

[ontheprairie]

Good am. Tried jumping #3 last night after my post. Nothing. Have not replaced #1 yet, just purchased it in case. Where do I jump thermostat wires? Think the stove year is 2004. We purchased the home two years ago from the people who purchased the stove. Literature they left with us suggests 2004. Put a few pellets in pot at startup cause the literature suggested it.

 

[bcarton]

Thermostat connection is shown on page 22 of this manual: (broken link removed to http://hearthnhome.com/downloads/installManuals/7014_179.pdf)

That's for a current stove - hopefully the location hasn't changed.

 

[kappel15]

You shouldn't have to throw a handful of pellets in pot on start-up, as the stove is suppose to do that for you.

 

[ontheprairie]

Talked to local dealership again. They suggested we bring in our stove for them to troubleshoot it over the phone with Quadrafire because he is not very familiar with the product and he can not leave the store and they have no one who can come to our home to service the product that they are a "Platinum" dealer to sell. When your refrigerator/washer/dryer are in need of repair, do you haul it in to Sears? When your furnace is noisy and needs TLC to you haul it in to the store you purchased it from?? Am I missing something here? Colder and more frustrated ontheprairie

 

[moey]

Talked to local dealership again. They suggested we bring in our stove for them to troubleshoot it over the phone with Quadrafire because he is not very familiar with the product and he can not leave the store and they have no one who can come to our home to service the product that they are a "Platinum" dealer to sell. When your refrigerator/washer/dryer are in need of repair, do you haul it in to Sears? When your furnace is noisy and needs TLC to you haul it in to the store you purchased it from?? Am I missing something here? Colder and more frustrated ontheprairie

Welcome to the business model for Hearth and Home... Im sure the dealer could do better but he has no incentive financially to do so. Perhaps offer to pay for a service call if you have no other options. Another dealer maybe.

 

[SteveG518]

Well HHT dealers are not required to stock parts or have knowledgable techncians on staff.... just saying. All I know is a stove that has more than 1 control board is too many control boards for me...

Just like most HHT dealers, not all, but since its a corporate company $$$$ is king! Remember that!

 

[kappel15]

I would try and find another dealer that has service techs. Did you ever try cutting new ends on thermostat wires, or jump them connections on stove to see if you can get it to call for heat again? kap

 

[smg64ct]

My cb 1200 use to do something similar and I had to blow out the vacuum hose. I use to pull it off and blow into it and then my stove would fire up again.

 

[Pellet-King]

Stop what your doing, did this stove work ok before you cleaned it?, and whatever your home has for heating has to be alot cheaper than the money you blew already

 

[ontheprairie]

I would try and find another dealer that has service techs. Did you ever try cutting new ends on thermostat wires, or jump them connections on stove to see if you can get it to call for heat again? kap

Tried to find another dealer in my zip code. Quadrafire only lists 2-the one I have been working with where the stove was purchased from who wants me to haul it to town 45 miles away and the other one who only sells propane stoves but was at least sympathetic to my problem. Am having my electrician nephew come out this weekend to try finding where this thing is not getting power at. Any suggestions for him other than the thermostat which I will have him try??

 

[kappel15]

Not just thermostat, but the wires. Could have bad ends and need cut back. You can just jump the screws that these wires attach to on the stove, with a wire to get the call light to work and send power to stove to diagnose. With a new control box, new fuse, new auger motor, vac switch jumped, #2 disc jumped, and #3 jumped, doesn't leave much to be wrong to not let auger run. I am going to ask tj to post the picture of the stove running sequence on here for your nephew to follow. kap

 

[DMKNLD]

Here it is kap.

 

[kappel15]

Thank you

 

[ontheprairie]

Not just thermostat, but the wires. Could have bad ends and need cut back. You can just jump the screws that these wires attach to on the stove, with a wire to get the call light to work and send power to stove to diagnose. With a new control box, new fuse, new auger motor, vac switch jumped, #2 disc jumped, and #3 jumped, doesn't leave much to be wrong to not let auger run. I am going to ask tj to post the picture of the stove running sequence on here for your nephew to follow. kap

Thank You! I'll let you know how it turns out.

 

[tjnamtiw]

I read through the posts and have some basic questions. Please take them as positive comments and not insulting in any way. I know nothing about your background or expertise level in mechanics and electrical. I ask that to see if you have and know how to use a volt meter/multimeter, check voltages at various locations, and can recognize poor crimps or loose spade lugs.

Please describe how you jumped snap disc 3 and the vacuum switch simultaneously. How exactly did you do that and what did you use? Are you CERTAIN you put the wires back the way they came off? Look at the schematic in the owner's manual and trace the wires and colors from part to part to make sure they are connected properly.
When you cleaned the stove, what did you clean? Did you have the blower motors out? Did you remove anything such as the burn pot? Are you certain, REALLY CERTAIN, that the trap door on the bottom of the burn pot is completely closed?

Initially, you said that the pellets that you put in the pot manually ignited. How did they burn? Briskly with a roaring sound or lazily? Did they blow out of the pot?

That's enough for now from my end. At least now you have a lot of spare parts! Don't throw any away because they are all probably good. It's probably something simple, which is usually MY luck!

One last thing. Did you find and put a jumper wire across the thermostat terminals?

 

[kappel15]

If you get the red call light to come back on and the stove does the initial feed, but doesn't feed after that, check the thermocouple and make sure it is good and touching the inside end of the cover, or it won't sense the fire and feed more pellets. kap

 

[tjnamtiw]

If you get the red call light to come back on and the stove does the initial feed, but doesn't feed after that, check the thermocouple and make sure it is good and touching the inside end of the cover, or it won't sense the fire and feed more pellets. kap

By his first post, he now gets nothing at all, Kap. That's after fooling with the wiring to the snap disks and vacuum switch. He really hasn't fed back anything meaningful after his initial post.

 

[ontheprairie]

By his first post, he now gets nothing at all, Kap. That's after fooling with the wiring to the snap disks and vacuum switch. He really hasn't fed back anything meaningful after his initial post.

Nephew out here today. Thermostat is the problem, also SD#1 is bad, both the original and the "new" backup I purchased just in case from the local dealer. Current thermostat is a "heat & glo" smart stat II. Did some price checking online today-painful. Do I need to replace with the same product or can I get by with something more economical?? Between the parts, the "cleaners" bill and the nephew's bill - we've almost purchased half of a new stove! Thanks for all your suggestions and help.

 

[kappel15]

You should be able to run with just a normal thermostat. If you said the new disc is bad too, I would make sure the wire ends are good. You should be able to jump the screws where the tstat hooks to on the stove to run it, and jump snap disc#1 wires to get fan to go if you need heat. kap

 

[moey]

All your doing is completing a electrical connection with the thermostat. You can wire up a electrical switch if you have one handy. It would just be on/off obviously. I had thermostat problems and put a 120v wall switch on mine for a couple days until I got a thermostat.

Any low voltage thermostat will work but you want one that has some type of variance setting that allows you to set how far the temp drop before the stove comes on. For example set it at 70 goes off at 72 comes on at 68. Otherwise it will constantly cycle. I have a LUX 1500 I think it was around $40 they dont seem to make them anymore but there are equivalent models.