Embers shooting out front of Classic Bay

[Cheryl T.]

Good morning, my first post!

I've been scouring the forums and haven't seen anyone post the same issue I am having with my Classic Bay. This is our first season with it and we love it, but I don't trust it. On two occasions, I have seen embers spitting out the front of the stove. I know that these stoves are supposed to be 'sealed' and that this is impossible, but having seen it happen twice, it does happen!

I don't know if it is coming out of the burn chamber (I know, I know - sealed) or out of the blower motor.

Not sure how best to troubleshoot this. My gut always says 'if it didn't happen twice, it didn't happen.' Last night told me I wasn't seeing things. Scary stuff!

 

[CleanFire]

Hi Cheryl,

I've read posts from other stove owners having this issue, when sawdust was leaking from the bottom of the hopper -> auger, and was being pulled into the convection (room air) blower .. With the stove cold, I would inspect that area for wood / sawdust ..

When you fill the stove hopper, do you dump the (entire) bag into the hopper, or do you screen the pellets for fines/dust at the bottom of each bag ? ( If not screened, you may be dumping in as much as a cup of sawdust / fines with each bag burned. )

--
Your stove has a large window view door (nice BTW), - a quick look at the stove manual for the Quadra-Fire Classic Bay 1200 stove shows there are (2) adjustment screws, and the procedure for door latch adjustment (pages 22, 31) ..

 

[kappel15]

Next time stove is cool, check and see if the heat exchanger tubes are in place. Getting any smoke smell with the sparks? Definitely time to do some snooping. kap

 

[boo boo]

I have seen embers spitting out the front of the stove

I would not run that stove until it is looked at by a service tech and okayed to run

 

[tjnamtiw]

Hi Cheryl,

I've read posts from other stove owners having this issue, when sawdust was leaking from the bottom of the hopper -> auger, and was being pulled into the convection (room air) blower .. With the stove cold, I would inspect that area for wood / sawdust ..
..

WHAT? The only way embers are going to get into the convection air stream is as Kap said > the heat exchanger tubes have come loose and dropped down. Never heard of this happening until this year for some reason. The fines sure aren't going to leak out the bottom of the hopper and into the convection blower unless something is REALLY SCREWED UP. The connection from the exhaust blower to the flue might possibly be loose, which would allow ash to be blown into the back of the stove. That would be simple to see on a startup with a flash light looking for smoke before the pellets ignite.

 

[DMKNLD]

Welcome to the forum, Cheryl T,

X3 on the heat exchanger tube separation as kap and TJ noted, with at least 3 other CB owners posting this past winter having similar exchanger related problems.

Use the search link at the top right to querry "QuadraFire heat exchanger tubes" and you will find several other thread posts on this.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads...the-quad-techs-out-there.141515/#post-1906645
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads...ed-heat-exchanger-repair.140422/#post-1888749

You do have working smoke and CO detectors in place, hopefully? *Safety First........*

100% concur with not running the stove until the issue is trouble-shot.

 

[DrewAtFPS775]

Quad provided us with a puller tool to repair the heat exchange tube falling issues. Contact your closest dealer and they should be able to get that for you.

 

[woodmakesheat]

I had a dream last night that my pellet stove was just spewing embers to the point that it created a fireball. I thought "good thing I checked on the stove before leaving" as I rushed to put out the fireball.

 

[boo boo]

Now that would keep me up at night

 

[CleanFire]

WHAT? The only way embers are going to get into the convection air stream is as Kap said ..

Wasn't trying to give or spread bad info., only suggesting a possible place to look.. But point taken, will wait for owners of the stove (who know it) to respond in the future. Thanks much to you & all who replied for jumping in & helping Cheryl out.