help with quadrafire Santa Fe stove

[green wood]

hey all, i just signed up as im looking for help with our stove. Some backround, We own 3 stoves but i do not do the work on them, im not that handy with them...hence why im here. so we bought this stove few years back used, worked great in our garage for about 3 yrs....then i moved it to our living room worked great for 2 months and then just quit on us. the red light lights up in the box behind the right side panel...and the blue lite flashes 6 times,.....lol or maybe i got that backwards....ugh.....anyway..........its humming but never does anything......the reset button is functioning when u depress it....and starts that process all over. any help would be great....just trying to get ready for the season before its upon us. thanks in advance.

 

[jzm2cc]

When pushing reset button does it drop pellets into burn pot? If so exhaust blower and auger is working. Pull ash pan out and look for a glowing red igniter at front of burnpot during start up. Bet its burned out. Easy to replace and only about $30.

 

[green wood]

When pushing reset button does it drop pellets into burn pot? If so exhaust blower and auger is working. Pull ash pan out and look for a glowing red igniter at front of burnpot during start up. Bet its burned out. Easy to replace and only about $30.

No the machine does nothing but humm.......lights light up on the side panel...and thats about it.....when u hit the reset button...it just shuts it down and it begins blinking again.

 

[jzm2cc]

Guessing the exhaust blower is seized, maybe a dead bird in there. Look in manual for motor location and see if you can see black plastic cooling fan on motor turning. If not investigate whats wrong. Warning to not try spinning motor from this plastic part as it can break easily.

 

[green wood]

yeah, i dont think a bird got in it since its in the living room but u could be right about the motor seized.....no manual i dont believe, since we bought it off craigslist any body no the location of the blower? ill look at it this week after work....thanks for the suggestions.

 

[jzm2cc]

Guess its a Santa Fe, but could be a Contour, Castile. If nothing else follow exhaust pipe to inside stove cabinet. Exhaust motor is pretty obvious, will probably have black space ship motor fan that you should see spinning. Rom convection fan is on floor of stove, double paddle type of configuration, this doesn't come on till stove is warmed up

 

[corkman]

Wonder if the auger is jammed. Get yourself s mirror and take a peek up chute where the pellets drop from. Get yourself a coat hanger and stick it up there to Free it up. I had the exact same thing happen to me on a Castile and that's what it was

 

[green wood]

thank you all for the responses. Ill will do as you say. im going to say...as i used this stove for a few years , its always fired up,but i have to be honest , i never paid much attention to the steps as in which it fired. Now that it doesnt do anything....could any of you go through the first start up process of the season as far as what the machine does first, second, third...ect. would be a big help as to be able to answer some of your questions or make sense of the input im getting...thanks!

 

[johneh]

First Welcome to the forum
Why nobody has pointed you in this direction I don't know
I am not sure which stove you have so here is the manual
for a Quadrafire pellet stove It should help with your problem
if not do a search for your stove Quadrafire ? pellet stove manual
http://downloads.hearthnhome.com/installmanuals/SANTAFE_MBK_PELLET_OWNERS_7050_146.pdf

 

[corkman]

Also try disconnecting the tube from the vacuum switch and blow into the tube towards the back wall of the stove. There may be a blockage there

 

[Lake Girl]

First, may want to change your title to include the specific model of stove so more specific suggestions can be given. Once you get the manual and determine the sequence of lights, you should be able to narrow down the problem. kappel15 is a quadrafire service tech and has nailed down many elusive problems in the past (not around much in the summer but hopefully back in the heating season). Past posts of his may prove helpful ... search option upper right.

Keep us posted!

 

[green wood]

great idea lake girl, it is a older sante fe model. I read through the pdf but didnt see anything about the sequence of lights or what they mean....hopefully kapell15 will see this post an provide some help. I called a dealer but sadly hes 75 miles away and charges 70 dollars for a service call plus 1.50 per mile...just to look. He mentioned if he doesnt have the parts with him to repair it, you pay all over again for the service call......plus the parts it would require. Not to crazy about that. I offered to bring him the stove as is would be less expensive....he didnt recommend moving it from the room and pipe...ect. I'll dig into it more this wknd and see if i can learn anything on my own. Thank you all for the advice.

Btw lake girl since your a mod, if you would like to edit the heading please do so, being new...I didnt see where i can edit it myself.

 

[Lake Girl]

Have you tried unplugging the stove and plugging it back in? Does the blower come on when you plug it back in?

 

[stovelark]

Hi Green- ok sounds like its a Santa Fe alright. The red call light being on is telling the stove the thermostat is calling for heat, the stove knows only two modes, calling for heat or not calling. This is the Quad keep it simple way of running their stove. The blue lights flashing is telling you what software load the control is set for, as this board is used in many of their models. The humming you hear- this could be the exhaust blower trying to run, but is not running. This will stop short the stove developing vacuum in the burn chamber, thus eliminating the possibility of the stove dropping pellets, its next step. There is a vacuum switch that must be set in play via the chamber vacuum, it is a safety switch (such as when the exh path is maybe blocked, the door being left open, the glass being broken etc), this vac switch closing allows power to be fed thru to the auger motor to drop pellets. So when and if you get the exh blower running- the next thing to check is the auger. It could be jammed up at this point too. I suspect this stove needs a good going through and cleaning- the good news is its pretty simple to do. The good news is it sounds like the control board is doing its correct thing. Once the auger is dropping pellets, the ignitor will come on (it lives down by the burnpot, open the ash pan and look up, its there) and if ignition happens, the thermocouple (that gadget hanging over about an inch in the burnpot) will indicate heat and send a small dc voltage to he control board indicating ignition happened, the stove will start feeding its normal rate for the heat level you've selected and lastly when warm enough the convection blower will be allowed to come on. I hope your exh blower is the culprit, easy to unjam, clean or replace and get that stove going. Its a nice reliable little stove, at about 34k btus, will heat nicely up to about 1200 sqft. Did it get its season ending cleaning? Chimney and stove? Of course, Quadrafire has their manual on their website too. Good luck with her.

 

[Lake Girl]

Figured it may have been exhaust motor which is why I asked about the unplug/plug action based on the manual stating it turns on initially.

 

[green wood]

thank you stocklark exactly what i needed! And i think ? you are correct...... so heres the deal...i have unplugged it and plugged back in. never did anything.....so inspect it fri evening ....look for the obvious things. I notice the squirrelcage type blower to the right of the stove near the bottom....facing the stove mind you...and it seems kinda loose? you can move it very easily. not sure if that is an issue or not.....so turn it on high as the manual suggests......lights are on...and its flashing 6 times. i go through and check the snap resets and their good. I look to the back and see the space ship type i believe is the exhaust fan? i touch it...roll it back and forth and all of a sudden it starts spinning! walla.....i start to feel heat near the ash pan...i open it and i can see the igniter? glowing red.... starts dropping pellots...and boom....i have a fire. im not certain what happen....that exhaust motor wasnt stiff...it just needed a lil spin and it took off. very odd. is there maintentence to that thing? i could see from possibly sitting that it seized a lil bit......but when the stove stopped mid winter last season.....we were using it! very strange..now im not sure i can trust it. sometimes not knowing what caused the issue is the worst! any suggestion would be great.......this site is wonderful we really appreciate all the responses

 

[stovelark]

Hi Green great to hear she is going for you. Could be it was bound up and not able to start on its own- these motors used are high rpm, low torque style, easy for something to bind them up. A good cleaning is prob all it needs, but if in doubt, change it out. Keep that motor for a spare. You want to have confidence in it working when it is supposed to, when the wind is howling and its cold out. Good luck with it.

 

[green wood]

thank you stovelark and the others who had input!.....do these motor get oiled? maintence wize by chance.....when you say clean. what would you suggest....thank you.

 

[stovelark]

Don't think Quad motors have oil ports in their motors. For cleaning, I take a 1'' paint brush and brush down the fins real well, scrape off the shaft and any coating that's stuck to the inner wall of the fins, blow thru the motor housing and clean up the insides of the motor mount. I'd replace the gasket with Quad's orange rubber one (832-4710 pn I think), that gasket will last each year's cleaning. Clean the convection motor too, take it out (that's the blower on the bottom, double squirrel cage) and clean up the internal body of the stove too. Everything you clean out will not make its way back into the convection housing and into your house. Quads are an easy stove to service and clean. Good luck with her.