Just bought Quad Castile, having problems with ash pot lever and a few questions...

[higgybrown]

Just bought a Quad Castile 6 days ago, we can NOT pull the lever out to open the ash pot into the tray. A couple days ago, it was pretty stiff, but was able to manage it, but now it just won't budge. My husband was ready to take it apart, but since the thing is only six days old...and we dumped a lot of money into it, I am hoping to call the place where we got it and have someone come out to look at it (I'm afraid my husband would do more damage than good). I did a quick search on this forum, but couldn't find much about this problem...does anyone know what might be the cause? I am also a little concerned because we got a stove that was manufactured in 2004. We thought if we got a newer one all the kinks would be worked out. Is this a problem, should we have insisted on a newer one? This cost us a lot of money, and 6 days later, we're having issues. We live in Virginia, it's been quite cold, we've run it constantly since we got it with hard oak pellets, cleaned it out every day.

Any help would be so appreciated.

 

[Countryboymo]

Some pellets tend to cause a buildup of soot on the floor plate that slides out to dump and will not allow the plate to slide. I have taken a screwdriver or chisel and whacked the buildup and after you get it broken up the door will slide. I have had to do it once so far this year and a couple times last year. I did notice when I was burning softwood pellets last year I didn't seem to have near the buildup on the burnpot or burnpot floor. I have noticed after you dump the ash if you run the rod in and out a few times it will tend to clean some of the buildup off on its own before it gets to the point where it will not move at all.

These stoves are little workhorses but like any stove there is a learning curve. I am sure anyone with any other tips will chime in also.

Did you buy it as 'new' from a shop?

 

[deep wood]

I had the same problem with my Quad Castile. The build-up on the floor plate was very hard to remove and eventually prevented the plate from sliding and opening. I removed the plate and used a drill mounted wire brush to clean it. I re-assembled the fire pot/plate mechanism. Next I cut a half-round shaped piece of flat plate steel (approximately 1/8 - 3/16 inch thick) that I place in the fire pot such that it covers the surface of the floor plate. Now my floor plate opens every time and the steel plate drops in the ash drawer.

I retrieve the steel plate from the ash drawer, give it a quick scrape with the flat scraper that came with the stove and return it to the fire pot.

 

[DexterDay]

Some pellets tend to cause a buildup of soot on the floor plate that slides out to dump and will not allow the plate to slide. I have taken a screwdriver or chisel and whacked the buildup and after you get it broken up the door will slide. I have had to do it once so far this year and a couple times last year. I did notice when I was burning softwood pellets last year I didn't seem to have near the buildup on the burnpot or burnpot floor. I have noticed after you dump the ash if you run the rod in and out a few times it will tend to clean some of the buildup off on its own before it gets to the point where it will not move at all.

These stoves are little workhorses but like any stove there is a learning curve. I am sure anyone with any other tips will chime in also.

Did you buy it as 'new' from a shop?

^ x2 (I use a small SHARP chisel in a twisting motion)
And Deep Wood. That plate idea to "drop in the bottom" sounds like a good one.

 

[Shortstuff]

I had the same problem with my Quad Castile. The build-up on the floor plate was very hard to remove and eventually prevented the plate from sliding and opening. I removed the plate and used a drill mounted wire brush to clean it. I re-assembled the fire pot/plate mechanism. Next I cut a half-round shaped piece of flat plate steel (approximately 1/8 - 3/16 inch thick) that I place in the fire pot such that it covers the surface of the floor plate. Now my floor plate opens every time and the steel plate drops in the ash drawer.

I retrieve the steel plate from the ash drawer, give it a quick scrape with the flat scraper that came with the stove and return it to the fire pot.

Now that is a great idea, I might try that one myself!

There is always going to be a buildup of a very tough layer of carbon that settles right on top of the bottom plate in the burnpot. Depending on the type of pellets used it will vary as far as difficulty to remove. There is very little tolerance (room) to allow the bottom door to slide back to let the ash drop into the ash pan so that plate must be pretty much very clean. I clean out my burnpot every 2 to 3 days just to make sure I have good airflow inside the burnpot. I take a 1/2" wood chisel and push it down and twist it to the bottom of the burnpot to break up any clinkers and hardened burned pellet residue, then I use the flat end of that chisel to scrape the surface of the bottom plate clean. This works perfectly each and every time. This layer of hard deposit must be removed to allow the bottom plate to slide freely.

If you notice that with a perfectly clean bottom plate it is still a little stiff/difficult to move, it can be adjusted. If you open your ash pan door underneath and remove the ash pan, you'll see how the bottom plate is attached by one single "pivot" bolt. This bolt can be loosened slightly (very slightly) to allow the door to slide more freely. However, if you loosen it too much then you'll end up with a gap between the sliding door/plate and the burnpot that is too wide and will reduce the efficiency of the burn process.

Hope this helps.

 

[ablejoy]

Try scraping the floor plate then use some jig-A- Loo graphite spray on the plate make sure the stove is cold I found it at Home Depot for about $3.00 a can. Will help prevent clinkers from sticking to the plate. I dump by opening that floor plate every time I add pellets or once a day.
The plate is going to get a build up by cleaning it often you will not have the problem you are having. I like the removable plate

 

[Jack Morrissey]

If you scrape the burn pot floor to break up any clinkers and ash build-up the pot lever should move freely, mine has in the past has gotten stuck in the open position, but a good scraping and some wd-40 fixes it right up. I would have the store check it to make sure its not something else wrong.

 

[slls]

Best to make a tool, one that extends out the pot, need good leverage to remove the hard carbon.
Mine is 14 inches long 1 inch wide by 1/8 thick , bent in the middle, ground a blade on one end, teeth on the other.

 

[tjnamtiw]

I like the plate idea too! I use an old (Harbor Freight) wood chisel. go straight down into the buildup and twist, like someone said. It will break it right up. You'll have to do it at each area but the twisting really helps BUT be careful of the ceramic thermocouple cover. It breaks very easily! I bought a 'NEW' stove too and then looked at the label and it was made in 2006! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. The darn thing was 3 years old before I ever got it. Yours is even older! That's not right unless you got a deal.

Oh, and I adjusted the bolt too. One the side opposite the bolt, the door should not hang down any further than the thickness of a dime.

 

[higgybrown]

Thanks so much to everyon...WD40 did the trick...after much scraping and a little wd40...works like a charm...It's nice to know I have a place where I can get answers....

 

[deep wood]

...glad to hear the WD-40 worked, I tried....cooking spray, WD 40, I made special tools for scraping but the plate was the only thing that worked for me,

 

[jtp10181]

Just FYI the design of the stove has not changed much since 2004 / 2006 so there is not much to be worried about. The dealers you purchased from must have had surplus stock. We pull from a distribution facility and I think the oldest we have seen this season was maybe one 2009 unit.

Also on the floor plate, I just use my large flat blade screwdriver and scrape it around a lot on the bottom, frees the fire pot floor right up. That poor screw driver rarely gets to remove screws, its a scraper, pry bar and chisel.

BTW WD-40 will burn up and dry out when heated, might even leave a sticky residue. If you want a long term lubricant use the graphite spray or powder.

Also the trick is opening and closing the door a few times when you use it is a good one, I recommend this to all my customers who have issues with it sticking.

If you have continuous problems with it sticking I have seen one fire pot floor that was cast poorly and a little ridge where the bolt for the fire pot floor mounted was causing the floor to not sit flush and get stuck frequently. A 4" angle grinder fixed that in about 5 seconds (after I took the entire fire pot out and gave the customer the one from our showroom display).

 

[peirhead]

As a Castile owner this is a perennial problem...however by accident I found that if I do a quick scrape while there are still glowing coals at the end of a burn cycle, the carbon scrapes off very easily...if I wait till the stove is cool it becomes MUCH more difficult.

 

[Shortstuff]

As a Castile owner this is a perennial problem...however by accident I found that if I do a quick scrape while there are still glowing coals at the end of a burn cycle, the carbon scrapes off very easily...if I wait till the stove is cool it becomes MUCH more difficult.

Another interesting idea. I think I'll try that.

 

[Nicholas440]

I have the same problem with the plate getting carbon on it and sticking closed. I've had problems from week one with that plate but normally I dont dump mine daily, and what I have done is I take a dropper and I drop a few drops of water onto the carbon and let it sit a minute then I scrape it and wipe it off with a paper towel. It works very well but its a black gooey mess to wipe up and this drop in plate seems to be a great idea. Im going to give it a try it would be great not to have to keep cleaning off that plate in the bottom just to dump the ash. Several times I have just taken my ash vac and didnt even bother pulling the rod, I just loosen the ash with a screw driver and suck it up with the ash vac.

I was also told once you can adjust the gap of that swing plate , there is a nut on the assembly under the firepot, so you can adjust it to have a little more gap, however, any excessive gap is going to cut down on the negative pressure and could result in lazy flame, so I left mine alone.

I learn something new every time I read this forum. Thanks for the great tips and tricks... Nothing like having seasoned veteran pellet gurus' to give us novices some good advice.

 

[slls]

As a Castile owner this is a perennial problem...however by accident I found that if I do a quick scrape while there are still glowing coals at the end of a burn cycle, the carbon scrapes off very easily...if I wait till the stove is cool it becomes MUCH more difficult.

Another interesting idea. I think I'll try that.

I tried that, don't like working on a hot stove. Easy to scrape clean cold every day with my homemade tool.

 

[higgybrown]

Thanks for the ideas...we have quit using the wd40, and have found it easier to scrape and pull while the ashpot is still warm, not cold. I haven't tried the corn pellets yet to see if that makes a difference.

 

[smalltown]

On my Castile I try to pull the clean-out rod at least once a day when the stove cycles off. If I have a moment, I have found that a couple of quick scrapes with a cheap wood chisel to remove the built up carbon is a lot easier then waiting to start scraping when the door is sticking. I also like using the chisel as sometimes there is a soft residue that forms that is big enough to stop it from dropping down into the ash pan, but easily crumbles when the chisel touches it. Nothing like coming down first thing in the AM and see the stove already running.