Mt Vernon burn pot overflows

[t4tr]

Three times in the last few days, the burn pot in my Qudra Fire Mt. Vernon has overflowed and started to back up into the chute. Fortunately, I have been home all 3 times. I am now officially uncomfortable with this situation. Anyone had a similar experience? Any ideas as to what might cause this? This is the second year I have used the stove, and the first problem I have had with it. I burnt Corinth pellets all of last year and so far this year I burnt a little over a ton of Athens and have switched back to Corinth.

 

[firewarrior820]

Three times in the last few days, the burn pot in my Qudra Fire Mt. Vernon has overflowed and started to back up into the chute. Fortunately, I have been home all 3 times. I am now officially uncomfortable with this situation. Anyone had a similar experience? Any ideas as to what might cause this? This is the second year I have used the stove, and the first problem I have had with it. I burnt Corinth pellets all of last year and so far this year I burnt a little over a ton of Athens and have switched back to Corinth.

i have,my problem was my exhaust pipe,t-clean out and exhaust hood was full of ash, sucky pennington pellets. my first clue was a lazy flame.
I cleaned the pipe and the rest of the stove. works like new

 

[jtp10181]

Is this an AE unit or an original? Easy way to tell is the AE unit has a fancy large screen LCD thermostat that must be used with it. Also the AE unit has autoclean.

 

[t4tr]

firewarrior- I cleaned the stove and pipe completely just before begining this burn season. I have only burnt about a ton, but I will check my pipe T in the morning. I did remove the exhaust fan yesterday and cleaned that out, but had very little ash in it.

jtp - My stove is an AE with the auto clean feature. It's almost like it doesn't go into autoclean all the time. But I am not sure what the frequency of cleaning is.

thanks for any help.

 

[jtp10181]

When on auto it should autoclean every 3 hours or so which for most people is way too often. On Manual mode I know it goes a little longer but not by much. What does the junk in the pot looks like after you have the problem. Is there just a lot of ash in there or are you getting partially unburnt pellets? How is everything else on the stove working, getting a lot of soot on the glass?

You could do a little test, clean out the ash drawer and firepot. Take the ash drawer out. Unplug the stove, then plug it back in again. It should go into autoclean right away. Watch it and see what its doing. There is a sensor in the back that will throw an error if it thinks the autoclean is jamming or not running. Ok now run your stove as normal and after like 4-5 hours check the ash drawer, it should have dumped at least one load in there by then.

Also while you are in there on the left side you have a black control board, check the REV letter on it. Newest is "C" that I know of. If you cannot find on the sticker where it says REV then you have a really old board from before they were putting that on there. It might have a date code if thats the case.

 

[t4tr]

jtp - I have REV C. I just started the stove up and will run it for several hours to see what is happening. It may be worth noting that I had several very large clinkers last week. When I say large, I mean the diameter of the burn pot buy a couple inches long.

 

[4124elad]

You have a fuel issue not a stove issue.

If you are having large clinkers accumalating it is because of non burnable substances within the pellets.

Place a handful of your pellet in water. They should dissolve within a few minutes. Then squeeze the water out with a paper towel. If the material is not the consistency of corn meal then your pellets are not premium grade.

Quadra Fires need premium grade to operate properly. Using lessor grades will cause exactly what your experiencing.

The pictures I have posted show the results of the water test I did last weekend. The picture with the dime heads up is Future Fuel II I purchased at Home Depot. I had to clean the burn pot twice a forty pound bag and came as close to a burn back as I ever want to.

Those pellets soaked in water for twenty minutes and did not dissolve. I returned the whole ton and bought a ton of penningtons.

The Penningtons did not get unloaded from my truck without having a water test done on them. It was the consistency of corn meal and they dissolved within two minutes.

Do this test on your pellets. Then return them. If your supplier balks then contact the Attorney Generals office.

The pellet producers are passing off standard, industrial, and animal bedding grades off as premium grade.
For whatever reason.

These stoves require PREMIUM GRADE PELLETS. By selling us something less they are going to cause hopper fires and large insurance claims. The result will be the insurance companies will not insure a home with a pellet stove. End of industry.

This is the same thing as passing off bunker C oil off as Kerosene.

Do some tests and return those pellets. Test the replacement pellets before accepting them.

With premium grade you will not experience this.

 

[djarseneault]

You have a fuel issue not a stove issue.

If you are having large clinkers accumalating it is because of non burnable substances within the pellets.

Place a handful of your pellet in water. They should dissolve within a few minutes. Then squeeze the water out with a paper towel. If the material is not the consistency of corn meal then your pellets are not premium grade.

Quadra Fires need premium grade to operate properly. Using lessor grades will cause exactly what your experiencing.

The pictures I have posted show the results of the water test I did last weekend. The picture with the dime heads up is Future Fuel II I purchased at Home Depot. I had to clean the burn pot twice a forty pound bag and came as close to a burn back as I ever want to.

Those pellets soaked in water for twenty minutes and did not dissolve. I returned the whole ton and bought a ton of penningtons.

The Penningtons did not get unloaded from my truck without having a water test done on them. It was the consistency of corn meal and they dissolved within two minutes.

Do this test on your pellets. Then return them. If your supplier balks then contact the Attorney Generals office.

The pellet producers are passing off standard, industrial, and animal bedding grades off as premium grade.
For whatever reason.

These stoves require PREMIUM GRADE PELLETS. By selling us something less they are going to cause hopper fires and large insurance claims. The result will be the insurance companies will not insure a home with a pellet stove. End of industry.

This is the same thing as passing off bunker C oil off as Kerosene.

Do some tests and return those pellets. Test the replacement pellets before accepting them.

With premium grade you will not experience this.

Before you go all ballistic and contact the AG, try switching the fuel type on your wall control to "utility pellet". This will cause the stove to go into a cleanout cycle more often. The Mt Vernon AE is a MULTI FUEL stove and does NOT require premium grade pellets. It can burn corn, sunflower seeds, and high ash pellets.
That said, if your pellets are crap and you paid top dollar, by all means return them.