New Quadrafire II Owner w Some Questions

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jmstovall

New Member
Oct 23, 2023
1
Silver Spring, MD
FYI, this is cross posted at . I found this forum after doing some searching, and wanted to be transparent in case ya'll also visit Reddit.

Good morning, we _just_ had a Quadrafire Expedition II installed.

I tried getting it going last night but wasn't successful. This stove is obviously dramatically more advanced than what I'm used to using, which are 20-30 year old units with a manual damper, air control and ash tray. The QF looks way easier to use...if I can figure it out.

Last night, I:
-put a bunch of newspaper in
- put a couple pieces of kindling on top and just one log
- pulled the ACC out and pushed it back in (and then clicking started)
- didn't do anything with the blower (besides plug it in), and it never started up

The newspaper burned and the kindling burned a little bit. I did that all 2-3x, with the same results. Tons of smoke but no "real" fire. So my questions:
- I suspect my main problem last night was just getting the dead cold flue warm enough to draft.
- Am I using the ACC correctly? It's an odd motion to pull out and push back in, and it feels like there's a side-to-side aspect to it as well?
- What's the clicking sound? A timer? How's that thing work? The blower didn't come on, which makes me think it's more than just a dumb mechanical setup in there--is it using any sensors to look for a certain heat level?
- Should I be adjusting something else?

This is partly, "tell me what I'm doing wrong" so I can get it fired up and partly, "how the hell does thing work" so I can better troubleshoot myself. I understand the basics of how the older units work and I never have trouble getting them going, even super cold and with minimal kindling, but the QF appears to be more of a different beast than I anticipated.

Any help is, as always, appreciated. Thank you much!
 
Does the insert have at least 15-16' of 6" liner attached? Try opening a nearby window 1" to see if that helps.
How dry is the kindling and firewood?
The ACC is a mechanical timer
The blower has a thermostatic snap switch that should turn on the blower once the firebox is fully warmed up.