I have a Quadrafire Castile pellet stove. The auger delivers pellets and we are maintaining the fire in the pot (thermocouple red light is on). Then after several minutes of normal operation the auger motor reverses direction with each new 2 second cycle. No pellets are delivered to the pot when this occurs. What is the cause of this problem? Thanks in advance for your responses.
Quad Castile auger motor reversing
- Thread starter Johnny O
- Start date
-
Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.
We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.
We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
- Status
Hello Johnny O, and welcome to this forum ! Sorry no one has responded to your post yet - I recommend you rename your thread post to include your stove brand and model, ie "Quad Castile auger motor reversing" or something to that effect, so it will better catch the eye of folks who have that stove (many Quad and Castile owners on here), and are most often the best people to help you. Lots of new folks and bunches of new posts are tough to keep up on ! My reply, as will you renaming your thread, will bump your post back up in line.
I'll take a stab at your problem and say that it is likely your auger capacitor that is failing, with the classic symptom being what yours sounds like it's doing. It will run forward for one cycle, then reverse for the next, but not always consistently. It looks like they make a replacement wiring loom with a capacitor in-line for the newer style 3 wire lead motors, but I'm not sure you can retrofit it into the older 4 wire auger motors.
You will know by looking at yours whether you have the newer motor if there is a small square capacitor in-line on the wiring loom, or just 4 wires coming out of the auger motor and no capacitor in-line. Here's a previous forum link that describes this. https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads...es-on-its-own-a-new-capacitor-should-f.84145/
The replacement in-line capacitor are a cheap fix at around $20. But if you have an older style auger motor with 4 wires, you may be SOL on a cheap fix and may be have to do a new auger motor that includes the in-line capacitor. No Quad parts replacements are cheap - about $170 + shipping from Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/QuadraFire-812-4421-Quadrafire-Auger-Motor/dp/B006GDQOWS
Kappel15, aka 'kap' is a Quad tech who posts on here regularly, as do a number of 'Quad wizards', and hopefully one of them will chime in to confirm or deny my take on this. Knock on pellets here, so far my 13 y/o Castile auger is still turning in the right direction so I haven't had to mess with any auger issues yet beyond taking it out to clean !
Good luck!
I'll take a stab at your problem and say that it is likely your auger capacitor that is failing, with the classic symptom being what yours sounds like it's doing. It will run forward for one cycle, then reverse for the next, but not always consistently. It looks like they make a replacement wiring loom with a capacitor in-line for the newer style 3 wire lead motors, but I'm not sure you can retrofit it into the older 4 wire auger motors.
You will know by looking at yours whether you have the newer motor if there is a small square capacitor in-line on the wiring loom, or just 4 wires coming out of the auger motor and no capacitor in-line. Here's a previous forum link that describes this. https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads...es-on-its-own-a-new-capacitor-should-f.84145/
The replacement in-line capacitor are a cheap fix at around $20. But if you have an older style auger motor with 4 wires, you may be SOL on a cheap fix and may be have to do a new auger motor that includes the in-line capacitor. No Quad parts replacements are cheap - about $170 + shipping from Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/QuadraFire-812-4421-Quadrafire-Auger-Motor/dp/B006GDQOWS
Kappel15, aka 'kap' is a Quad tech who posts on here regularly, as do a number of 'Quad wizards', and hopefully one of them will chime in to confirm or deny my take on this. Knock on pellets here, so far my 13 y/o Castile auger is still turning in the right direction so I haven't had to mess with any auger issues yet beyond taking it out to clean !
Good luck!
Last edited by a moderator:
Just talked to the nice folks at woodheatstoves.com and they do have a Quad capacitor jumper in stock. (broken link removed to http://woodheatstoves.com/feed-motor-capacitor-p-2062.html)
Is that the correct one Kap? If so, I think I'll order one just to have one on hand. Any 'creative' wiring / gerry-rigging you have to do to splice it in ?
On-line vs phone ordering sounds the easiest for them.
Is that the correct one Kap? If so, I think I'll order one just to have one on hand. Any 'creative' wiring / gerry-rigging you have to do to splice it in ?
On-line vs phone ordering sounds the easiest for them.
Shweet ! Spending $20 vs $180 or more on a new motor is a 'no - brainer' !
In my case with a 13 y/o auger motor, if the capacitor should fail, how likely is it that the heat and cycling over the years won't also have cooked the bearings or windings enough that, they too, 'aren't long for the world'?
Could replacing just the capacitor possibly get another few years use out of the auger, or is it more likely when one part of the auger starts to go, other parts are soon to follow?
In my case with a 13 y/o auger motor, if the capacitor should fail, how likely is it that the heat and cycling over the years won't also have cooked the bearings or windings enough that, they too, 'aren't long for the world'?
Could replacing just the capacitor possibly get another few years use out of the auger, or is it more likely when one part of the auger starts to go, other parts are soon to follow?Johnny O here thanks for the in put. Going to get cap tomorrow I will let you know the out comeShweet ! Spending $20 vs $180 or more on a new motor is a 'no - brainer' !
In my case with a 13 y/o auger motor, if the capacitor should fail, how likely is it that the heat and cycling over the years won't also have cooked the bearings or windings enough that, they too, 'aren't long for the world'?
- Status
Similar threads
