Quad Castile insert has almost no air coming out of left side of heat exchanger

[ChandlerR]

Got a call last night from a relative who told me he thinks the blower for the left side of the heat exchanger isn't working. He noticed that his house is colder than usual so he checked the settings and that's when he noticed no airflow out of the left side tubes on the heat exchanger. The unit is a 2005 Castile that he's had since new. I told him I was sure that there was only one convection blower and if air was coming out of the right side, then it wasn't the motor. Looking at the exploded diagram, the Quad uses the dual squirrel cage blower. I'm thinking that the blower isn't seated right, there's a blockage in the heat exchanger, or maybe one of the squirrel cages is missing / broken. I don't have any experience with these stoves. Before I drive all the way over to look at it, does anyone have any advice for me? Other than this issue the stove is running normally. He called his dealer who told him he was backed up at least two weeks to get a guy out there. The stove was completely serviced this summer by the dealer. Could the service guy have done something to cause this? It was fine last winter.

 

[heat seeker]

I'd look for debris clogging the squirrel cage on that side. It is remotely possible that the cage has come loose on the shaft, I suppose, but that would probably make noise. Maybe a dead critter in there...

 

[ChandlerR]

I thought the same thing. If it was loose it would make a racket! Maybe it fell off?

 

[kappel15]

The cages are plastic and pressed on the shaft. You should be able to look at it and see if it is spinning. Easy enough to remove. You will need a mirror and flashlight to look up heat shaft to heat exchanger tubes, and to look down heat exchanger tubes for blockage. kap

 

[ChandlerR]

Thanks Kap. Yeah, I figured I'll look for the obvious and if I don't see anything wrong with the cages, I'll slide the blower out and get the mirror and flashlight out. Just seems weird to me that it worked fine last year and not this year. The only difference is the service that was done. He told me that last year it kept the living room and kitchen toasty warm and now it's all it can do to keep the living room at 60 when it's 35 out. Flame looks right and it's eating as many pellets as it always has.

 

[DMKNLD]

My 2001 Castile convection blower 'squirrel cages' have to be regularly cleaned out of their cat hair encrusted dust bunnies - having 3 long haired cats who love to hang out on top of or near the warm pellet stove will do that !

I found a couple of my right side impeller fins were cracked at the edges where the fin joins the fan edge when I cleaned it at the end of last burning season, and had built up even more of a 'hair ball' than the other fan side, that was no doubt affecting my air flow out of it. Something to check at least.

I wired them back together with a couple of twist ties and it's worked fine so far this season as a 'hack fix' - I believe you can just get the replacement squirrel cages for it, which I'll have to replace eventually.

 

[kappel15]

If you can find the squirrel cages, it won't be from Quad. New blower or none. lol

 

[ChandlerR]

LOL Thanks. Hopefully it's just a bunch of hair. He does have two goldens.

 

[kappel15]

Let us know. my curiosity is peaked. LOL

 

[ChandlerR]

I was hoping someone would write and say they knew what it was and how to easily fix it!

 

[kappel15]

This ain't Fairly Land. It don't work that way. LOL

 

[DMKNLD]

If you can find the squirrel cages, it won't be from Quad. New blower or none. lol

I guess, until my convection blower decides to crap out, that will be a 'none' Kap !

I was surprised that, with my bread bag twist ties that I stripped off the paper and 'splint wrapped' the impeller fins with, that it didn't give me a harmonic imbalance between the two sides of the blower. So far, so good !

 

[Harvey Schneider]

Got to be Dust Bunnies!

 

[heat seeker]

http://www.hearthtools.com/parts/dustbunnies2.jpg

 

[Lake Girl]

http://www.hearthtools.com/parts/dustbunnies2.jpg

Those aren't dust bunnies - those are dust monsters...

 

[heat seeker]

Yeah, I call them Dust Rhinos!