Quad Castile not lighting in cold garage??s

[fuelmiser]

Can i ask or beg for some Help from you Pro's & Guru's?

I have a new/used Quadra-Fire Castile i got from a home sellout, and i put this in my garage and here in the NE it has been cold, and my garage has been down to 30 degrees when 5 at night, but 40 usually, so not too sure if too cold to ignight??

But i just put in this used pellet stove and did the soot maint cleaned it up in the fire box area & behind plates and exhust blower, then plugged it in, and exhaust blower runs, the igniter gets cherry red, then pellets eventually drop(which seems to be a delay), but then after a while i exhaust blower shuts off, maybe 5 mins, i didn't time it.... so i have some questions?

1. So being a newby to pellet stoves, i am thinking maybe the pot has ash insulating the cherry heat from heating up the pot to ignite the pellets, is that how it works???

2. Then educate me the Noob newby, does the exhaust blower kick off after so many minutes if the fire doesn't tell the thermocouple there is no fire???

3. should there be a delay from plug in until the auger runs??

4. i assume i should manually throw some pellets into the pot beings it takes a few mins for the auger to run, or is the min or so normal to preheat the pot?

5. do the pellets ignite from the heat through the pot wall, or does the heat & the exhaust blower together force more heat onto a pellet to cause it to burn?

6. Now, i noticed some holes in the pot, i guess that is air flow from the exhaust blower to fuel oxygen into the pot, and how do i clean the holes &/or is there anything special with holes?

7. is there any hole or slot in the pot to allow the cherry red igniter to put more heat into the pot?

Thank you in advance for the education and help?

 

[CladMaster]

Put a small handful of pellets in the pot to cover the igniter and fire it up, see if it stays on for more than 30 mins.

 

[DMKNLD]

Hi fuel miser, and welcome to this forum !

RE your pellet drop delay: Your combustion blower should turn on immediately after your thermostat calls for heat, then the vacuum switch should immediately close (you should here the vac switch click / close after the red 'call for heat' light behind your control box lights up), then your auger should immediately begin to turn for 60 secs to do the initial pellet feed. If there is a delay in the pellet drop you may have a partial / intermittent vacuum loss issue.

If you're comfortable with trying some basic electrical trouble shooting skills, you can bypass your vacuum switch to help rule out a vacuum problem. First, UNPLUG THE STOVE, as for any electrical trouble shooting, then you can jumper the two wires together that go to the vacuum switch (mounted on the lower right rear sheet metal shroud). If you don't have a pre-made electrical jumper wire you can make one by taking a short piece of small gauge electrical wire and strip the insulation back on each end just enough to get them to fit into the electrical spade connectors of the 2 wires that connect to the vac switch. You can use a straightened paper clip as a jumper in a pinch as well.

DISCLAIMER, WARNING, IMPORTANT ------> Wrap the spade connectors and the jumper wire with electrical tape to keep the jumper wire from accidentally disconnecting and grounding out on bare metal, which will at best blow a fuse, and at worst can 'crisp' your $$$$ control box. Several recent posters on here have made this expensive mistake !! So be forewarned !!

Then you can plug your stove back in and see if your pellets begin to drop as soon as the thermostat calls for fire.

Try that and post back on the results, then we can help further trouble shoot as needed, OK?

 

[DMKNLD]

Me again, Fuel miser,

A couple of 'forum format' related things that will help folks better help you is to include a Signature section in your profile that notes the brand and model of your stove, as well as the stoves production month / year. At the top right of this forum page, put your mouse arrow over your screen name and that will show your Profile Page drop down options - go to 'Signature' and add your stove info and whatever else you want to put in it, and that will show up every time you post a thread.

Also, including the stove brand and model in the title of your thread, ie "Quad Castile pellet ignition problem" or something to that effect, will catch the eye of other Castile owners and Quad folks who can often best help you.

Lots of knowledgeable and helpful folks prowl this forum, but with multiple dozens of new posts and with as many new folks joining as members each day, it makes it tough to read and keep up with every new post. But I'll open and read every Quad related post for sure if posters note that in their thread title !

Again, welcome to this fine forum !

 

[Bioburner]

Being that cold the auger-screw feed maybe working very hard to overcome the grease in the gear case. Another Quad owner has the same issue till the stove gets to a decent temperature. I had the same issue with a Countryside. I changed out the cheap lithium grease and went to a synthetic grease that didn't set up like a bar of soap.
Download a copy of the manual and read the cleaning practice for the stove.
Will modify your thread title a bit to get more attention of needed parties
Welcome

 

[Jack Morrissey]

There is a slot in fire pot, next to where the igniter is, make sure the hole is clear of ash, clinkers, etc.. also make sure all the other holes are not plugged in the burn pot.

 

[DMKNLD]

Being that cold the auger-screw feed maybe working very hard to overcome the grease in the gear case. Another Quad owner has the same issue till the stove gets to a decent temperature. I had the same issue with a Countryside. I changed out the cheap lithium grease and went to a synthetic grease that didn't set up like a bar of soap.

Maybe try pre-warming the auger motor gear grease with a hair dryer before trying a start - up, to see if that fixes the feed delay?

 

[DMKNLD]

There is a slot in fire pot, next to where the igniter is, make sure the hole is clear of ash, clinkers, etc.. also make sure all the other holes are not plugged in the burn pot.

.32 and .50 caliber brass gun bore cleaning brushes work great for the smaller and larger burn pot air holes, available at any gun shop or hunting store. Only problem is their small size, so my cats love to bat them around when I'm cleaning the stove, until they're lost down the heating ducts or under the appliances !

So I use 3/16" and 5/16" hex wrenches to keep the air holes clear. The cats can't abscond with a hex wrench set !

 

[fuelmiser]

There is a slot in fire pot, next to where the igniter is, make sure the hole is clear of ash, clinkers, etc.. also make sure all the other holes are not plugged in the burn pot.

Ah ha, that was the issue, i cleaned that up and it fired right up and ran great, thanks so much to all of you for all the feedback, you folks are the best
heck, that little slot made all the difference, which makes sense, but heck, i guess that would get clogged all the time, or was my issue just a odd ball one and normally the red hot heat maybe burns it out??

 

[Bioburner]

Ah ha, that was the issue, i cleaned that up and it fired right up and ran great, thanks so much to all of you for all the feedback, you folks are the best
heck, that little slot made all the difference, which makes sense, but heck, i guess that would get clogged all the time, or was my issue just a odd ball one and normally the red hot heat maybe burns it out??

How many used items from CL or anywhere that come as new and ready to go? Few. Plus a learning curve of the workings of pellet stoves.
Glad to hear that you got things going and warming up. This global warming thing is freezing everybody. Had a call from Florida and wanting advise about getting a pellet stove.

 

[DMKNLD]

Ah ha, that was the issue, i cleaned that up and it fired right up and ran great, thanks so much to all of you for all the feedback, you folks are the best
heck, that little slot made all the difference, which makes sense, but heck, i guess that would get clogged all the time, or was my issue just a odd ball one and normally the red hot heat maybe burns it out??

Always good, fuelmiser, when a problem ends up being an easy fix, but it can often be a circuitous 'process of elimination' getting there ! Stove symptomolagy troubleshooting via cyber space has its diagnostic limitations often times as well. But it's all good, which is why we're all here on this fine forum !!

RE pellet ignition: It's not actually the hot igniter coil physically touching the pellets via the igniter slit that starts them smoking, rather it is the super heated air being pulled in through the igniter slit and the small air holes at the bottom of the burn pot that eventually supports ignition. Which is why it's important to keep the igniter slit and all the burn pot air holes unobstructed, in order to best support complete pellet combustion.

Every week or so I get out my small compact sized mirror and shine a headlamp beam down into the burn pot to make sure the igniter slit and the 2 small air holes on each side of the slit are clear of any ash or carbon build-up. Then I twist a 3/16 " hex wrench in the air holes to make sure they are fully open. A small 90 degree angled pick tool works well to clean the igniter slit.

The small mirror and head lamp also works well for visualizing up the pellet drop chute from the firebox end to check for any pellet bridging or excessive sawdust build-up near the vacuum tube auger nipple, which lives at the upper end of the auger chute. If the the sawdust builds up there too much it can eventually clog the silicone tubing and / or the brass nipple the hose connects to, causing a vacuum system failure that can shut down the auger feed once it's obstructed enough. Another easy fix, once you figure out that it's a vacuum problem causing it !

Regards, and happy burning !

 

[fuelmiser]

How many used items from CL or anywhere that come as new and ready to go? Few. Plus a learning curve of the workings of pellet stoves.
Glad to hear that you got things going and warming up. This global warming thing is freezing everybody. Had a call from Florida and wanting advise about getting a pellet stove.

yup, so much for Global warming politics, last year and this have burnt more heating fuels in a long long time, for me, i burnt twice as much fuels than normal over 18 years with my other stoves last year and now looking like this year.... urgggggggg

 

[fuelmiser]

Always good, fuelmiser, when a problem ends up being an easy fix, but it can often be a circuitous 'process of elimination' getting there ! Stove symptomolagy troubleshooting via cyber space has its diagnostic limitations often times as well. But it's all good, which is why we're all here on this fine forum !!
Regards, and happy burning !

Great site and forums !
Thanks and future thanks

 

[fuelmiser]

RE pellet ignition: It's not actually the hot igniter coil physically touching the pellets via the igniter slit that starts them smoking, rather it is the super heated air being pulled in through the igniter slit and the small air holes at the bottom of the burn pot that eventually supports ignition. Which is why it's important to keep the igniter slit and all the burn pot air holes unobstructed, in order to best support complete pellet combustion.

Every week or so I get out my small compact sized mirror and shine a headlamp beam down into the burn pot to make sure the igniter slit and the 2 small air holes on each side of the slit are clear of any ash or carbon build-up. Then I twist a 3/16 " hex wrench in the air holes to make sure they are fully open. A small 90 degree angled pick tool works well to clean the igniter slit.
...

oh, i didn't clean the small holes, really, yiks, where and how close, totally missed that? do you have a picture of those 2 small holes?

2nd question regarding burn theory or tech talk?
hmmmm, so your saying that the exhaust motor is the fire source air, and that blows into the pot slot and other pot holes, then somehow goes up and into the firebox cavity, and then somehow heads out of the stove?

But then that is confusing, becuase i am thinking it would blow up the feed chute and out the tough bin and smoke out the room, but i guess i have that wrong, so the engineers who designed these cool stoves are somehow making the fire fumes not go up the feed chute, now you have my attention even more?
So , "How'd they do that" educate me, i am curious?

and how in the world is there a vacum in there at the same time while there is press with the air going in, very neat trick those engineers put to together, wise grass hoppers?

 

[Bioburner]

Whole fire chamber is in a vacuum.

 

[railfanron]

The combustion air motor sucks the air out of the firebox creating a negative pressure situation. The holes in the firepot let in fresh air from the outside air intake. This air flows up and through the pellet bed. This air flows through or by the igniter. The air is heated up to above 500 degrees. This superheated air is what lights the pellets. When the pellet bed gets above 450 degrees the pellets spontaneously combust thus starting the fire. The combustion fan is constantly drawing air out of the firebox and the fresh air intake is replacing it through the holes in the firepot. This is basically how it works and if there is no airflow out the exhaust all kinds of funny things begin to happen. This is why a clean stove is a happy stove.
Ron

 

[DMKNLD]

There are 4 small holes in the bottom of the sloped face of the burn pot, and there are 4 small holes on the bottom of the concave front side part of the burn pot, 2 holes towards each side of and just below the igniter slit. Get a small mirror and flashlight to shine in there and you'll see them !

Then there are 7 larger air holes I believe scattered around the middle and sides of the burn pot, including 2 on the on the concave front side of the pot that are just below the burn pot lip, and easy to miss in the cleaning process.

As Bioburner and railfanron said, the exhaust blower fins create a negative pressure vacuum throughout the fire box and around the heat exchanger tubes, with the room air being convectively heated as it blows by via the convection blower and out the front of your exchanger tubes. Once the negative pressured air passes through the combustion blower it then gets a positive pressure flow to push the exhaust gasses out the exhaust plenum and through to the venting.

 

[fuelmiser]

The combustion air motor sucks the air out of the firebox creating a negative pressure situation. The holes in the firepot let in fresh air from the outside air intake. This air flows up and through the pellet bed. This air flows through or by the igniter. The air is heated up to above 500 degrees. This superheated air is what lights the pellets. When the pellet bed gets above 450 degrees the pellets spontaneously combust thus starting the fire. The combustion fan is constantly drawing air out of the firebox and the fresh air intake is replacing it through the holes in the firepot. This is basically how it works and if there is no airflow out the exhaust all kinds of funny things begin to happen. This is why a clean stove is a happy stove.
Ron

ah ha, now i understand, makes sense, ingenious engineers, thanks you 2 gents above are the best

 

[Bioburner]

The evolution of the pellet stove has been a realively short one. Still a few positive preasure stoves perculating along. Couple early ones where a quick failure. Controls seem to be the last and most important thing that will continue the success or failure of the stoves. A blunder by Quadrafire last fall really stresses the importance of safety and probably more consumer education.

 

[fuelmiser]

The evolution of the pellet stove has been a realively short one. Still a few positive preasure stoves perculating along. Couple early ones where a quick failure. Controls seem to be the last and most important thing that will continue the success or failure of the stoves. A blunder by Quadrafire last fall really stresses the importance of safety and probably more consumer education.

oh, you have me curious, what blunder was that?

So are you saying positive pressure stoves are original & first generation pellet stoves and now outdated, where negative pressure is now the latest and greatest?

So i guess my other stove i also got off craigslist is a positive pressure stove, which is a Earth stove WP50 .

 

[Bioburner]

Search Mt.Vernon E2
Positive pressure stoves have a bad habit of fire following fuel up into the hopper and needing near perfect draft to perform well. Safety feature of using a vacuum switch is not an option so if you have a plugged vent you have a big problem. There is a model with stone inserts I would like to have and they show up on CL about every 2 months around here.