Quadra-Fire 2100 air control won't close

[amanda_maine]

I bought a new Quadra-Fire 2100 Millenium two years ago and have never been able to get the rear intake air control all the way forward to close down the stove.
You can see on the left how it's worn from where it stops shy of closing.
Consequently it burns fast and hot and goes through a lot of wood.
Ideas?

 

[DrumCat]

I bought a new Quadra-Fire 2100 Millenium two years ago and have never been able to get the rear intake air control all the way forward to close down the stove.
You can see on the left how it's worn from where it stops shy of closing.
Consequently it burns fast and hot and goes through a lot of wood.
Ideas?

View attachment 330704

I went ahead and signed up the the forum, just to answer your question.
It's a great site. Been lurking here all year.

So, I have a 3100M myself. Same exact design stove, only a slightly bit bigger firebox.
That gage plate is positioned wrong! It is the same on mine. It is installed too far forward and there is no easy way to move it towards the rear either. (riveted on) I know, as I've had my side panel off a couple times to see exactly how the linkages work and to try and move that scale back.. I'm very handy with a drill and tools, but it's not going to be easy to do that at all!

I'm very certain the rear air IS closed when you have it pulled fully forward. When you push it all the way back, then slightly forward to start the timer, the rear air closes immediately, then the timer closes the front air. Else you can reach back and pull the lever forward manually and close the forward air and bypass the 20 or so minute timer.
So all the way back is to start your loads with max air, with both front and rear air ports open. All the way forward (after 20 min or manually pulling the back tab forward) is all the way closed.

Then you use the top air control on the right side to fine tune the air as much as possible. Even it will not full close off the air to the firebox, as that's how it's designed.

I have a read a LOT of info about our stoves and, from what I can tell, in order to get it clean burning up to EPA standards, it will use a lot of air to burn clean, and go thru a lot of wood as a result.
This is normal. It needs to burn hot to burn clean, using the secondary combustion feature at the top (tubes).
You'll have to learn to control the heat output with the size of your load, and how you orient the wood (N/S - E/W) and, how tightly you load the wood, as well as split size and wood species (hardwoods/softwoods). There is most definitely an art to getting these to burn the way you want, not just pulling a lever, unfortunately.

Hope this helps.

 

[kkmcwhat]

I went ahead and signed up the the forum, just to answer your question.
It's a great site. Been lurking here all year.

So, I have a 3100M myself. Same exact design stove, only a slightly bit bigger firebox.
That gage plate is positioned wrong! It is the same on mine. It is installed too far forward and there is no easy way to move it towards the rear either. (riveted on) I know, as I've had my side panel off a couple times to see exactly how the linkages work and to try and move that scale back.. I'm very handy with a drill and tools, but it's not going to be easy to do that at all!

I'm very certain the rear air IS closed when you have it pulled fully forward. When you push it all the way back, then slightly forward to start the timer, the rear air closes immediately, then the timer closes the front air. Else you can reach back and pull the lever forward manually and close the forward air and bypass the 20 or so minute timer.
So all the way back is to start your loads with max air, with both front and rear air ports open. All the way forward (after 20 min or manually pulling the back tab forward) is all the way closed.

Then you use the top air control on the right side to fine tune the air as much as possible. Even it will not full close off the air to the firebox, as that's how it's designed.

I have a read a LOT of info about our stoves and, from what I can tell, in order to get it clean burning up to EPA standards, it will use a lot of air to burn clean, and go thru a lot of wood as a result.
This is normal. It needs to burn hot to burn clean, using the secondary combustion feature at the top (tubes).
You'll have to learn to control the heat output with the size of your load, and how you orient the wood (N/S - E/W) and, how tightly you load the wood, as well as split size and wood species (hardwoods/softwoods). There is most definitely an art to getting these to burn the way you want, not just pulling a lever, unfortunately.

Hope this helps.

Hey!

So I found this thread after trying to search a lot for the same problem with my Quad 3100 Millenium. It sounds like this is an aesthetic thing (as in, the air control actually *is* closing, but it's just not marked that way). Is that correct?

Can you offer any... basic guidance for getting this thing to stop overfiring? We're seeing temps on the stovetop, with a magnet Rutland place just in front of the stovepipe (yes, not the most sophisticated, I know) that reach 850 at top burn, and that's with everything closed, and we can't seem to stop it/get it to stop running away on us. This usually happens with a re-load, and not with a cold start. Manual says we shouldn't see over 650...

I read somewhere that, with a cold start, you're actually not supposed to use the ACC (secondary/bottom control) at all. Is that true?

I'm pretty lost, and I really like this stove, but it seems pretty impossible to control. We're also not getting great burn times, like, at all (I know it's usually always less than the manufacturer says, but we're seeing like... three hours, four hours from "okay it's going" to "coals are almost out need to start a rekindle," and that seems... insanely shy of the 10 hour claim in the manual).

Sorry for the long/complicated reply... and thank you for the info you've got here already!