Quadra Fire Castile Insert Help Needed

[Crusher6]

Need Some help with a quadra fire castile pellet insert. It is having issue remaining lit following its ignition cycle. Here is what is happening:

1) Thermo-stat calls for heat
2) Call light illuminates
3) Exhaust blower starts to run
4) Pellets feed
5) Igniter glows and pellets in the burner pot ignite.
6) Pellet motor feeds pellets for a few more cycles and then stops feeding
7) Call light remains lit and there is a red light illuminated on the control box.
8) Unit shuts down.
9) Call light remains illuminated

If I am in the room when the ignition cycle begins I can USUALLY keeps the pellets feeding by opening and closing the hopper door once or twice. After doing this, I can hear the faint hum of the pellet motor and I can see and hear pellets drop again. Once this thing runs for a bit (35 - 45 minutes or once the convection motor fire ups) all is good and it will run fine until I shut it down for cleaning or it shuts down on its own when the thermo-stat is satisfied. As the weather is bad (zero these past few days ) this thing is running pretty much non stop and I have to shut it down about twice per day for a really good cleaning, so you can see why this is such a pain.

I am wondering if there is a way to increase the feed time and frequency of the pellet feed during the initial ignition cycle. I think this is where my issue is but I am not sure.

I know my pellet motor works as it feeds pellets initially and I know my vacuum switch is good as I have cleaned it and by passed it with no effect to operations.

Any ideas out there for me to try.

thanks

 

[kappel15]

Might be time to check the thermocouple. Pull it and make sure end is good. Not cracked or broke. If it is good, when installing back in cover, make sure it is touching the inside end of the cover or it won't read correct temps. Also make sure it is sitting in pot at least 3/4 to 1". As far as initial feed cycle, it runs for 60 seconds and that is all you get. It should be enough. Just because you bypassed the vac switch with no change, doesn't mean everything is fine. I would make sure the entire exhaust path is clear. From firebox to exhaust end. Has the flame been tall and lazy? Can you tell if the auger is just running backwards when not feeding? kap

 

[Crusher6]

Hey Kap thanks for the quick reply.

I am going to rip it down tomorrow and really go over it and give it one heck of a cleaning.....again. I got the leaf blower ready to go so I will address the exhaust path pretty completely. I will look over the thermo couple once I get it clean up to see if any of your ideas may be present. As for your question about flame size and attributes, you are smack on. Flame is tall AND lazy. I suspect I may have a bad door seal and figured that may be why the flame was off. I am also going to see if I can pull the convection blower tomorrow (will depend on time as I will be at work most of the day) and see if its possibly gummed up somehow. I saw that may be a cause on another page of the forum as I was reading other posts. I drop a note with what I find once I get through this stuff tomorrow night.

Thanks agian

 

[kappel15]

If the stove just stops feeding pellets, the convection fan has nothing to do with it. If the entire stove shut down, no power to anything, then the convection fan is a possibility. The combustion fan on the other hand could be dirty. But you need a new gasket if you remove it to clean. If you are good with a multimeter,you can test the thermocouple by heating the end, and seeing if it produces some millivolts. Tall and lazy flames usually are a sure sign of a dirty exhaust path. Make sure pot holes are all clear also. Stay in touch. kap

 

[tech tchr]

What year castille do you have? Mine is a 2002 model. Mine is still running on the old grey control box and suffers from cold start syndrome. It does not feed enough pellets to get the fire going from a cold start. After I clean it I always throw a handful of pellets in the pot to make sure it has enough to keep it going and get hot enough to run on its own.

I finally broke down and ordered a new box yesterday.

Also, my flame is ok but this being the first year with the stove I am still in a learning curve. I was finding that I had to shut down and clean out the fire pot every 24 hrs or it would build up a big clinker.

I had read of the blocking the air wash mod and decided to try it. I cut 2 three inch pieces of the old tadpole gasket and placed them in the airwash slot at the top of the door. This decreases the airwash and increases airflow through burn pot. The flames get smaller and more intense, the output temps went up by 25 degrees. Best of all I ran it straight for 48 hours without having to clean the pot. I did shut it down for a good cleaning today and barely anything in the burnpot. Lots of fly ash piled up next to pot. Glass filthy where the airwash blocked but less daily work. I'm gonna try 3 days this time!

I also blew out my vent with a leaf blower, by removing the right rear plate and holding the blower tube over the combustion blower port in the back of the box. Worked great, huge cloud came out the top!

 

[Crusher6]

Ok Kap Thanks Again. Not very good with the multimeter but I do have one. I see what I can do to test the thermocouple, worst case is I will do a visual inspection. Since I don't have a replacement gasket for the combustion fan I guess I will wait until I get one before I pull the motor to clean it independent of the rest of the exhaust path. I'm going to get a replacement door gasket, combustion fan gasket and thermo couple/shield on order Monday so with some luck I should have this thing back to new by next weekend. Will keep ya posted

 

[tech tchr]

 

[kappel15]

Have you tried adjusting your door to seal better. I have had customers complain that they have to throw handfuls of pellets in pot to start. When I adjusted their doors, the initial feed was enough to fire up their stoves. But, the dreaded CSS can happen. kap

 

[kappel15]

Nice white fire.

 

[kappel15]

Ok Kap Thanks Again. Not very good with the multimeter but I do have one. I see what I can do to test the thermocouple, worst case is I will do a visual inspection. Since I don't have a replacement gasket for the combustion fan I guess I will wait until I get one before I pull the motor to clean it independent of the rest of the exhaust path. I'm going to get a replacement door gasket, combustion fan gasket and thermo couple/shield on order Monday so with some luck I should have this thing back to new by next weekend. Will keep ya posted

You are getting a new thermocouple and shield before checking them?

 

[Crusher6]

Tech tchr... mine is a 2010 that we installed over the summer of 2011. It has the clear control box and I had to replace that last year as I had a situation where I wasn't getting any pellets falling at all. Popped in the new control box and pow all good.

 

[Crusher6]

Kap. Yeah, I figure why not. Sooner or later I am going to need them. It may not be this time but when I do it is going to be -50 degrees on a Sunday afternoon in a bad blizzard and the next day is Christmas. So this way at least I will have the parts on hand and hey, who ever heard of prices doing down from year to year. I found the thermo couple for 68.50 and the shield for 22.98. Heck, I can grab a control box for 259.25 so I was really thinking about picking one of those up too.

 

[kappel15]

You are exactly right! Prices don't go down. I too, like to stock up on parts for my stoves(and a few others). And they always seem to act up when it is 50 below, and on the weekend. It is sad though that Quad almost eliminated their warranty on such high priced electrical components. Only 90 days now.

 

[tech tchr]

I ordered the control box and a spare ignightor from stove world.com. Great price, quick shipping.

 

[kappel15]

Those are good prices

 

[Crusher6]

Ok guys. Tore this thing apart and really went over it h a fine tooth comb to ensure the entire exhaust trail was clean just as Kap suggested. Literally spent 2.5 hours working on it. Vacuumed the crap out of it and did the leaf blower trick. Holy crap. I was amazed at the amount of stuff that was trapped in the exhaust train. Never would have suspected that a cloud of turd that black would pop out of the chimney. I had my son video it and if I can figure out how to up load the darn thing I will post it. Also made an adjustment to the fire pot clean out plate door. It was a little loose. Completely emptied the hopper and vacuumed it out as well. Anyway, Fired the thing up 25 minutes ago and haven't had to touch it yet. Amazing. All this time I was under the impression I was cleaning it out well enough only to find I didn't even scratch the surface. My flame is substantially smaller and significantly more active than before. I still need to replace the door gasket as it is a little worn in a few spots so I think I may be able to get some better performance yet. we will see. Thermo-couple looked good Kap. I didn't millimeter it but since I have been running this long I am assuming it is in good order. Lets see how the next few days go. That should really tell the story. I post back in a week or so. Thanks for your help and advice guys. I really appreciate the help.

 

[kappel15]

A clean stove is a happy stove. And then so is the owner. Glad you are up and running. Stay warm. kap

 

[DMKNLD]

Crusher6, we need to copy and paste your most excellent thread post as a testimonial to what deep cleaning a pellet stove can do as the most likely fix for poor burn issues. Until you've seen 'the ash dragon' from the leaf blower cleaning, you really can't appreciate how much fly ash can be concealed 'out of sight and out of mind' in the exhaust pathway of the stove and vent system.

I inherited my 2001 Castile from the prior home owners when we bought our farmhouse, and struggled with poor burn issues all that season. Wait for it...... you'll know why in a second. So at the end of the burn season, and before I 'got religion' and found this fine forum, , I had my local Quad dealer come look at my stove to help fix my burn issues.

When he asked if I had cleaned it regularly, I said confidently "sure, I clean the fire box and the ash pan out". I didn't fully understand his appropriate eye roll until I saw the mushroom cloud of ash that came out from above the heat exchanger baffle plate, and when he opened the clean-out T and the vent dumped enough ash to half fill a 5 gallon paint bucket, after burning 4 tons of 'dirt in a bag' pellets that season !

When he got in there and showed me what I really needed to do to deep clean the stove, that was my first clue that I had *allot to learn* about pellet stove operation and maintenance...... it was amazing that the stove ran at all that season - a testament I guess to 'nothing burns like a Quad' design and quality.

So yes, "you chose wisely, grasshopper" when you came to this forum, and you follow the sage advice of kap !!

Happy burning !!

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

A clean stove is a happy, safe, and warm stove.

 

[Crusher6]

Seven days and two intermediate cleanings later and the castile is running like a champ. I wish to God I could figure out how to put up this video my son took of the all the crap that came out of the chimney when we fired up that leaf blower and blew this thing out. The phrase 'cleanliness is next to Godliness" certainly holds true in the world of pellet stoves. Stay warm everyone.

 

[DMKNLD]

Great to hear that you and your stove are in 'the happy place' Crusher 6 !

Everyone's stoves it seems, all around the East and Mid-west, are doing extra duty this January. We have another crappy mix of a sleet / snow / freezing rain / rain storm coming tomorrow to New England. Spring will be a welcome sight no doubt for many of us - bring it on !

I'm certainly no media wizard, but if you can download your video to your home computer as a media file (using Windows media player or whatever you have on your computer), and save it to your desktop, then you click on the "upload a file" link at the bottom of the forum page and add it to a post.

Or, do as I often have to do, get my tech savy kids to do it for me !

Happy burning !

 

[kappel15]

Glad you and your stove are getting re-acquainted. kap

 

[Vand M]

Keeps giving me am error that the file is to large. Going to upload it to youtube and link it here. This is Murphy by the way lol