Quadra-fire castile questions

[dale rex]

Have a castile pellet stove for about 8 years now and love it!. Only had some very minor problems in the past that were easily fixed. I had only one pro repair when the combustion blower went bad 2 years ago. I always clean it myself during the heating season and at the end(all out cleaning) of the season. How far is it necessary to disassemble and clean when doing the final cleanout? I always take the heat exchanger cover off, and the 2 back fire panels, and remove the convection fan from below the rear of the stove. I scrape out the burn pot as well as I can, clean the heat exchanger tubes thoroughly, try to clean the combustion fan blades and exhaust area as well as i can, and clean out the vent pipe from the outside with a brush and shop vac and clean the convection fan motor and fan blades.. I cant remove the vent pipe from the rear of the stove as the original installer used sealant and it is really glued on well. I have it in a corner so there is only one 45 degree elbow and 3 ft of straight pipe to the outside. The only way i could remove the vent pipe would be to detach the pipe that goes through the wall thimble by twisting it off the inside elbow, and ruin the nice caulking job on the outside of the thimble. Is it enough to clean it without removal? The only other area that I cant get to is the exhaust coming out of the stove in between the combustion blower and 3" vent pipe. Is there any reason to get into this area for cleaning? If there is then I would have to remove the 3" vent form the back of the stove which would be a PITA. lol The only other issue I'm having at the moment is an occaisional noisy convection fan motor. Not sure if its going bad or just a temporary noise.

 

[Lake Girl]

Disconnect your vacuum line and try the leaf blower trick...

 

[dale rex]

thanks, but I'm not familiar with the leaf blower trick. Can you tell me about it? More details needed> Thanks, Dale

 

[Lake Girl]

You need a leaf blower that has a vacuum capability. Attach vacuum port to outside end of vent and turn it on. Apparently works best if some one is closing the stove door inside for short bursts. Cheap electric leaf blower is recommended because the get pretty dirty. Never tried it myself yet.... Search leaf blower trick.

 

[dale rex]

thanks for the reply lake girl.............. I just watched a" youtube" video that I Googled on "the leaf blower trick" and it showed how to do it. Very cool trick, I might try it when its warmer or at the end of the season. Thanks again

 

[smalltown]

dale, I do all that you are doing for cleaning plus I pull the combustion blower before each season. I clean the crud that builds up behind the fan fins that you cannot see. I you decide to remove the combustion blower be sure to buy a new gasket as it generally break as you pull the motor off.

P.S. When I pull the combustion blower you will have already removed the convection blower housing. At that time I clean the convection blower by pulling the plastic squirrel cages off washing them in the sink, and reinstalling.

 

[dale rex]

smalltown........ is it difficult to pull the combustion blower? Does it get done from the back? Or through the side panels? I can see it through the side panel on the same side as the control box, but dont know if it could be pulled from that position.

 

[smalltown]

Not difficult at all. Yes removed from the back. The back has 7 screws holding it on.
It's one on those things where you need to remove A, B, then C to then remove the back and the combustion blower.
My stove you see in my avatar is also mounted in the corner. It's little tight, but the actual work is very easy. I will look around I used to have a step by step procedure.
So simple a caveman could do it!

 

[smalltown]

Dale I found what I used it's a Castile owners manual that describes, and with pictures to boot of the procedure. If you don't have one PM me with your E-mail and I will E-mail it to you in PDF form.
It's dated Sept 2008, but it should be the same for your stove.

 

[Peter Martin]

What about the Castile insert? It looks to me as if removing the combustion blower on the insert is a much trickier thing than on the stove. There's just not enough room between the blower and the right side wall (the shroud??) to get it out. Do I also have to remove the shroud?

Thanks,

Peter

 

[sesro1978]

Hi Peter-

I recently did a change out of my combustion blower on our Castile insert - yessiree, you do have to remove 'the shroud' (I'm assuming you mean the piece of sheet metal on the right-hand side of the stove?). I think in general the inserts are more difficult to service than the free-standing stoves due to their insert nature. Depending on the age of your stove and your last cleaning, probably not a bad idea to clean the stuff you can't see while you have the side off.

Good luck!

 

[Peter Martin]

Thanks, Sesro. That's what I thought, as I don't see a way to pull it out of there with that piece of sheet metal there. Seems like pretty bad design, no?

Anyway, I'll give it a try. I will definitely give it a good clean as well.

Cheers,

Peter

 

[sesro1978]

Yea, I'm not a huge fan of the design. I'd love to know how other company's design their inserts - maybe that's standard placement for the combustion blower?