Quadra Fire Castile Stove MORE ISSUES - unreal

[castilequadraCO]

Ok last week I posted about some problems I was having here are the problems I'm having now

- Last week I replaced the ignitor because it wouldn't feed pellets and the burn pot wasn't getting hot

- After I connected everything a loud noise came from the back of the stove - fan area, combustion fan was on the outs. I stopped it and then tried to fire it up today and a huge plume of smoke was in the stove and not exiting, smoked me out of my place. I cleaned the burn pot because there was a ton of pellets in it and it fired up after a little bit of a delay.

Then *I decided I better replace the Combustion fan so I did and now I have nothing except a very very quiet fan - hard to tell if it is on it is so quiet.

??? I am not getting any pellets fed, no auger sounding, there is no reaction from the thermostat but the reset button in the back of the stove is making a clicking noise

***Is it possible I didn't connect the wires correctly upon reinstallation of the new combustion fan?

Lastly, anyone have a picture diagram of this because the black/white one I have sucks because it is a diagram and not an actual stove so I can't see exactly which wires go where. It is very very curious at this point.

This has been so incredibly frustrating, last week after I replaced the ignitor it was cranking and then the bad fan bearings and now nothing. sucks bad especially when I just got over frozen pipes and temps in the teens are heading back here in 2 days.

ANY THOUGHTS OR HELP ARE GREATLY APPRECIATED! TIA

 

[Nicholas440]

I'm not sure about why it wont feed but my thought was you might want to look at the vacuum switch to see if the wires or the hose on it were disturbed. I can't think of what might cause a clicking sound but I know the experts here will chime in on this quickly as there are some very good stove mechanics here and together these great minds usually find the solution to most problems.

On your frozen pipes, what I do here when its going to be down in single digits or below zero is I let my faucets drip at a to clip to insure the the water in the pipes will move and thus they wont freeze. You might want to let them drip for a while if it gets that cold it doesnt cost must to let them drip for a day or so compared to the cost of fixing frozen ones.


Good luck

 

[tjnamtiw]

Good bet on the disconnected hose from the vacuum switch, Nicholas! That would be my guess too.

 

[Fish On]

I would gues you did hit the reset buton more then a few times to turn the auger? I just did a complete cleaning and vacume my hopper and took out any fines and pellets in chute.

It did require me to hit my reset button a lot to fill it up.

 

[Vinelife]

Call a professional ...

 

[castilequadraCO]

Just replaced the thermocouple and nothing. I have 325.00 into this repair now and it still is not working

Bull if you ask me. does not make any sense at all

 

[Vinelife]

Think maybe its time to call a professional ....

 

[tjnamtiw]

You've lost all perspective of what you are doing! We suggested that the earlier symptoms pointed at a bad thermocouple but why, with nothing even feeding pellets, would you replace it now???? Have you checked that the rubber hose from the vacuum switch to the nipple on the feed chute is connected as was suggested. Before connecting it to the vacuum switch, did you blow air through it to see if it was clear?

I'm beginning to believe that Hank Hill is correct. It might have been cheaper to have a professional look at it. Sorry to be so abrupt but why even bother being on here if you aren't going to take the steps we suggest?

 

[tjnamtiw]

In one of your first posts on the other thread you have going ! you said 'removed the bricks, the upper metal shield, glass window, top peice and side panel vaccumn it all.' Did you remove the window??? If that isn't back in there correctly, you'll be losing vacuum.

How about the floor of the burn pot. Is the dump valve closed all the way???

 

[Vinelife]

Today I did my usually once a week deep cleaning. Which includes taking everything out and vac'ing it all out. Cleaning the exchange tubes really good. And getting to the exhaust fan and brushing down the ash and then taking my shop vac and sucking all that stuff out that hole on the right side. I use a damp cloth create a suction and the fan spins and does really good. Kinda like a cheaper version of the leaf blower trick. My stove is running top notch tonight with lots and lots of air flow.

 

[tjnamtiw]

Today I did my usually once a week deep cleaning. Which includes taking everything out and vac'ing it all out. Cleaning the exchange tubes really good. And getting to the exhaust fan and brushing down the ash and then taking my shop vac and sucking all that stuff out that hole on the right side. I use a damp cloth create a suction and the fan spins and does really good. Kinda like a cheaper version of the leaf blower trick. My stove is running top notch tonight with lots and lots of air flow.

I'm going to give that a try tomorrow. It's a good idea, Hank! Do you use a bent wire to clean the tops of the tubes?

 

[B-Mod]

I did my clean up today also, I hadn't done mine in about 3 weeks or so, but I burn corn so it is not as dirty. Got a big cold spell coming this week, with highs just barely getting over zero. And I am going to be out of town all week for work, so I wanted to make sure it was going to be 100% with the wife at the controls, lol...........

 

[Vinelife]

Wow, never heard of that. I usually vac what I can and then take my thick haired brush and brush down the rest. I get it between them also which has alot of ash. After a good brushing they are good to go. Stove was really hot tonight. The top of my sante fe was hot also, especially on the left side. Got up to 74 in the house and had to turn down the thermo alittle. But no, I never have done the wire thing to get to the top of them. Sounds interesting. I usually try to do what my manual says to do. But since I live in such a cold place in the winter I have to do it more often than the manual says. When its really cold i'm going through about 12 or more bags a week. I'm sure people down in tennessee are burning less than me by half. I will go through 5 tons this season easy. Sometimes there are still patches of snow around may first.

 

[tjnamtiw]

I read somewhere that people have done the bent wire thing but I was just curious. I haven't done it yet. I do the same as you do.

I burn two stoves down here in Ga. where it gets surprisingly cold and the houses are not built for the weather like up North. When it gets down in the 20's at night and high 30's during the day, I use two bags a day to heat my 2500 sq ft or so. I keep the upstairs bedrooms shut not that we have an 'empty nest'. I'll burn 3 tons by the time I'm done. I have two heat pumps and ducting running in an unheated crawl space so they don't do a heck of a lot below about 40. That's when I use the pellet stoves the most.

 

[Czech]

Today I did my usually once a week deep cleaning. Which includes taking everything out and vac'ing it all out. Cleaning the exchange tubes really good. And getting to the exhaust fan and brushing down the ash and then taking my shop vac and sucking all that stuff out that hole on the right side. I use a damp cloth create a suction and the fan spins and does really good. Kinda like a cheaper version of the leaf blower trick. My stove is running top notch tonight with lots and lots of air flow.

Make a fake brick. Use the brick for an outline, run a strip of weather stripping around the inside edge to seal, cut a hole for your shop vac nossel in the middle. I use the tapered nossel with reversed air to a simulated leaf blower trick, make sure you seal it with something otherwise it will get dusty!

 

[tjnamtiw]

Make a fake brick. Use the brick for an outline, run a strip of weather stripping around the inside edge to seal, cut a hole for your shop vac nossel in the middle. I use the tapered nossel with reversed air to a simulated leaf blower trick, make sure you seal it with something otherwise it will get dusty!

That should surely work too, Czech. Too bad the Ash Vac doesn't have the reverse capability but I could just use my shop vac, of course. Probably more CFM anyway.

I think the OP must be an automotive mechanic the way he was just throwing parts at the problem. %-P (sorry FordMotorTech, but you appear to be more into the restoration/complete overhaul end anyway)

 

[Czech]

I used an old piece of lam flooring, cut it to size to fit the comb fan opening. After blowing ash all over, I upgraded to the weather stripping edge and all is well. Blowing or sucking with the vac and 'look mom no dust!'.