Quadra-Fire Mt. Vernon Drop Tube Temp woes....

[kdlp]

We have had a Quadra-Fire Mt. Vernon Pellet Stove for about 10 years and have a constant battle with the "Drop Tube Temp Sensor" shutting down the stove. (The read-out says "Drop Tube Temp High")

Here's what we've tried:

1. Clean, clean and clean... including a professional cleaning to the stack/exhaust just 2 months ago. The last failure was 1 burn (1 day after the last internal cleaning)

2. Replaced the sensor ($250 w/labor)

3. Checked the sensor connection for rust

4. Checked to see that the loose wire near the sensor is making contact as installed

5. We've tried every "burn height" and "fan speed".

6. And just for the sake of information, we are using "Clean Burn" "100% Premium" brand pellets. Our local retailer (who is now out of business) told us that they were the best for our area. (S. E. Alaska)

This has been a non-stop battle from day #1 with this stove. I'm not seeing many other complaints posted anywhere so I'm wondering if there was a recall or something that our local retailer might have missed that would rectify this problem.

For now, we are forced to shut off power from the stove, re-establish power, allow it to go through it's cleaning phase and then we may (or may not) get another 2 or 3 burns before we're back where we started from.

Any suggestions/advise greatly appreciated....

kdlp

 

[mralias]

We have had a Quadra-Fire Mt. Vernon Pellet Stove for about 10 years and have a constant battle with the "Drop Tube Temp Sensor" shutting down the stove. (The read-out says "Drop Tube Temp High")

Here's what we've tried:

1. Clean, clean and clean... including a professional cleaning to the stack/exhaust just 2 months ago. The last failure was 1 burn (1 day after the last internal cleaning)

2. Replaced the sensor ($250 w/labor)

3. Checked the sensor connection for rust

4. Checked to see that the loose wire near the sensor is making contact as installed

5. We've tried every "burn height" and "fan speed".

6. And just for the sake of information, we are using "Clean Burn" "100% Premium" brand pellets. Our local retailer (who is now out of business) told us that they were the best for our area. (S. E. Alaska)

This has been a non-stop battle from day #1 with this stove. I'm not seeing many other complaints posted anywhere so I'm wondering if there was a recall or something that our local retailer might have missed that would rectify this problem.

For now, we are forced to shut off power from the stove, re-establish power, allow it to go through it's cleaning phase and then we may (or may not) get another 2 or 3 burns before we're back where we started from.

Any suggestions/advise greatly appreciated....

kdlp

Take a look at this post from 2010 and see if this could be an issue for you. Pay attention to the last post.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/mt-vernon-ae-error-max-drop-tube-temp.44823/

 

[kappel15]

How is the flame height? Too much? Is the wire harness mounted on the control board correctly? And does the connector on the board fit nice and tight? If not, you can carefully pull it and use a thumb tac to push the walls of the female connector a little tighter, so it makes better connection on the pins. We can get into more detail to test if board is bad if you don't find anything to fix it. kap