Quadra fire Mt Vernon...questions.

[Trundle]

Hi Pelletiers (not sure what you call yourselves). I've had a Mt Vernon sitting in the corner of my house (installed) that I've never used. I've got a wood stove in the other corner of the room so thats what i've been using. The sticker inside the hopper says it was made in 2005. I cleaned out the heating pot (had some old pellets in it), emptied the ash catcher, put new batteries in the thermostat box and then put a couple handfulls of pellets in the pot. Plugged it into the wall and the fan started running. It just keeps running (I can turn the fan up with the switch on the side of the stove and press the button under the switch which doesn't seem to do much). The pulled the ash box and felt the element and its definetely hot but even leaving the unit plugged in with the fan going for about half an hour the pellets didn't ignite. I will add that I have no idea what i'm doing when it comes to a pellet stove so any ideas are greatly appreciated.

 

[jrsdws]

A handful of possibilities here. First I'd say open the ash pan door, remove the pan, and watch that igniter during the start up procedure and make sure it's glowing red. If not it won't ignite fuel.

If that's ok the next thing is vacuum. Does it ever auger any pellets from the hopper into the pot?

If not, you aren't getting vacuum switch to close, indicating a severe air flow leak, or more likely obstructed venting.

Did you clean venting thoroughly before trying to use it?

 

[Trundle]

I'll take the ash pan out and look for glowing red.

Doesn't seem to be augering so I'll start cleaning and looking more closely at the vents...which brings me to my next question...where are the vents?

Thanks for your help jrsdws! Any idea where I might find a owners manual? I did a cursory look on the quadra fire website but didn't find anything.

 

[Trundle]

Oh, and this is not a big emergency or anything. Got the wood stove cranking along but got to thinking it would be nice to have the pellet stove as an option as well. I'll take some pics when I get a chance and maybe get this thing figured out.

 

[jrsdws]

(broken link removed to http://hearthnhome.com/downloads/installManuals/man_MtVernon.pdf)

The venting...meaning the exhaust pipe. Clean that from end to end. Take right panel off of stove. There is an ash clean out there too. Remove cast iron baffles from burn box and vacuum complete. Instructions are all in the manual.

If a birds nest or other obstruction such as ash, enough vacuum will not be created to close the switch to allow the start up procedure to continue.

 

[kinsmanstoves]

I take it that is an OE stove and not an AE stove. Clean the vent and stove and then we can go from there.

Eric

 

[Trundle]

Thanks for the tips so far guys. I'm gonna tear into the pellet stove project this afternoon. Oh, and thanks for the link to the manual. That'll help a lot. I'll keep you posted as per my progress as I go.

 

[LMPS]

I am sure that it is not the reason it is not lighting but was wondering how old the pellets are you are trying to use? If they have been sitting in the hopper for awhile, might be worth picking up a new bag.

 

[Trundle]

Yeah, since I've never used the stove before I'm just trying to use the pellets that were in the stove when I bought the house. Hopper is half full and there's half a bag of pellets sitting next to the stove. I've got to run to town today so I'll grab another bag at the hardware store. Thanks LMPS.