Quadra-fire Mt Vernon Sparks coming from heating tubes

[Jimteacher]

How did that get broken? That shouldn't make any difference, it just opens into the heat exchanger back there, sparks normally are pulled in there.

I'm wondering if you really had sparks coming out of your heat exchanger tubes or if some dust came off your blower and faked you out in the lighting or something?

If you had sparks flying out... You'd have all the exhaust glasses/ smoke too. There's not a lot of ember's in a pellet stove compared to the mouth of smoke/ gasses. Your room would be filled with pellet stove exhaust immediately if it was venting ember's out the exchanger tubes.

What exactly did you see? Are you sure? And was there detectable smoke/ odor in the room with this event?
I think we all want to know if this is real what's going on because it could be a safety flaw that affects all of us.

But this doesn't seem possible based on the physics?

Thanks for your input. It's fun to interact with people who know more about shoes.
I've been using it for a long time, without sparks...
The sparks were continuous in the spring, just before I stopped using it.
They were like little bullets, coming right out of the exchanger tubes... straight out, as I was scared I was going to burn down my house !
They were very small, as I put a screen in front of the exchanger to hopefully stop them, but it didn't stop the little sparks at all. They came right through the screen, even when it was doubled.
Good point that something more than sparks might come out... but NO smoke odor... no smoke coming coming out, just intermittent little fast sparks. Interesting question.
A lot of embers are charging around, but pretty big ones, when it starts. ...not something tiny enough to go through a screen.
I wonder if something could heat up dust or something in the tube system that might get heated that much? ....doesn't seem possible, but who knows.
It broke because I had to drill out the old screws to get the back and sides out a long time ago. They were rusted in. But I can put something there that would block it... like the angle iron, if that was part of the problem.
Good point about the laws of physics, which I definitely agree with.
Hmmm.... sparks but no smoke...
Wow... keep thinking...
Thanks...
jim

 

[Jimteacher]

Starting to look more like just crap from inside the tubes. Yes, they can get that hot. Bugs, spiders, pet hair,etc.
The burn pot gasket will keep stove running properly, it is a maintenance item.
A long hot fire, where everything expands, should be a good test for you,

Thanks...
I'll blow the whole system out with a leaf blower or a backwards vacuum ...that isn't full of ashes!
I'll do that again, like I did the other night... just let it run and sit in front of it and see if anything comes out.
It could be that all of my playing with it might have blown some of that out.
I'll make a point of blowing stuff backwards through the tubes (even though it might dust up the basement...
Thanks for your input!
jim

 

[Mt Bob]

You should be able to look in the top of the tubes. You also could take a semi-stiff wire, like a section out of a copper house wire, wrap a soft rag around it, and push down the tubes,pull back out, look for anything strange, like creosote or burnt stuff. Others use a brush to occasionally clean those tubes out.

 

[Jimteacher]

You should be able to look in the top of the tubes. You also could take a semi-stiff wire, like a section out of a copper house wire, wrap a soft rag around it, and push down the tubes,pull back out, look for anything strange, like creosote or burnt stuff. Others use a brush to occasionally clean those tubes out.

Thanks... I'll try that...

 

[Jimteacher]

Thanks... I'll try that...

Sadness... cleaned / painted / blew out the tubes... started a fire... still sparks... MUST be coming from above the pot, as I opened the ash door while it was burning, and no sparks were going down... sparks ONLY going up above the pot, out channel to the right to the fan which blows the smoke, etc up the chimney, so there's something with a hole that's leading to the tubes. We'll work on it again this weekend.
Thanks for your advice...

 

[Mt Bob]

Smoke bombs may help, and HVAC ones don't stink up house. (well, a little). Were the sparks coming from a specific hole/tube?

 

[Jimteacher]

Smoke bombs may help, and HVAC ones don't stink up house. (well, a little). Were the sparks coming from a specific hole/tube?

Good question... I think there's a long passage that's open at the end... I'll start it up and see, but I think sort of the middle...not at the far left or right. I'll see if I can find an HVAC smoke bomb. My son works with air conditioning.
Thanks...

 

[Sharpshooter4414]

I think I figured it out. I have same stove, same problem. Been great for almost 20 years, now all of a sudden the other day a big glowing ember shot out onto our living room carpet. Great! The first thing I found after I shut everything down and let it cool off is that this old stove has what is known as an "airwash" on the top of the front glass (1/8" gap with no seal) that draws fresh air in from the room and keeps the glass clean on the inside. All 3 of the other sides of the glass are sealed. I noticed that when pellets drop into the firepot, it makes many glowing embers shoot up out of the firepot and many of them go right around the airwash area. My theory is that one shot through there and then the air being blown out from the heat exchanger tubes pushed it out into the living room. Even though it should be sucking air into the stove, I still think it could be possible for a stray ember to shoot out of there if it had enough energy. Take a look at the pics. Anyone else think this is what really happened?

 

[johneh]

The photo does not look like the air wash more like the top of the door is not sealed
The air wash is at the top of the glass

 

[Sharpshooter4414]

The photo does not look like the air wash more like the top of the door is not sealed
The air wash is at the top of the glass

Hi there, thanks for the quick reply. There is no seal on these older stoves at the top of the glass. Only on the front side of the glass that seals to the steel glass frame all the way around. On the rear side of the glass that seals to the stove there is a seal that goes on each of the sides and at the bottom (1 piece). But there has always been an 1/8" opening at the top since I have had it. Nothing has ever "sealed" there. On the newer versions the airwash is on the bottom side of the glass, maybe thats the reason they changed it? Because of this issue?

 

[slvrblkk]

On the OE Mt Vernon's, the 2004 era (give of take a few months ish) had the airwash at the top of the door. All other years are at the bottom.

 

[Jimteacher]

SOLUTION TO VERY DANGEROUS SPARKS FOUND! ...LONG TIME LATER....
DEFECTIVE CONSTRUCTION OF Quadra-Fire Mt Vernon Original.
FINALLY... last winter... watching from the side to see where sparks were coming from, I finally found the spot - right where the Blower Assembly attaches to the stove with a big gasket.
The assembly was bent when put together with a gasket, leaving a wider opening between the blower assembly and the stove.
Originally the gasket kept the space closed, but over the years, the gasket at that place deteriorated, as it wasn't tightly connected because of the bent blower assembly.
When the blower went around, pushing sparks around from the combustion chamber, it spit out - pushed out - tiny sparks though the space where the gasket had deteriorated.
It was hard to figure out, but I finally was able to see exactly where the sparks were coming out.
I scraped out the space a bit, as I couldn't take the whole thing apart - and not much space - and pushed in some exhaust paste made to repair car exhaust leaks, which stopped it.

It worked OK last year without any more sparks, and has been OK this year, but I'm afraid that exhaust paste might become brittle again and spit out sparks, so I'm going to get some of the more flexible RED caulk stuff all over it again, unless someone has a better idea.
The RED stuff seems to stay flexible with heat, and this is heat right from the firebox.

...definitely done when the stove was put together - bent housing which worked OK until the gasket gave up in that bent spot.
Too old for guarantee, but maybe Quadra-Fire should be concerned that someone else had a similar problem with an assembler.
What do you folks think?
Thanks...
Jim