I have a trekker that is less than two years old. When I started using it this season I am constantly getting feed errors when I wake up in the morning and my downstairs is freezing. I have the bluetooth thermostat set to turn the unit when it drops down two degrees lowers than what it should be. When i looked inside the chamber there is no unburnt fuel and very little ash. SO it turns itself on, then it must shutitself down and purge the fuel from the firepot. I first went back to my store that I purchased the unit from we called the manufacture. They suggested changing the tuning setting from 4 to 5. It worked for a day or so then the problem kept happening. So I adjusted it from 5 to 6 then eventually to 7. Issues happened now and again on 7 but its going through a lot of pellets. The default tuning is 4 and remained on that the prior season. Went back to the store, called manufacture again and they said to replace the exhaust probe. Exhaust probe ordered, swapped out, still happening. So I bit the bullet and had a tech come look at the unit. My unit is clean so that wasn't the issue and said there is nothing mechanically wrong with it that he can tell. Thought there might have been a vacuum issue but ran through it with the manufacture and it was fine. Last night into this morning it happened again. I adjusted the thermostat to try going on at a slightly warmer temperature but the problem still persists. This typically only happens overnight. Any thoughts or recommendation. My next step is maybe getting a new thermostat. Maybe the sensor in there is bad, i really don't know.
Quadra-Fire Trekker feed issues overnight
- Thread starter HeyMistah
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Does your stove shut right off when its not calling for heat or just keep a maintenance flame going? On my stove i can set the feed rate of the maintenance flame to 3 different levels but if i have a power failure or unplug it i have to reset the maintenance flame. Not sure if your stove has that.. Did you change brands of pellets? Are they a consistent size? Last year something was messed up with the brand of pellets i was using and the sizing was all over the place all the way up to a inch or more i could not keep my maintenance flame going and starting the stove was also troublesome as it was not consistent in feeding pellets. I switched over to a pellet that is 1/4 inch or less constantly and the stove burns hotter and better than it ever has and i go through less pellets....
I'm using the same brand I had last year. No sizing issues with the pellets. The trekker has tuning levels 1-9. The higher the tuning the more pellets it feeds. I should be at 4 currently at 6. The unit sits in stand by mode until the inside temperature reaches the threshold. Its seems that it will feed, start the flame but not continue feeding it to keep it going. Once I clear the feed error and power on the stove again it starts and feeds fine.
Ssyko
Minister of Fire
Thermocouple. Take the cover off check the tip of the wire and see if it is cracked. Clean the ceramic cover inside and out and reinstall making sure the wires touch the end of the cover and it is over the pot by at least half an inch little more won’t hurt.
Ssyko
Minister of Fire
My bad the trekker doesn’t use a thermocouple. Have you tried cleaning the exhaust sensor. How long has it been since it was tore down and cleaned out?
Ssyko
Minister of Fire
Is the new exhaust probe OEM or from an aftermarket seller? Did you keep the old probe? Maybe clean it up and reinstall it. If the stove is still under warranty I’d have the installer on it till it was fixed or replaced
I would assume its OEM ordered it through my dealer. I still have the old probe. Sadly its not under warranty. Its a little shy of two years. It should not be having these issues.
Ssyko
Minister of Fire
Ssyko
Minister of Fire
Sure couldn’t hurt and use a little disgust with some attitude. Usually quad is pretty good with making things right
I'll give them a call after work tomorrow, should definitely have some disgust and attitude by then. Problem just happened after the unit not being for five and a half hours. Dumped pellets to start itself but didn't continue feeding. Cleared the error and now its going perfectly fine.
I am having a similar problem. It can run all day fine but have a cold house in the morning. I have mostly resolved the issue by doing the following. I cleaned the vacuum switch tube and its connector on the drop tube. Fines had accumulated in the rubber hose and the connector. Problems with the vacuum switch, the hopper door switch, and the exhaust probe will cause feed errors. I also lowered the heat level to 3 and the tuning adjustment to 5. This left me with the correct height and intensity of flame. As a note I vent straight out the back. I also moved the thermostat closer to ensure a good Bluetooth connection. I still get the odd feed error but much less frequently.
I have an outside air kit on it. I tried lowering it to 5 and changing the heat level when I got home before it turned itself on. Unfortunately it still gave me a feed error and shut itself off. When the tech came over he checked all those things and they were fine. My flame is larger than it needs to be but the stove won't keep going unless its at 7. I did notice that even on 7, my flame will get extremely small. Maybe there is a feeding issue be it the auger or maybe programming from the board itself.
The trekker manual says to increase the tuning numbers to raise the height of the flame and to reduce the tuning numbers to reduce the height of the flame. What kind of ventilation do you have? I am venting straight out the back on a new installation. Default tuning setting is five. Default heat level is also five. I am currently running at 5 heat level and 6 tuning. I try to keep the flame dialed in at 6 to 9 inches above the fire pot but the stove does not seem to like to run that way. I think the stove runs on a preset timed program for the first two minutes or so. The igniter and exhaust fan comes on, the vacuum switch is satisfied, followed by a minute of pellets and ignition. Then your programming takes over. It seems to be when it shifts from timer to programming that it glitches.
I have 3 inch pellet stove pipe straight out about 4-5 inches then to a 45 degree out the wall. If that is the case then yes it glitches. My setup is not even two years old, cleaned constantly. All last year had mine set at 4 which was the default on my thermostat, heat level at 5. This season starts and I keep getting these feed errors. It keeps glitching unless I have it at 7. Tech checked the vacuum and it was fine, exhaust probe is new, igniter is nice and clean. I have noticed when it feed the flame, the amount dispensed is very inconsistent. Sometimes it'll only be 3 or 5 pellets, other times seems like a normal amount (10 or slightly more).
I’m thinking of bypassing the hopper door sensor to make sure it is not stopping the auger in some way. I sometimes open the hopper door momentarily to check on the pellets while the stove is on. The hopper switch, the vacuum switch, and the drop tube snap disc are all in series, connected to one leg of the auger. If any one of them failts it shuts down the auger. I know it’s not the snap disk because it needs to be manually reset if it faults.
I am using Agway premium pellets. They’re hardwood. I screen the pellets before putting them in the hopper so I don’t have a fines issue. The stove burns very clean. I also clean it constantly. I remember running it at seven and it worked well. Eventually I would get feed errors there too and sometimes the flames would get pretty high.
I will try softwood pellets when I am done with my half a ton of the Agways.
I am using Agway premium pellets. They’re hardwood. I screen the pellets before putting them in the hopper so I don’t have a fines issue. The stove burns very clean. I also clean it constantly. I remember running it at seven and it worked well. Eventually I would get feed errors there too and sometimes the flames would get pretty high.
I will try softwood pellets when I am done with my half a ton of the Agways.
I am starting to think the stove just doesn’t like to be serviced. It ran great all day and all night and all morning until it was cooling down and I decided to vacuum out the soot from inside the stove and refill it with pellets. I closed it up and the very next time the thermostat called for heat it ran for the initial two or three minutes on timer and then started the fire pot purge. Since it was still calling for heat the purge was unusual at that time. I looked at the thermostat and it was still calling for heat. It then quickly flashed off and then came back on displaying feed error. I have disabled the hopper door sensor to see if that’s playing any role. Starting to think it’s vacuum switch related.
Thats exactly what mine does. I think I'm going to pair the thermostat with the bluetooth key on the unit again and see if that helps. How did you disable to hopper door? Is it just unplugging it from the circuit board?
The hopper door switch does not connect directly on its own to the circuit board. The hopper door switch along with the vacuum switch and the snap disc on the pellet tube are wired into one leg of the auger. It’s all kind of taped together. No need to disturb it there. The wires from the hopper switch go towards the circuitboard along the right side of the unit. There is a connector about halfway. I separated the connector and used a small piece of metal to connect the two wires together at the connector on the wire that runs towards the board. Stove is running fine today and I have opened the hopper door and cleaned inside quite a bit. Too early to tell if it has made any difference. I also slightly relocated the temperature sensor on the exhaust. The metal piece that was holding it fast to the exhaust was acting like a heat sink as it was covering the end portion of the sensor. I slid the sensor portion more forward so the metal attachment piece is much more towards the base of the sensor. Granted very small adjustments but that may be what’s necessary. I measured the temperature of the exhaust when the unit reached temperature and it only measured 210°. I think the exhaust sensor needs to read 200° to allow the auger to continue to run. 210 doesn’t give you much of a margin there but provides for the most safety.
So far, so good. No feed errors last 24 + hrs. Nice warm house this morning, when the errors often occur.
So, either slightly relocating the temp sensor on the exhaust plenum or bypassing the hopper door switch seems to have done the trick.
I'll let it go for a few more days as it is , then reenable the hopper door switch and see if the problem returns.
So, either slightly relocating the temp sensor on the exhaust plenum or bypassing the hopper door switch seems to have done the trick.
I'll let it go for a few more days as it is , then reenable the hopper door switch and see if the problem returns.
I'll definitely have to look into this. What did you use to connect the wires together? I'll have to double check where that piece is holding my exhaust sensor down.
