Quadrafire 1200 not cycling after startup.

[mctitan1975]

Hey guys!,

I'm new to the forum and new to the world of pellet stoves.

I recently purchased a home with a quadrafire cb 1200 pellet insert. The manual is dated 2002 so I assume the stove is about 10 years old.

When I initially start the stove up it works fine. The blower starts, it feeds pellets and fires up. It starts blowing out heat just fine. Once the stove heats up the room to the thermostat setting it cycles off, but wont come back on again after the room temperature goes back down. If I come back several hours later and readjust the thermostat higher it will then go back on. I initially assumed it was a faulty themostat(older dial type), so I replaced it with a new digital thermostat. I also cleaned out the stove. But the problem still happens.

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[tjnamtiw]

Not much to go on yet. It could possibly be kicking out on over temperature and not from the thermostat shutting it down. Next time you fire it up, watch the red call for heat light and see if the light goes out but the stove keeps feeding pellets. Or conversely, see if the call light is still on when the stove shuts down. Get back to us.

 

[SwineFlue]

What setting is the stove on when this happens? On low, my Quad will occasionally abort a restart... it lights up and then feeds for about 5 minutes, but shuts itself down because the stove didn't reach normal temperature in time.

Like tjnamtiw said, is the call light on when you get home? Also, are there any unburned pellets in the burnpot?

My house also came with the stove and a 2002 manual. Download a manual from the Quadrafire web site: for my Castile model the old manual is pretty thin on troubleshooting, cleaning, and maintenance techniques. The newer manual is much better. (But I keep the old manual handy because they made several changes to the stove since mine was made.)

 

[mralias]

Long shot but did you change the thermostat wire as well when you changed the thermostat? After the above suggestions are ruled out, try to put the jumper on and manually simulate the thermostat ie run it for a while, shut off and try a start up again to see if it does the same thing.

 

[tjnamtiw]

Swineflue is right about running on low. My stoves will sometimes not even get enough vacuum to pull in the vacuum switch on low IF the hopper is low and it can pull air in that way.

 

[Jaymaine34]

I had a lfreind who just put in a stove and had a similar issue . Found 2 things that were causing it .
1. Swing set was set at + /- 3
2. Programming on thermostat was as factory setting
So what he felt was Long time waiting for the stove to fire was because there was no call for heat
Adjusted swing to +\- 1.5 and set thermostat to his desired heating cycle not a problem since
Not saying this is the issue but worth a look to rule it out
Run all of mine on low 95% of the time have never had a misfire issue
Agree with everyone above the call for heat light being off or on will be a big clue as to the issue

 

[tjnamtiw]

I had a lfreind who just put in a stove and had a similar issue . Found 2 things that were causing it .
1. Swing set was set at + /- 3
2. Programming on thermostat was as factory setting
So what he felt was Long time waiting for the stove to fire was because there was no call for heat
Adjusted swing to +\- 1.5 and set thermostat to his desired heating cycle not a problem since
Not saying this is the issue but worth a look to rule it out
Run all of mine on low 95% of the time have never had a misfire issue
Agree with everyone above the call for heat light being off or on will be a big clue as to the issue

All good points. Some thermostats don't just simply turn on and off at the swing settings, if they have them. They actually have a setting of how many times in an hour the stove is allowed to run. IMHO, this type of thermostat should not be used with pellet stoves. I guess it's meant for some type of heater that shouldn't be short cycled, like a heat pump?
Also, on your thermostat, make sure it's set to control a gas or oil heater, not a heat pump.

 

[mctitan1975]

Thanks for the help guys. I removed all of the old pellets from the previous owner and vacumed out the hopper. I had a lot of dust in it. I refilled it with the best pellets I could find and it seems to be working now.

Is this normal?

After the unit comes warms up the room to temperature, it stops feeding and the red then the green light goes out. I know this is normal. The blower keeps going, again I assume normal, but then the blower starts cycling on and off. First it will go off for a few seconds and then come back on for about half a minute. This keeps going on but the on time decreases while the off time increases. Just wasn't sure if this was normal or if the blower should run continuoulsy and then just shut off. It does this cycle for about 30 mins after it stops feeding pellets.

Thanks again

 

[Bioburner]

I would start looking at replacing the snap switch. It should have a bigger swing between cycling the fan. Not a very big expense.

 

[Jaymaine34]

I assume we are talking about Shutdown . The blower should run until unit is cooled and turn off ( not off and on )

 

[Bioburner]

I assume we are talking about Shutdown . The blower should run until unit is cooled and turn off ( not off and on )

Correct

 

[mctitan1975]

ok. speaking of the snapdiscs I know the stove is supposed to have 3. Number 1 and 2 on the left side panel and number 3 in the rear. For some reason i have a snap disc(snap switch) located between number 1 and 2. There are no wires connected to it. It is just screwed in like the others. Is this normal?

 

[tjnamtiw]

My guess is someone was experimenting with placing perhaps the snap disc for the room fan in a hotter location to get the fan to turn on sooner. I say that because that's what I did! I searched around using a surface pyrometer to find the hottest spot and relocated the one I had. Perhaps the 'extra' one is covering a hole...???

 

[mctitan1975]

Hey guys I am having my original issue again.

I turned the stove on last night and set the thermostst to 65 degrees. It fired up and I went to bed. I woke up and the temperature was 53. The stove hadnt kicked on all night and the red call light was on. After I pressed it the pellets fed and it fired up. Everything during initial fire looks good. Call light comes on, pellets feed, fire starts, green control light on, red control light on, convection blower starts, room comes up to temp, red light goes off, green light goes off. But unit still doesnt want to come back on after this.

An ebeay parts seller said its the thermocouple. Does this sound right?

 

[DBCOOPER]

I think it's something with the thermocouple also. I would check the connections and the location in the sleeve and the sleeves position in the burn pot.

 

[Jaymaine34]

Could be ? Have you looked it over for cracks and propper placement ? Also as I read back I don't see what you are using for a thermostat ( brand ) I know you changed it .
In you manual there is a long explanation of how the thermocouple works . I hate to throw parts at things until I'm sure !
A digital volt meter will tell you for sure . On high it should be 30 milivolts (dc) at a lower setting the milivolts will be less .
There are a few threads on here with step by step how to test . Sounding more and more like a controle issue to me when we take in how the blower was acting ! But again I would start to test things one by one a ruling them out !
I know you hear it on here all the time , but the first thing I would do is clean that stove top to bottom ! 90% of the time when a freind calls me with a stove issue it's a cleaning issue and every time they assure me they just cleaned it ! Just saying !

 

[altmartion]

Hey guys I am having my original issue again.

I turned the stove on last night and set the thermostst to 65 degrees. It fired up and I went to bed. I woke up and the temperature was 53. The stove hadnt kicked on all night and the red call light was on. After I pressed it the pellets fed and it fired up. Everything during initial fire looks good. Call light comes on, pellets feed, fire starts, green control light on, red control light on, convection blower starts, room comes up to temp, red light goes off, green light goes off. But unit still doesnt want to come back on after this.

An ebeay parts seller said its the thermocouple. Does this sound right?

is the light call for heat indicator on?

 

[mctitan1975]

yes it is. i push the reset button and it cycles fine.

 

[altmartion]

you need to check all limits and snap disks. is the stove cool?

 

[mctitan1975]

Yes when I woke up this morning the stove was completely cold.

 

[altmartion]

grab your meter and start checking all limits and snap disks that are in series with the safety system.

 

[mctitan1975]

ok, is there a thread on here that details how to do this?

 

[DBCOOPER]

Next time it does it, unplug the stove for a few seconds and plug it back in and watch what it does without pressing the reset button.

 

[tjnamtiw]

My Castile would occasionally misfire the first year I had it. I opened up the feed gate a little bit and no more misfires. An occasional long pellet or two can bridge over the opening and prevent enough pellets to be fed on initial start up. They may eventually get fed into the auger but by then not enough pellets have made it into the burn pot to sustain a fire.

Since you're seeing the green and red indicator lights, your thermocouple is probably ok. Your fan is coming on so that snap disc is good. The safety snap disc must be good or you wouldn't have any power and the fire safety one in the auger/chute must be OK or you wouldn't be running. Now several people have found rather loose connections at the snap discs so they take off the connector and GENTLY squeeze it so it fits more snugly. That would be advisable to rule out an occasional disconnect. PLEASE do it with the stove disconnected. hahaha

 

[SwineFlue]

Since you're seeing the green and red indicator lights, your thermocouple is probably ok. Your fan is coming on so that snap disc is good. The safety snap disc must be good or you wouldn't have any power and the fire safety one in the auger/chute must be OK or you wouldn't be running.

Agreed.

After a failure, what's in the burnpot? Any unburned pellets? Charred pellets? It would really help if you could be present in the room to actually see a restart fail when the thermostat calls for heat. You would be able to see which step in the startup process is failing.