Quadrafire Castile Auger Won't Turn

[JoeTaupe]

Hello, I purchased a castile stove a while back and have had a few issues. The most current issue I believe is with the control box. As they are fairly expensive I am hoping someone will either have a PCB schematic or some advice.

The Auger won't turn even during initial startup. When pressing the reset button simply nothing happens. All other functions of the stove work well. When putting pellets in the burn pot manually the stove functions like it's supposed to. When applying 115V manually to the output wire from the control box, the auger motor turns, so I know all of the switches are functioning properly.

There is what looks like a burned out varistor in position RV1. There is some white powder underneath the component. It doesn't look difficult to remove and resolder another component on, but I'd rather not hunt one down and replace only to have it not fix the issue. Does anyone have any advice on this subject?

Thanks

 

[DMKNLD]

Hi Joe, and welcome to this forum ! Lots of Quad owners and Castile folks prowl on here who can help.

That said, control box wiring and burned out varistor issues are above my pay grade ! But kappel15, aka 'kap' is a Quad tech who regularly posts on here that can likely help you on that, as are others on here who are more control board repair savvy than I am.

When my old style grey colored control board started to do weird auger and feed related stuff, I was lucky I had an excellent local Quad dealer who let me try his floor model control box in my stove to confirm that as my issue. If you have a local dealer like that or someone who has a Quad stove that you can swap out the the control box, that may be the ticket.

Did you try just 're-seating' the control box, ie UNPLUG the stove then remove and re-seat the control box back in? Stove vibration over time can reduce the Quad box's electrical contact quality. A simple fix to try at least.

 

[JoeTaupe]

Thanks for the quick and informative reply! I have removed and reinstalled the box several times while testing.

 

[kappel15]

Best thing is like DMKNLD suggested and find a dealer that can test it, or test it in a stove. Or if you know someone with a stove you can try it in or try theirs in yours. Another option is to do a diagnostic by setting your control box to 0. First unplug stove. Then jump the vac switch wires together and the #1 snap disc wires together. Plug in stove and select the 0 setting. The following components will run for 10 seconds in this order. Combustion Blower- Convection Blower- Feed motor- Igniter. kap

 

[JoeTaupe]

Thanks again. I do know that it's the board and am looking for a possible diagram of the PCB or a fix. When I apply 115 to the circuit on the output of the control board the auger turns. The voltage makes it through the snap disk and the vacuum switch so I know those are functioning properly. How do I select the 0 setting though? I don't see that on the board or in the manual.

 

[kappel15]

Do you have a dark or clear control box? If clear, there is a dial on the narrow side opposite the tabs that plug in. It has numbers 0 thru 7. And you won't find this in the manual. kap

 

[JoeTaupe]

Thanks Kap. I gave that a try. Everything came on except the auger. I guess maybe I'll try out the repair guy down in California. He does a flat rate $150 repair on these boards.

 

[kappel15]

Glad to help. And always remember to unplug stove first before removing or installing a control box. kap

 

[JoeTaupe]

Well, I tracked down a new varistor and replaced it on the PCB, it didn't repair the issue. Stoveworld has gotten more of these in stock at $198, so I'm going to bite the bullet and buy new. I'll post whether it fixes the auger issue or not.

 

[kappel15]

Wish I knew what you said.

 

[JoeTaupe]

The varistor for is the component that exploded on the Printed Circuit Board on the pictures I posted previously. I removed the bad one and soldiered on a replacement hoping for a .44 cent fix as opposed to buying a new control board. It did not fix the problem. Stove world has gotten more boards in stock in the meantime, they were previously out as they don't stick a huge number of these. They are the cheapest I could find at $198, most sites sell the board for closer to $300.

 

[kappel15]

Ah, gotcha. Would be nice to test your box in someones stove, or test a new box before you buy. Just in case.

 

[DMKNLD]

Stove world has gotten more boards in stock in the meantime, they were previously out as they don't stick a huge number of these. They are the cheapest I could find at $198, most sites sell the board for closer to $300.

When my OEM old style grey colored box was on the way out, I found Stove World was the cheapest on-line also. Luckily, my local Quad dealer let me swap his floor model clear control box into my stove, which fixed my problems, and charged me 1/2 the retail price for it, or I would have ordered one from S W.

4th season now on it - knock on pellets - with no problems. The APC UPS I put on it since then has likely helped minimize the impact of brown - out power surging we commonly get on our grid, that are hard on delicate circuit boards.

 

[JoeTaupe]

Not to resurrect an old thread, but thought I would tack on here that the new control box has resolved the issue. We have been burning again for 6 weeks now with no issues. Looks like it is possible for the control box to simply stop turning the auger. Thanks for all the help!

 

[hooter04]

Thats a good thing to know,incase I run into this problem.The last time auger stopped it was a vac switch.

 

[kappel15]

Glad the new box fixed you up. Stay warm. kap