Quadrafire Castile

[Dferr]

Hello everyone and Happy New Year!

I have a Quadrafire Castile. I've had this stove for the past 12 years or so working for me in my living room with no problems.
The other morning when I got up I noticed the stove was not running, I moved the thermostat up and it started to sound like a normal startup but it never lit.
I found the igniter was no working, I thought no big deal I'll just replace it. I did, and everything seemed fine for about a week. Then the stove was not working again. I found the ground fault outlet plug in the kitchen was tripped. I reset it and the stove came back to life, it fired up and ran for about five minutes or so then the ground fault plug tripped again. I plugged the stove into another outlet and it seemed to work fine. So I replaced the ground fault with a regular plug outlet. I didn't think I needed a ground fault on that wall anyway the plug was on the same wall as the kitchen and the outlet was on was on the same line. Now the stove is working fine again for about three days. Early this morning I heard a loud pop and the stove began to shut down, I thought what the hell was that! The smell of ozone was in the air and I new that's not good. I plug the stove into a different out let and it starts to run and shuts down. I've tried a couple of times and the same thing happens, it starts to run for about five seconds and shuts down. I'm at a total loss here, I have no Idea what could be going on. Any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks,
Don

 

[Ssyko]

What was the last pop that you heard? Circuit breaker or fuse in the stove ?

 

[Jack Morrissey]

Sounds to me like you have a short somewhere in the stove. I'm no expert but I wouldn't be running until its checked out.

 

[Dferr]

I believe the pop I heard was the new igniter and or the control board. The new igniter is fried and I found some burn marks on the back of the control board. The stove does nothing now. I'm wondering if the board was bad and not turning off the igniter. Not sure what to think at this point.

 

[Czech]

Where did you get the igniter? I just worked on a Castile insert that had a bad knock off igniter installed, it shorted to the stove body and smoked the control board. Sounds like that may be your case too? I’d unplug the stove, disconnect the igniter and make sure wire ends are not touching anything, check the main fuse by the call light and replace that as I’m betting that’s popped (may want to use a fuse an amp or two lower for better protection, there’s amp room to do so if I recall correctly). You could try to power up the stove again at that point, but be careful nothing else is shorted, I’m betting the board is toast though. Replace the board ($200) and igniter ($40) with OEM parts and try again?

 

[Former Farmer]

The GFI tripping should have given you an idea that something was wrong. The only reason that it tripped is because something was sending electric back on ground wire. Whether it was a short in the board or the ignitor, the GFI was doing its job. By you removing the GFI and replacing it with a regular outlet, it allowed the condition to worsen and eventually fail completely.

Did you check on here when you first started having the GFI trip? I am not trying to be hard on you, but if other people read this, it may save them some headaches and money.

I hope that you can figure out what parts have to be replaced. It sounds like your control board is bad with having burn marks on it. Also, install the GFI back in the kitchen. It is there for your protection. All of the outlets serving small appliances in a kitchen have to be GFI protected per the NEC (National Electrical Code).

Please do not take this post as offensive.

I am only trying to let people know that a GFI usually only trips because of something starting to malfunction. I see this a lot when people move an old refrigerator out to the garage and it trips the GFI. People say that it did not do that when it was in the kitchen and that is because usually a refrigerator is not GFI protected in a kitchen.

 

[Dferr]

Where did you get the igniter? I just worked on a Castile insert that had a bad knock off igniter installed, it shorted to the stove body and smoked the control board. Sounds like that may be your case too? I’d unplug the stove, disconnect the igniter and make sure wire ends are not touching anything, check the main fuse by the call light and replace that as I’m betting that’s popped (may want to use a fuse an amp or two lower for better protection, there’s amp room to do so if I recall correctly). You could try to power up the stove again at that point, but be careful nothing else is shorted, I’m betting the board is toast though. Replace the board ($200) and igniter ($40) with OEM parts and try again?

I got the igniter from Amazon. I'm pretty sure in came from a stove store but who knows. Yes, it looks like the igniter shorted to the stove, I've checked the fuse including the one on the control board, they are good. I've checked the power cord as well, the stove is dead. So I'm pretty sure the board is toast. I'll do as you suggest and replace the board and igniter and hope for the best.

Thanks,
Don

 

[Dferr]

The GFI tripping should have given you an idea that something was wrong. The only reason that it tripped is because something was sending electric back on ground wire. Whether it was a short in the board or the ignitor, the GFI was doing its job. By you removing the GFI and replacing it with a regular outlet, it allowed the condition to worsen and eventually fail completely.

Did you check on here when you first started having the GFI trip? I am not trying to be hard on you, but if other people read this, it may save them some headaches and money.

I hope that you can figure out what parts have to be replaced. It sounds like your control board is bad with having burn marks on it. Also, install the GFI back in the kitchen. It is there for your protection. All of the outlets serving small appliances in a kitchen have to be GFI protected per the NEC (National Electrical Code).

Please do not take this post as offensive.

I am only trying to let people know that a GFI usually only trips because of something starting to malfunction. I see this a lot when people move an old refrigerator out to the garage and it trips the GFI. People say that it did not do that when it was in the kitchen and that is because usually a refrigerator is not GFI protected in a kitchen.

Thanks for the info! I totally understand and I'm in no way offended.

But let me explain what led me to do what I did.
The stove's igniter burned out after about 12 years or so, I thought that's pretty good that it lasted that long so I just replaced it. Everything was fine running the stove day and night for about a week, then I found the GFI tripped, I reset it and it tripped with in a few minutes. So I plugged the stove into another outlet and it ran fine. So I thought, I installed the GFI about 25 years ago and it's probably going bad. I didn't have another GFI readily available so I just put a regular outlet plug in. The stove ran fine for about 3 days and then it burned out the new igniter. I'm thinking the board was probably bad and the igniter was not turning off and that's maybe what caused it to blow. I will put another GFI in. What's odd is the stove never tripped the breaker on the panel and none of the fuses blow on the stove.
I will replace the board and igniter and hope for the best.

Thanks,
Don

 

[Former Farmer]

It sounds like your contact for the igniter stuck closed on your control board. That might be the burn marks on your board. When your board malfunctioned, it must have shorted to a ground "wire" within the board layers, causing the GFI to trip. So your igniter never shut off after ignition but never blew the fuses because it was just on all of the time. The fuses within the stove should blow before the circuit breaker would trip.

I have a Harman PB105 boiler that did this to me. The contacts for the igniter stuck closed and the igniter was on all of the time. But after about a half hour, it would blow the fuse on the control board. It took me three or four different times of replacing the fuse before figuring out what was happening. Replaced the control board and all was good.

It sounds like you have it all figured out and I agree to replace the board and igniter. Be careful when installing the new igniter, not to nick the insulation on the wire leads. I found that one out the hard way on my boiler. We all learn by our mistakes.

Best of luck with your repairs and let us know how it turns out for you.

 

[Dferr]

Sorry for the late report.
I replace the board and igniter and she's running fine. The new board came with a couple of grounding wires for the thermocouple that was not in the original setup, but I installed per instructions. The board is also used on a few different models, I had to set the pot to number 6 for the Castile you can also turn it one click past that to increase the pellet feed rate up 10 percent. I just left it on 6 for now.

Anyway, thanks again for the help, hopefully I'll get another 15 years out if her.

Don