Quadrafire Castille Insert problems

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George0211

New Member
Hearth Supporter
Oct 8, 2008
21
South Jersey
Hello,

I am new here, and I never had to deal with any kind of fireplace of any hearth products until I bought my 1st house, so please forgive me if I sound like a noob :)

My question is about quadrafire castille insert. I had it installed by Quadrafire authorized dealer back in April, only a few months ago, and haven't really had to use it yet.
Let me tell you really quickly what happened with it. When it was first installed, the installers turned it on to make sure it works. They noticed that the stove didn't really work when the thermostat was set to "Auto" to run off the temperature setting. They told me that the receiver for the remotely controlled thermostat must be defective and they would order a new one for me. In the mean time, they told me, if you need to run, just set the thermostat to the "On" position and let it run and when I'm done, I would have to turn it off manually. That is what I did a couple times and it worked fine. I didn't need to run it anymore as it was getting warm out. Then a couple weeks later the new remote control and receiver came in. I set it up, turned it to Auto to make sure it turns on when I set the temperature and it did. So I assumed that it was working fine, turned off the stove and forgot about it until last night.
Last night, I decided to turn it on, set the temperature to 70, (current temperature in the room was 65), the stove turned on, ran for about 10 minutes, then shut off. I restarted the stove and it did the same thing. The manual says if something like this happens to hit the "Reset" button. I did that, the fire started again and then shut off after running for 10 minutes.
Do you guys have any idea what could be wrong here? I mean, I spent thousands of dollars on this and it doesn't even work. Quadrafire doesn't have a tech support phone number listed on their site, as the matter of fact, I don't see any phone numbers on their site.

Any suggestions?
 
The first thing to do is contact the dealer. This is a warranty issue. They should come out and find out what the problem is and set it straight. Hopefully this is something very minor like the pellet feed needs to be set correctly or the thermocouple is not correctly placed. But if not, you shouldn't have to be the one figuring it out.
 
make sure that the thermocouple wire is pushed all the way into the thermocouple cover (that thing that looks like a finger hanging over the burn pot) and make sure that it is actually hanging over the burnpot.
 
hey George;

I posted quads phone # yesterday for someone else, here it is again...1-800-926 4356....for now check the thermocouple & thermocouple cover...the thermocouple cover (white porcelain tube) located over firepot needs to make contact with thermocouple (wire) that travels inside tube......make adjustments to that effect....push reset button....when the thermocouple reaches 200 degrease the green light will come on.....and at 600 degrease the red light will come on.....note: if the lights fail to come on after the fire starts the thermocouple may be faulty......in that case check to see if the thermocouple wire is cracked or broken.....if so replace or repair it with high heat solder....

North Jersey boy trying to help....
 
All lights come on, like you mentioned first green light, then red, then few minutes later it shuts off. How do I check if the wire is seated properly inside the thermocouple cover? By the way, that cover is not white, it's like dark brown, basically from being burnt, is it supposed to be cleaned?
Sorry if these questions are really dumb.
 
hey George ;

slide the cover off being careful not to drop it...they are very fragile.....once off hold it parallel to the wire for reference of depth...extend wire until it makes contact with closed end of cover & reset....
 
Well, I was unable to slide the cover off. Do I have to unscrew anything to do that? There seems to be a metal flap that sits on top of the cover to hold it in place. I tried sliding the cover off and it wouldn't budge and I didn't want to pull too hard.
I'm also running a little test, I just shut everything off, removed the control box, plugged it back in, plugged in the power and hit reset, then set the temperature on the thermostat. So far it's been running for about 15 minutes and still going. Not sure if this actually fixes anything or if this is just a coincidence. Another thing I noticed is that the flame barely goes out of the firepot, not high at all, even on the high setting. I don't think that's normal.
 
George;

follow the flange that holds the cover in place to the base of the stove....there you will see a mounting bolt...loosen but do not remove to make the adjustment we discussed earlier.....if stove is still running fine let it be.....to adjust the feed rate remove enough pellets to access the feed adjustment bar.....loosen bar set screw and turn blower motor to high setting.....move bar upwards at 1/8 in. increments at a time....let burn for 5-10 min. than adjust again until you achieve a constant active flame that hovers 4" above firepot.....tighten bar set screw and your good to go.....
 
deercroft,

I saw the bolt, tried to loosen it and it wouldn't give and again, I didn't want to put too much into it. I'll try again. Also, re-seating the control box didn't help as I had hoped. It ran longer than before, ran for about an hour as opposed to 5-10 minutes, but then did the same thing, pellets stopped being dropped in and it shut off.
 
I have the Quad Castille. I also have the Remote Thermostat....are the batteries fresh? Did you go through the "learn" process on the transmitter for the Remote? I had probs with mine recently and didnt think my batteries were bad but they were.....and now its working like a charm again. Mine was bought last winter. Also....if that isnt the case.....I'm thinking your thermocouple connection or fault as well.
 
can you access the feed rate bar? if so match mark it with marker....loosen set screw, lift up on bar....this will feed more pellets into firepot and hopefully keep stove running.....make adjustments from there to keep flame 4" above firepot...

to loosen thermo cover bracket, use 1/2" socket with ratchet....
 
deercroft said:
can you access the feed rate bar? if so match mark it with marker....loosen set screw, lift up on bar....this will feed more pellets into firepot and hopefully keep stove running.....make adjustments from there to keep flame 4" above firepot...

to loosen thermo cover bracket, use 1/2" socket with ratchet....

yep on the feedrate. I usually keep my feed rate bar about halfway.....I adjust according to the quality of pellets. I dont like to keep all the way open as it eats more pellets.....about halfway gives me a good flame to live with and good heat :)

Love my Quad :)
 
Yeah, that's how the feedrate bar is setup, about half way. I will try the thermocouple cover again tonight.

Deercroft, that phone number you listed for Quadrafire, is that technical support/customer service number? And how helpful are they?
 
George0211 said:
Yeah, that's how the feedrate bar is setup, about half way. I will try the thermocouple cover again tonight.

Deercroft, that phone number you listed for Quadrafire, is that technical support/customer service number? And how helpful are they?

You must have got a wired quad thermostat that came with the stove...did you? If you did....a quick troubleshooting to try is disconnect the remote thermostat and hook the wired one up....if your stove works well....then maybe its a fault with the remote thermostat set up.
 
The reason why I don't think it's the thermostat issue is because the stove has the red "Call for heat" light on, meaning the thermostat is calling for heat like it's supposed to, it just seems like the stove is ignoring it.
 
George0211 said:
The reason why I don't think it's the thermostat issue is because the stove has the red "Call for heat" light on, meaning the thermostat is calling for heat like it's supposed to, it just seems like the stove is ignoring it.
You are right, not a thermostat problem
 
I had a smiliar problem on my brand new Castille....stove would start and turn off 15 minutes later. The problem was that the blower would never start and the stove would shut off to prevent overheating. The dealer ordered a new "relay box" (silver box under the translucent electronics box). Problem solved!
 
No news really, still waiting for the dealer to schedule a tech to come and look at it. They promised someone will be out at the end of the week. We'll see.
 
George;

sorry for the delay in responding.....yes, that is quads # for technical support....have you tried contacting them to correct the problem?
 
I did not try calling yet. I emailed quadrafire about the problem and they emailed me back saying to contact the dealer, so I did. The dealer actually told me that they would call me today with the exact day and time and they didn't. So I will be calling tomorrow to groan about it.
 
George;

quad tech may be able to you over the phone....if not, voice your displeasure about their dealer to customer service....hopefully that will motivate them to respond quickly....
 
Well, seems like the problem has been resolved finally. The tech said it was a grounding problem (electrical grounding). He ran an extra wire from 1 place to another inside the stove and it works now. Only issue is switching the stove to off. When you turn it back on it has problems keeping the fire going, and you have to hit reset a few times. So best thing to do is to just turn the thermostat down if you want the stove to be off, then it has no issues.
 
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