started having problems this year with my stove. every week or so on start up the stove will fill pot about half full of pellets and not ignite. press rest button and works fine for about a week then same problem,now it is getting more frequent , about every day. I have cleaned the stove,changed board,thermocoupler,igniter,door gasket,and snap disc #2. local dealer is stumped,anyone else have this problem. Also the instuctions that came with new board saves on shutdown the combustion motor should run for 18 minutes,mine only runs for 10. In the owners manual that originally came with the stove it says when there is a overheat that the stove goes into shutdown and the combustion motor runs for 10 minutes.i know the stove is not overheating because if I turn the thermostat really high it wil run for as long as I need. anybody have any advice.
quadrafire cb 1200 problem on start up
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Lake Girl
Moderator
Welcome to the forum ... sorry no one got back to you. Hopefully others who own quadrafires will chime in with the bump to the top of the list!
Mrr211
Member
I had a problem with this happening with my new quadrafire. Turns out my vacuum hose was clogged with dust/fines. The hose was disconnected and was blown out, away from the vacuum switch. Some soot/ash came out. Then I was good to go. Don't know if you checked that yet as I didn't see it listed. Good luck.
If you can look at the control box when it restarts and fills up, see if the green light is still on. That light could stay on if the stove never has time to completely cool down before starting again. The feed auger is told to go into its regular routine of feeding once that light comes on at 200 degrees. You may need to set your thermostat for a wider span between when it shuts off and restarts. That's called the 'swing'.
I
yes the green light is still on. what happens is if the stove is really cool it will start,or if the stove starts to shut down but starts up before the stove completely shuts down everything is ok too. where the problem starts is when the stove completely shuts down but tries to start up within a couple of minutes. the geen light is still on and the auger starts feeding pellets, about double what it should then the green light goes out and the stove shuts down. I pulled the pellets out of the pot and there is only a couple that look like they started to burn. it is like the ignited starts up but when that green light goes out it goes into shut down mode. the igniter is brand new.i have talked to numerous tech people and nobody has a clue as what could be wrong. was wondering if it could be the control box that is part of the wiring harness (not the control board, I have replaced that) is see it has a red capacitor in it
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I would try adjusting the heat anticipator of the thermostat a bit higher. Stock should be set at the lowest setting or about .05. Try bumping this up to about .1 for a longer swing between cycles. See if that helps. Also, if you can move the thermostat around the corner, out of the room it may be less sensitive.
Here's a long explanation of what is happening:
Here's a long explanation of what is happening:
Yes, you need a higher 'swing' so that it doesn't try to restart so soon. Since the green light is still on, it will just keep feeding pellets every so often as it always does after the initial big dump. That means that there are just too many pellets to get burning and airflow is choked down.
begreen is right on! You might consider getting a cheap digital thermostat like I have where you can set the swing easily.
begreen is right on! You might consider getting a cheap digital thermostat like I have where you can set the swing easily.
it doesn't happen all the time when the green light is on.most of the time it does start up. if I keep the thermostat really high and the stove doesn,t completely shut down it is fine.when the problem happens is when the stove is off for about a couple of minutes and no longer. I have watched when this happens and everything goes as normal but just before it ignites the green light goes out and the stove goes into shutdown mode. if I hit the reset button even with the pellets in the pot it will start and work fine.for some reason every so often it shuts its self down on start up
It sounds like you are catching a short time-window on cooldown where the stove thinks it doesn't need the ignitor. The thermostat suggestions above were made to try to avoid the situation. You could also try moving the thermostat or running the stove on a different heat setting. If the thermostat is on a particularly cold wall, you could even add something behind the thermostat to insulate it from the cold.
IMO, having the stove 'off' for such a short time is not very efficient.
According to the directions that came with the old mercury bulb thermostat, which I don't use, if you have a millivolt thermostat system (you do), then set the anticipator to the highest setting, which is probably 1.2. DO THIS AND REPORT BACK.
Also my Castile manual says that if the red heat light (not the call for heat light) does not turn red in 9 minutes, the stove will shut down and YOU HAVE TO HIT THE RESET TO TRY AGAIN so this is the way it's supposed to work.
EVERYTHING points to your thermostat.
Also my Castile manual says that if the red heat light (not the call for heat light) does not turn red in 9 minutes, the stove will shut down and YOU HAVE TO HIT THE RESET TO TRY AGAIN so this is the way it's supposed to work.
EVERYTHING points to your thermostat.
Jaymaine34
Burning Hunk
- Jan 5, 2013
- 247
I will try that tonight,but wonder why it is starting to do this now,same stove and thermostat for 6 years. the reason the stove only shuts down for a little bit is because it has been -30 here for about a week so the house cools off quick.when I pull out the pellets from the pot there is always one or two pellets that look like they were starting to ignite,almost like it started to ignite then went into shutdown mode
That's because it is trying to restart while the green light is still on and the 'swing' is too small. My advice is to get a new digital thermostat. Perhaps your anticipator in the old one has a dead spot or is burned out. Didn't know the 1200's are 24 volt. Actually, I never even measured mine since I use a programmable digital one that doesn't care. It just closes a contact to start the stove.
And, like I said before, if you have too many pellets from it feeding too much, you won't hit the red light limit in time and it will shut down. Get a new thermostat. $30 well spent.
Since we are dealing with 24 volts, I did some searching and here is part of the 1200 manual saying to turn the anticipator all the way DOWN, NOT UP!
Live and learn! Since you've been running it for years, it sounds like your thermostat took a dump.
![[Hearth.com] quadrafire cb 1200 problem on start up](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/121/121519-f61bf5ec5ce3ad7e068ec30a84d50b9c.jpg?hash=kNP_GbqkzC "[Hearth.com] quadrafire cb 1200 problem on start up")
Live and learn! Since you've been running it for years, it sounds like your thermostat took a dump.
so now I should turn it to the lowest,so the theory of a higher swing does not apply?
bought a new thermostat and the lowest setting for the heat anticipator is .15,will this work
I am not sure that the 1200 uses a 24 volt t stat it looks like the manual you have up is 1000 it is an old stove but could be wrong if memory is still good and you take a reading on the t-stat you should see 3 volt not 24
You definitely want a higher 'swing', which is the amount of degrees that the thermostat will wait before it turns the stove on or off. DBCooper said his stove was 24 volt, hence I copied the old page out of a manual for a stove that has 24 volts. The anticipator is supposed to be set for the actual current flowing through the system but most of us don't have the capability of measuring that.
Basically, first set the anticipator at the same # that worked for you for years and see if that works. Then if it doesn't set it at .05, which is what the current is according to the page I copied. If it still doesn't work, then go to the other extreme and set it at the highest setting. If it STILL doesn't work, then throw that POS mechanical thing in the trash and get a thermostat that allows you to set the swing! Oh, STOVEGUY, that was for a 1000, so your memory is still a heck of a lot better than mine!
That's it for me!
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Jaymaine34
Burning Hunk
- Jan 5, 2013
- 247
Thermostats go bad . ( trust me been there done that ! ) you want to start with the largest swing you can
Example mine is set to 77 runs temp up to 80 shuts down kicks back on at 74 ( swing of 3 ) this allows ample cool down and in my option the most even heat . I have always run all of mine on a thermostat rated for milivolts . Running the stove on the lowest setting also helps with not having the stove cycle to much . I run on low heat with feed gate open almost all the way 90% of the time ( will close it down some depending upon the pellet . I love my Quads only thing missing in my opion is a hi/lo setting .
We get cold here in Maine ( nothing like you have ! ) so you may need to run on med ( I never run mine on high )
Example mine is set to 77 runs temp up to 80 shuts down kicks back on at 74 ( swing of 3 ) this allows ample cool down and in my option the most even heat . I have always run all of mine on a thermostat rated for milivolts . Running the stove on the lowest setting also helps with not having the stove cycle to much . I run on low heat with feed gate open almost all the way 90% of the time ( will close it down some depending upon the pellet . I love my Quads only thing missing in my opion is a hi/lo setting .
We get cold here in Maine ( nothing like you have ! ) so you may need to run on med ( I never run mine on high )
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