Hi Quadrafire gurus. Can't figure this problem out, even after reading through all of the great advice given here. This is a stove I inherited it so I don't know its full history though I'm told that it worked well, aside from having to be reset occasionally.
Symptoms:
- Turn up the thermostat, the call light turns red, and the stove initiates the ignition process.
- Once the process starts, everything goes as designed. Fans start, pellets feed, ignition occurs after maybe 2 minutes or less.
- After ignition flames are strong, not lazy. Thermocouple heats up as it should and pellets commence to feed.
- After about 5 minutes of burn the blower starts just a normal. It kicks out LOTS of heat!
- After maybe 20 minutes or a half hour of running normally and cranking out heat, the fire starts to die out. The pellets start to feed slower and eventually the auger stops feeding altogether and the fire dies. No fuel remains in the pot.
- The thermostat call light is still on, as it should be since the room is still cold. But the stove does not restart.
- Hitting the reset button works sometimes, but not every time.
- If I turn down the T-stat until the call goes off, then turn it back up, ignition occurs if the stove is cold. But if I don't do that the stove just sits idle with the red light on.
What I've tried so far:
- Monitored the auger - on medium heat, the auger turns one third of a rotation every 15 seconds (full rotation every 45). At high heat it runs at twice that speed. Is that normal? I don't see any signs of it laboring or running backwards, though maybe it's happened while I'm not watching.
- The control box is the old style so I can't see status lights.
- Replaced the thermocouple. Cleaned the ceramic tip inside & out (with small file/scraper), and made sure it's at least an inch over the firepot.
- set the feed slide meter in the hopper to maximum opening.
- Blew any fines out of the auger from the firepot side using a piece of 1/2" PEX connected to my compressor (not much came out).
- Then I emptied the hopper and removed the entire auger assembly to see if something was jammed in it. Everything looks good and clear. Very few fines.
- I switched brands of pellets (or rather Home Depot switched suppliers). Same problem with both brands. I don't see any pellets longer than an inch in the hopper.
- I checked all of the gaskets and seals, Replaced the high-temp caulk around the inside of the windowpanes, even though the old stuff was intact, and the outside was well sealed.
- When I cracked open the ash bin while it was running there was an immediate change in fan noise and the flames became lazy. Closing it returned things to normal.
My conclusions:
- The fuel isn't the problem.
- The auger is intact and seems to be working normally (assuming the feed rate is correct)
- The igniter works
- The thermostat works
- The fans work
- The stove seals are good
- The thermocouple works
What am I missing, guys? Do I have to buy a new control box? Thanks in advance...
Symptoms:
- Turn up the thermostat, the call light turns red, and the stove initiates the ignition process.
- Once the process starts, everything goes as designed. Fans start, pellets feed, ignition occurs after maybe 2 minutes or less.
- After ignition flames are strong, not lazy. Thermocouple heats up as it should and pellets commence to feed.
- After about 5 minutes of burn the blower starts just a normal. It kicks out LOTS of heat!
- After maybe 20 minutes or a half hour of running normally and cranking out heat, the fire starts to die out. The pellets start to feed slower and eventually the auger stops feeding altogether and the fire dies. No fuel remains in the pot.
- The thermostat call light is still on, as it should be since the room is still cold. But the stove does not restart.
- Hitting the reset button works sometimes, but not every time.
- If I turn down the T-stat until the call goes off, then turn it back up, ignition occurs if the stove is cold. But if I don't do that the stove just sits idle with the red light on.
What I've tried so far:
- Monitored the auger - on medium heat, the auger turns one third of a rotation every 15 seconds (full rotation every 45). At high heat it runs at twice that speed. Is that normal? I don't see any signs of it laboring or running backwards, though maybe it's happened while I'm not watching.
- The control box is the old style so I can't see status lights.
- Replaced the thermocouple. Cleaned the ceramic tip inside & out (with small file/scraper), and made sure it's at least an inch over the firepot.
- set the feed slide meter in the hopper to maximum opening.
- Blew any fines out of the auger from the firepot side using a piece of 1/2" PEX connected to my compressor (not much came out).
- Then I emptied the hopper and removed the entire auger assembly to see if something was jammed in it. Everything looks good and clear. Very few fines.
- I switched brands of pellets (or rather Home Depot switched suppliers). Same problem with both brands. I don't see any pellets longer than an inch in the hopper.
- I checked all of the gaskets and seals, Replaced the high-temp caulk around the inside of the windowpanes, even though the old stuff was intact, and the outside was well sealed.
- When I cracked open the ash bin while it was running there was an immediate change in fan noise and the flames became lazy. Closing it returned things to normal.
My conclusions:
- The fuel isn't the problem.
- The auger is intact and seems to be working normally (assuming the feed rate is correct)
- The igniter works
- The thermostat works
- The fans work
- The stove seals are good
- The thermocouple works
What am I missing, guys? Do I have to buy a new control box? Thanks in advance...
