Quadrafire Contour Problems

[Jason Willis]

Good evening all,

I just cleaned/repainted my firepot on my Quadrafire Contour and replaced the firepot door. Prior to that (last season) it had been working fine.

Put in 1/2 bag of pellets and started it up. Red call light came on. I set temp to high and opened auger plate to its most open setting as I had cleaned it bare last fall. The first thing I heard was what sounded like crumbs rattling inside the unit. Opened right door and looked in and it looks like the blower gasket has gone bad because tiny crumbs of pellet are falling from around/between the gasket and hitting the blower fan as it's spinning, making the 'crumb rattle'. Auger is not feeding. Igniter was getting hot. I never got feed or fire so I didn't get any thermocouple lights to come on.

While I had it opened I pulled/checked the vacuum tube and it's fine/unobstructed.

What else do I check next besides replacing the blower gasket?

Thanks,

Jason

 

[Jason Willis]

Forgot to mention - couldn't suck on the vacuum hose (it's too short) to see if it's the vacuum switch. Gotta see if I have any vacuum line in my garage to put a longer one on and try but may take a day or two.

 

[heat seeker]

I can't see how pellets could get near the blower, unless they fell in during your cleaning process. Which blower are you referring to, BTW - room or combustion?

If there is enough room between the gasket and body that pellets and crumbs are getting through, you have another problem.

 

[Bioburner]

Jason, get some pictures posted. Our imagination tends to elaborate to much.

 

[kappel15]

FIrst off, if the hopper had been empty, it would take a few hits of the reset button to get pellets all the way up the auger. Second, there is no way pellets are dropping out of exhaust fan port because the gasket is bad. Pellets can't even get there. You must of spilled some, or the auger is loose and pulling them up past the drop chute opening and falling out by the motor. Yes, pictures would be great. kap

 

[Jason Willis]

Will get some for you guys later today and hopefully a video of the 'crumbs' that I'm seeing. Thanks in advance for the help - I am hoping to fix this myself versus a very expensive service appointment.

 

[Jason Willis]

Today I didn't see the crumbs dropping but you can definitely here something tapping, especially in the early part of the video. Going to give the whole backend a good cleaning just because it needs it. Is there way I can test power/function of the auger motor and vacuum switch with a voltmeter? Still couldn't check vacuum switch manually. I checked to make sure connections were tight with electrical and didn't see anything loose. I left it on as you see it in the video for about 10 minutes and auger never came on to feed a single pellet.

Video here:

 

[DMKNLD]

Your video didn't post Jason, but in the picture your crumbs just look like pellet and general room air dust to me.

Jump your vacuum switch wire connections (UNPLUG first !) with a jumper wire or paper clip electrical taped between and around the terminals to prevent it grounding out and shorting on metal, and see if your auger will start up.

If it does it's a problem in your negative pressure vacuum system - bad vac switch or plugged vacuum tube or auger nipple maybe. Particularly dusty pellets and / or not periodically vacuuming the dust and fines out of the bottom of the auger / hopper can plug the vac hose and or the nipple with sawdust.

Did you take the vac hose off completely and check for any sawdust obstruction, heat cracks or splits (usually at the auger end), or just loose fit ?

Several posts of recent where other Quad owners had a similar no-feed auger issue and found it to be a plugged vacuum hose or the nipple at the auger end of the hose. Stick a tooth pick or straightened out paper clip in the nipple to make sure it's open. It's much less common that the vac switch fails, but it can happen.

 

[Jason Willis]

Thanks for the quick reply. Do you mean jumping between the terminals (where red and orange wires are) on the vacuum switch?

I did check hose and it wasn't cracked or unobstructed. Didn't check nipple. I assume I can try cleaning with a paperclip? What size is the vacuum line? I may just replace it to make sure.

 

[heat seeker]

Jumper the two wires together, so as to bypass the vac switch. Don't leave the stove unattended like this, as it is an important safety feature.

 

[kappel15]

You can unhook auger wires and hook 110v up to it to see if it will run. You can also test the vac switch by lightly sucking on the hose, and doing a continuity test on the terminals at the same time. kap