Quadrafire Mt Vernon AE ignitor issues

[jgadwah]

Hi all, been rereading old posts looking for something that will help with my stove. We bought the stove back in 2008 or 2009, went many years with no issues. My husband is very good about the cleaning and maintenance part so that's good but over the past few years we've had issues with the ignitor going, we've replaced that a few times.

This year has been awful, and as of right now, this is our only source of heat. We live in the northeastern Vermont so it's going to be getting cold! So we started with replacing the ignitor a couple days ago, which didn't solve the problem. Then we got a TC firepot error, so we looked at buying a new thermocouple. My husband thought he had bought one before which we didn't end up using, so he searched and found it, so we replaced that as well. That didn't help, we continued with the error. I looked on here and saw the issues with after market TC's sometimes needing to invert the plug so we tried that and it seemed to work but then alas overnight we woke up with no heat.

It's not putting out any errors now, it just sits in Startup and tries over and over. We ended up just lighting the pellets so now it's running correctly. I watched videos on Thermocouples, which says that the TC is just the "proof of fire", which that part seems to be working, once we light the pellets, the rest of the heating process seems to work correctly - so thinking that's not it. So then I watched a video on the ignitor, thinking that must be the problem - even though he just bought a new one today from a dealer. The video said that it's the air rushing around the ignitor that ignites the pellets, not the ignitor itself, so to check for air movement issues. The door seals all appear to be fine, the last thing we're thinking is maybe the combustion fan - but alas no videos on that. Any thoughts on how to check to see if that's an issue, any fan troubleshooting things we can try?

Thanks for any help, this has been super frustrating. We really don't want to have to buy a new stove!
JGadwah

 

[BigJohnfromCT]

I am a Quad owner. I have not had your particular problems but I can tell you, for certain, if the ceramic cover on the TC is not pushed all the way back against the TC you will get firepot errors. The fire must heat the TC to 200° in a certain amount of time. A space between the TC and the cover messes this up. Additionally, I have found that, over time, the clamp that hold the ceramic cover will not hold the cover adequately allowing the cover.to.slip.away from the TC. My stove was manufactured in 2011. It has been a minor annoyance for about two years. Last week I inserted a short length of thin copper wire between the cover and the clamp to tighten it up. So far, so good. Hope this helps a little. Good luck.

 

[Tjune54]

There is a slot in the fire pot just in front of the ignitor that will fill with ash and harden and close up the slot reducing air flow. Make sure it is fully open as it needs all the air flow allowed for ignition.

 

[BigJohnfromCT]

There is a slot in the fire pot just in front of the ignitor that will fill with ash and harden and close up the slot reducing air flow. Make sure it is fully open as it needs all the air flow allowed for ignition.

Checking that slot and the holes in the fire pot should be part of any routine maintenance. Thanks for bringing it up.

 

[budget76]

I have been running my AE for 2 years now, bought used with unknown maintenance history. I've averaged 3 ignitors per season so far, they seem to just simply be unreliable. This sounds like an issue I had where an ignitor was heating, but it was not heating enough to light the pellets. Pretty sure I had an almost-brand-new one do this to me too.

I'd clean the pot well, then try swapping the ignitor again. They're cheap from PelletHead and other sites, I need to order 2 more the keep on teh shelf. One of the sites warrantees them, to an extent. I have gotten 1 or 2 replaced, but my latest email asking for warrantee on the warrantee-sent ignitor was ignored.