Quadrafire Mt. Vernon AE insert autoclean issue.

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.

truckiedh

New Member
Nov 29, 2020
1
Nampa, ID
I have a Mt. Vernon AE insert that looks to me to be 06/07 vintage. The control board has a mfg. date of 03/07. At the end of last season it started to skip its autoclean cycle. Everything else would work fine but eventually it would fail to ignite because of the firepot being clogged with ash. Today I gave the stove a preseasen cleaning and tried to remedy the autoclean issue. I tried crimping the female connectors closed on the 10 pin harness and the autoclean motor harness. I thought that fixed the problem, during testing when I powered up the stove it would go through its normal startup functions. Now when I power it up it will not run its autoclean cycle. I will hear the autoclean motor make a brief 1 second click and the stove goes to ready or off depending on which function I have selected. When it was testing ok I would get an autoclean reading on the thermostat control, now I get no autoclean reading , I get the quick motor click and it goes to ready. Could this be a control board issue or do I need to be looking elsewhere?
 
What the heck is 'autoclean' anyway. Sounds like a bad excuse for a clogged with fly ash unit to me.
 
  • Haha
Reactions: Overfireinthehole
Don't know your stove well,but I would do these- check the micro switch on the auto clean,have been known to fail.Unhook linkage,make sure plate slides on the rails,easily, and,while it is unhooked,cycle it and see if motor runs(if micro switch is OK).
 
  • Like
Reactions: kappel15
Hopefully Kappel sees this post. He is the Mt Vernon AE guru
 
  • Like
Reactions: slvrblkk
  • Like
Reactions: slvrblkk
lol....I wish!

I'd pull the motor off, while still hooked up to the harness and see if it functions off of the auto-clean arm. Not a huge fan of the AE's...WAY too complicated than it needed to be or should have been.
 
lol....I wish!

I'd pull the motor off, while still hooked up to the harness and see if it functions off of the auto-clean arm. Not a huge fan of the AE's...WAY too complicated than it needed to be or should have been.
Very much agree. They are so nice when they work, but a real pain when they dont..
 
Cheapest thing to check first is the auto clean motor and micro switch, and assembly. Check to make sure it is closing all the way. Pull the ashpan and on the back wall is the mounting bolt that holds motor assy. This can come loose at times. Check that arm is secure. Check that oblong slot is not bent out of shape. kap
 
Hi Kappel,

Im having issues with my Autocleaning, I have Quadra fire AE
During the auto cleaning process the burn pot floor doesn't close completely.
Theres half an inch opening. Causing the pellet to drop and burn into the ashpan.
Ive tried tighten every bolt I see. Id have use a screwdriver to push close the floor of the burn pot to complexly close it.
After each autocleaning cycle, theres the half inch gap.
Please assist, much apricated. Thanks
 
As i posted above, did you pull the ashpan and check the bolt on back wall, to make sure it isnt' loose? This is the mounting bolt for the auto clean motor. Mine came loose once and had same issue as you. Otherwise, time to check the arm on pot floor to see if slotted opening is warped enough, that it doesn't pull floor closed all the way. Wouldn't hurt to clean rails and rub some high temp anti-seize grease on em. What revision control board do you have ? kap
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mt Bob