I have the original Quarafire Mt. Vernon pellet stove serial# 1785454. I bought it new about 20 years ago and it has been great, until last winter when it stopped operating correctly. I first experienced very slow starts and a lot of smoke being discharged out of the chimney. So I replaced the ignition element and now all it does is turn the pellets black without producing any flame. And then it stopped feeding pellets. So I tested the vacuum switch by sucking on a rubber hose that I attached to the switch. The switch worked doing that but will not switch to start the auger turning. So I tested the auger and it works fine. All the snap switches seem to work. I can get it to feed pellets if I jump the vacuum switch. So I tested the igniter out of the stove and it glows cherry red. I am sure it doesn't get that hot installed in the stove. The blower comes on immediately and seems to work fine. The speed control works. I tested the thermocouple and it produces the correct milliamp current when hot.
I am about to tear my hair out dealing with this onery thing. Why isn't the vacuum switch working when installed? Why is the igniter failing to get hot enough? If I had a vacuum leak, where would it be? I noticed that the door for the ashtray has a gasket on it so I thought the ashtray compartment must be under vacuum when the stove operates. But in the back, the compartment is vented so why the gasket? I wish there was a comprehensive booklet to troubleshoot this beast. Can anyone help? Thanks.
Randy
I am about to tear my hair out dealing with this onery thing. Why isn't the vacuum switch working when installed? Why is the igniter failing to get hot enough? If I had a vacuum leak, where would it be? I noticed that the door for the ashtray has a gasket on it so I thought the ashtray compartment must be under vacuum when the stove operates. But in the back, the compartment is vented so why the gasket? I wish there was a comprehensive booklet to troubleshoot this beast. Can anyone help? Thanks.
Randy
