Quadrafire my Vernon drops too many pellets or not burning them fast enough

[Clintdeck]

Hello I have an older my Vernon stove. It’s not the ae model. I got it free I brought it home and did a basic clean. It wouldn’t drop pellets and I found the snap disk two reset and it fired right up. Put the stove in my house and it ran perfect for a month. Then I had a power surge. Simultaneously I bought a batch of bad pellets. They clogged the fire pot and after cleaning them out and getting rid of them the stove hasn’t been the same. It won’t light up right. Initial startup I hit the reset when I hear the pellets drop. After about a minute it stops dropping pellets. I can see the igniter glowing red and it starts to light. But as soon as the thermocouple hits the 200 degree mark(brand new thermocouple) it drops pellets like crazy like every ten to twelve seconds. Fills the pot smothers the fire and smokes out my house. The exhaust fan turns on every start up. It’s like it is starved for air. I cleaned it really well yesterday and took out then baffle and a ton of old build up dropped down then heat exchangers. I thought for sure this would be the problem. Tried to fire it up and same problem. I have checked vacuum switch and snap disks everything is working the way it should. New thermocouple and fire pot gasket. Still nothing. I can get it fired up through a series of bad starts and opening and shutting the door a few times untill it lights. After it starts I get the geeen light on the control board followed by the red light not long after. If I let it keep running it eventually fills the pot all the way up and starts backing up the shoot. Doesn’t matter what setting I have the stove on. If it’s on quad it just happens faster. I read a thread last night about a guy that had almost the same issue. He had a new board also. The last thing he did was out a new igniter in and it worked. I ordered it last night but if that’s not it I’m stumped. I have done so much reading I don’t know what else to do. Any advise or help would be amazing
Thank you

 

[Ssyko]

If there was build up in the heat exchanger it has some in the back also. Pull the combustion blower and clean and lube it then vacuum out the chamber it goes into. Here is the manual. Do the yearly maintenance and then give it a try.

Manual

 

[Clintdeck]

If there was build up in the heat exchanger it has some in the back also. Pull the combustion blower and clean and lube it then vacuum out the chamber it goes into. Here is the manual. Do the yearly maintenance and then give it a try.

Manual

Thank you I will do that today. That has got to be the only thing I haven’t cleaned. Should I take the blower all the way out?

 

[Ssyko]

I would. Take a paintbrush to the blades, be gentle they are probably a lil fragile

 

[Clintdeck]

I would. Take a paintbrush to the blades, be gentle they are probably a lil fragile

what should I use to line it up? White lithium grease?

 

[Ssyko]

3 in 1 blue oil, or anderol, 20w non detergent

 

[Clintdeck]

3 in 1 blue oil, or anderol, 20w non detergent

i took the combustion motor out and cleaned and oiled it. Vacuumed the port. Cleaned the pot again and put it all back together. Started it on quad, I got a little flame but as soon as the thermocouple got to temp it started dropping pellets every ten seconds and smothered the fire. I was able to get it running by turning the thermostat down untill the flame caught up and turned it down to medium. Dropping pellets every fifteen seconds. Has been going for an hour with the pot not looking like it’s going to over flow. When it smothers the fire it smokes my house out untill I turn it down.
im so confused on what to do

 

[Ssyko]

If the stove is running and it starts to smoke where is the smoke coming out of the stove. Your combustion blower should be sending it out the exhaust vent? Maybe your combustion blower motor need to be replaced. Is the vent clear? No birds nests? Ash?

 

[Clintdeck]

If the stove is running and it starts to smoke where is the smoke coming out of the stove. Your combustion blower should be sending it out the exhaust vent? Maybe your combustion blower motor need to be replaced. Is the vent clear? No birds nests? Ash?

the combustion motor only comes on after like a half hour of good flame. The exhaust fanturns on every start up.If it doesn’t light initially and smothers the flame it comes from the vent pipe. The vent pipe is only about three months old. Goes out the back and up about four feet and then elbows outside for three feet. I do t know how tons could be clogged again. When I cleaned it again this morning I took out the baffle again.On the left side there is the cast iron brick. That’s where the exhaust hole is. It looks like it could come out to clean behind it but I can’t find anything on how to get it out. I know I’m not getting enough air to ignite. I just don’t know where it’s supposed to come from at start up. Does the convection blower come on right away? When I switch from quad to high or medium I can hear the exhaust fan slow down. I need more air or less pellets I do t know how to achieve that unless the fans are bad. Can they be half bad? Lol? Or is it like they either run or they don’t

 

[Ssyko]

Ok combustion blower is the exhaust bower, convection blower is the room blower. Electric motors can get weak and worn (usually the bearings/bushing) from lack of maintenance. Your combustion blower is either getting tired and not moving enough air or there is a clogged up area in the stove or vent pipe. Air / vacuum is created solely by the combustion blower! If it were mine it wold be outside getting a high pressure air blow out. Then run outside with no pipe to make sure its running correctly. Then reinstalled . How many bags of pellets have you run through the stove? You gotta remember the dirtyer the burn the more contaminated debris goes out or into the vent thats why i ask about the pipe being clean.

 

[Clintdeck]

Ok combustion blower is the exhaust bower, convection blower is the room blower. Electric motors can get weak and worn (usually the bearings/bushing) from lack of maintenance. Your combustion blower is either getting tired and not moving enough air or there is a clogged up area in the stove or vent pipe. Air / vacuum is created solely by the combustion blower! If it were mine it wold be outside getting a high pressure air blow out. Then run outside with no pipe to make sure its running correctly. Then reinstalled . How many bags of pellets have you run through the stove? You gotta remember the dirtyer the burn the more contaminated debris goes out or into the vent thats why i ask about the pipe being clean.

oh ok that makes more sense. I was wondering why themotor I blew out today wasn’t that dirty. I cleaned the wrong one. I cleaned the convection motor. I have only ran about fifteen bad through it but no telling how long it was before the last cleaning. So I need to get a new gasket and pull the convection(exhaust blower) blow it out and clean it and oil it. Then replace the gasket and put the motor back in. And run it outside to make sure it all works correctly. That makes a lot of sense now. Thanks for clearing that up for me. I’ll let you know what happens

 

[Ssyko]

You can use high temp silicone to make a gasket. Im sure you get that all cleaned out it will make a big difference, startup and burn much better. If not then we can dial in on the problem.

 

[Clintdeck]

You can use high temp silicone to make a gasket. Im sure you get that all cleaned out it will make a big difference, startup and burn much better. If not then we can dial in on the problem.

Awesome thanks a ton you have no idea.

 

[Clintdeck]

Hey thank you so much. Got the motor completely cleaned out today. It was super dirty and all the exhaust ports going to it were as well took an hour to blow everything out. Fired right up on quad and I can hear the draw again. Everything seems to be perfect. It def wasn’t getting enough air and now running like a dream