Quadrafire pellet stove - Anyone upgrade their exhaust impeller from 9 petal to 11 petal?

[Don2222]

Hello
I did this to my Contour and ran it all last winter and it worked super!
The pellets always lit because no stuck ash in the fire pot!

Anyone try this?

Pic 1 - Standard quad large 9 petal blade
Pic 2 - upgraded quad large 11 petal blade

 

[Former Farmer]

One thing that I might question :

If you are exhausting more air, are you also losing some efficiency? Possibly exhausting the heat out of the stove before it can be captured for heating the room?

Just a thought.

 

[Don2222]

One thing that I might question :

If you are exhausting more air, are you also loosing some efficiency? Possibly exhausting the heat out of the stove before it can be captured for heating the room?

Just a thought.

Yes, but the pellets seem to burn more completely.
The speed the stove uses is the same because the RPMs are the same.

Just IMHO, there needs to be an optimum air to fuel mixture which is harder to achieve on lower heat levels and this seems to achieve that.

 

[Don2222]

More Pics

New Impeller Blade fits and runs perfect!

Stove is ready for another harsh snowy cold winter season.

 

[MikeNH]

More Pics

New Impeller Blade fits and runs perfect!

Stove is ready for another harsh snowy cold winter season.

you've been doing a lot of work with this. Let us know your results. I'm curious. Might make me start messing around with the Heatilator in the basement

 

[SwineFlue]

More Pics

New Impeller Blade fits and runs perfect!

Stove is ready for another harsh snowy cold winter season.

Meet the new boss,
Same as the old boss:


QuadraFire has used these before.
It's not as shiny as yours, but I've put more than 25 tons of pellets through it. Let's hope yours will do the same.

 

[Don2222]

Meet the new boss,
Same as the old boss:

QuadraFire has used these before.
It's not as shiny as yours, but I've put more than 25 tons of pellets through it. Let's hope yours will do the same.

Very Good. -- On the motor tag, what is the AMPs of your motor?

Mine is now 1.75 amps for good low drafting.

 

[SwineFlue]

Very Good. -- On the motor tag, what is the AMPs of your motor?

Mine is now 1.75 amps for good low drafting.

0.54 but that's the electrical current rating of the motor windings. It's only a 35 Watt motor. I think I measured 25/30/35 Watts (on Low/Med/High) a few years ago, fwiw.

 

[Don2222]

0.54 but that's the electrical current rating of the motor windings. It's only a 35 Watt motor. I think I measured 25/30/35 Watts (on Low/Med/High) a few years ago, fwiw.

Wow that is very low! Do you get any ashes in the firepot that stop the stove from lighting up? I hear that is a common complaint. I am hoping to cure that with the higher current blower on the large blade impellers.

 

[SwineFlue]

Nope, no ash problems in the burnpot. It lights up just fine.

I'll re-phrase it... the Amp rating is what the motor's windings can handle. It doesn't mean the motor will necessarily draw that much current. If that blower ran at 1.75 Amps, it would blow out the fire and probably fry the control box.

 

[tjnamtiw]

My impellers for both my stoves have always been 11 blades! Last winter so people were replacing their blower with an after market one that had 9 blades. Subsequently, we began to hear complaints about unburned pellets and sub-par performance. Don't you remember?

 

[moey]

It may not make a difference. A nine blade should spin faster then a 11 blade assuming one is not thicker metal. They may move the same amount of air. You have no way of knowing except in the results. Its not like its ECM blower.

 

[tjnamtiw]

It may not make a difference. A nine blade should spin faster then a 11 blade assuming one is not thicker metal. They may move the same amount of air. You have no way of knowing except in the results. Its not like its ECM blower.

No, they will turn the same RPM.

 

[moey]

No, they will turn the same RPM.

No they wont. See I can do that too.

 

[tjnamtiw]

No they wont. See I can do that too.

Granted that there might be some slight lag because of extra drag but an AC motor will turn at BASICALLY the same rpm given the same construction. We are only changing the impeller.

 

[SwineFlue]

My impellers for both my stoves have always been 11 blades! Last winter so people were replacing their blower with an after market one that had 9 blades. Subsequently, we began to hear complaints about unburned pellets and sub-par performance. Don't you remember?

Aha! That's why I couldn't find it yesterday... I searched for that thread thinking it was by Don2222.

It wasn't just aftermarket blowers. My gen-u-ine Quad replacement (still on the shelf) is 9-blade.

I'm with Moey on RPMs... I think moving more air would put more load on the motor, slowing it down. (These aren't synchronous motors.) But an aerodynamically more efficient impeller would move more air. I'd love to test this, but I am not pulling my ancient blower. I'm afraid I'd hurt its self-confidence.

 

[Don2222]

Aha! That's why I couldn't find it yesterday... I searched for that thread thinking it was by Don2222.

It wasn't just aftermarket blowers. My gen-u-ine Quad replacement (still on the shelf) is 9-blade.

I'm with Moey on RPMs... I think moving more air would put more load on the motor, slowing it down. (These aren't synchronous motors.) But an aerodynamically more efficient impeller would move more air. I'd love to test this, but I am not pulling my ancient blower. I'm afraid I'd hurt its self-confidence.

Hi SF
Interesting about the genuine quad is 9 blade. I just heard from my friend that had a Quad Castile. He said that some of the cheaper pellets, in his case the second year Maine's Choice from Lowes. The 1st year he bought them they were fine, but the second year he just bought 3 tons and was scraping the fire pot all winter due to caked ash and clinkers so the igniter would light the pellets! Better pellets may not cause that problem, but the larger 11 Petal fan blade with the round base plate would definately help. In fact I used Maine's Choice all last witnter in my Santa Fe with the large 11 petal blade with the base plate and never had a problem! It always lit up. The motor for that blade was only 0.95 amps so I feel the new 1.75 amp blower will definately help hold the speed constant with the large petal on medium and low. I put a current meter on the exhaust blower and found it uses more current at the lower speeds than runninng full tilt! That is why Harman uses it, because they found it works better for low drafting!

 

[SwineFlue]

I just heard from my friend that had a Quad Castile. He said that some of the cheaper pellets, in his case the second year Maine's Choice from Lowes. The 1st year he bought them they were fine, but the second year he just bought 3 tons and was scraping the fire pot all winter so the igniter would light the pellets! Better pellets may not cause that problem

I can see it being pellet-dependant. It's been so cold out lately that I've already run the stove 4 mornings, on Low using up some partial bags from last year. One brand took over an hour before the convection blower kicked in.

In your friend's case, is the stove not lighting or is it not getting to 600 degrees (red light) in time? I usually toss a handful of pellets in the burnpot when I start it on Low with the feed gate closed like I did this morning. Otherwise the thermocouple may not get up to temperature in time.

 

[Don2222]

I can see it being pellet-dependant. It's been so cold out lately that I've already run the stove 4 mornings, on Low using up some partial bags from last year. One brand took over an hour before the convection blower kicked in.

In your friend's case, is the stove not lighting or is it not getting to 600 degrees (red light) in time? I usually toss a handful of pellets in the burnpot when I start it on Low with the feed gate closed like I did this morning. Otherwise the thermocouple may not get up to temperature in time.

In my friend's case the stove is not lighting becase the ash in the bottom of the fire pot is blocking the igniter air holes.

 

[SwineFlue]

In my friend's case the stove is not lighting becase the ash in the bottom of the fire pot is blocking the igniter air holes.

Let us know what happens if he switches to the 11-blade impeller.

 

[tjnamtiw]

I'm with Moey on RPMs... I think moving more air would put more load on the motor, slowing it down. (These aren't synchronous motors.) But an aerodynamically more efficient impeller would move more air. I'd love to test this, but I am not pulling my ancient blower. I'm afraid I'd hurt its self-confidence.

Yea, they are induction motors that create the torque they need to turn by 'slipping' slightly (1/2 to 5%) and creating more current in the windings. 5% is max, me thinks before things get toasty.

 

[tjnamtiw]

In my friend's case the stove is not lighting becase the ash in the bottom of the fire pot is blocking the igniter air holes.

I had this problem last winter with the same brand of pellets I used the two previous years. Never did I have clinkers that formed in the bottom of the pot before last winter. Greenway's. It must have been that 'magic' ingredient they found to stretch their supply......... Who knows what goes into the pellets!?

 

[Don2222]

I had this problem last winter with the same brand of pellets I used the two previous years. Never did I have clinkers that formed in the bottom of the pot before last winter. Greenway's. It must have been that 'magic' ingredient they found to stretch their supply......... Who knows what goes into the pellets!?

The only thing that goes into pellets is what the trees eat unless something gets into the manufacturing process. But from year to year trees have different diets too!
However I think I finally figured out what got into these PELLETS

See pics of oily goo!
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/st-croix-auger-is-not-a-dipstick-but.105736/#post-1375622

This may be it! -- If some oily grains or olive pits that are not processed correctly can cause this! ! ! ---

 

[tjnamtiw]

The only thing that goes into pellets is what the trees eat unless something gets into the manufacturing process.

And you really believe that???? That's a BIG 'unless'.