Hi all,
This is my first post here. I have a Classic Bay 1200, which I purchased new in January 2002. I just wanted to say that through searching on this forum I found the problem and fixed it. Many thanks to the contributors here. If you're interested, here's the not so short version of my problem.
The stove has been working great - the only thing I've had to do besides cleaning and a bit of painting was to replace the convection blower last year. This year I started to experience unexpected shutdowns. The stove would come on normally when the thermostat demanded heat or on power up if the room temp was below thermostat setting or with with a manual reset. At some point it would shut down, with no unburned pellets in the firepot but the call light on. Sometimes the stove would stay on for 15 or 20 minutes, sometimes it would stay on for many hours, but almost always it would shut down at some point while the thermostat was still demanding heat.
I started with the manual and the first thing it says is that the stove may be out of fuel - not the problem. Next it suggests snap disc #2, so I replaced snap disc #2 and it continued to experience the shutdowns. The next culprit on the list was the vacuum switch - since the stove would often burn for many hours, I was pretty certain that there was a good vacuum and that this was not the problem - I also figured I could come back to that if needed. The next thing the manual says is the control board. While I am willing to spend the $250-$500 (from a quick online search, that was the price range I found) if it is needed, I'd rather spend a little more time digging into the problem.
So, that lead me to this forum and I found some similar problems. I started going through the troubleshooting recommended on some of those posts i.e. make sure the stove is clean, clean, clean - check; thermocouple - clean the cover, make sure it is touching the end, make sure it is positioned correctly over the firepot - check; etc. None of these seemed to be my problem, so I thought I might have to go back and check the vacuum switch, clear the hose, etc or worse yet, bite the bullet on a new control board. I then came across a couple of posts that talked about the feed motor reversing sometimes. That made me think - there has been a strange noise coming from the feed motor periodically, almost a buzzing noise when it is trying to feed pellets. This noise isn't there all the time and it started near the end of last season - the stove was working great then so I didn't think too much about it and then over the summer, the pellet stove was furthest from my mind...
So, I removed the pellets from the hopper so I could see the bottom part of the auger turning when the stove was restarted. During the startup cycle the auger turned normally, feeding pellets into the firepot. It ignited and started to burn. After a while, the stove fed some more pellets. I wanted to keep watching until I heard the buzzing noise and see if the feed motor was reversing when this noise came on. I only had to wait a few minutes and sure enough, the auger reversed when the buzzing noise came on. I observed it reversing a couple more times, each time the buzzing noise happened when the auger reversed so that clinched it for me - I now knew my problem.
Now to the solution - Quadrafire now makes an in line capacitor jumper to resolve a failed capacitor in the feed motor system. I went to my local dealer and they did not have the part. However, I explained what was happening to the service manager and he had heard of this, but did not have the part in stock (part # 213-2150) and has not yet ordered one in. He did say that when they install new feed motors they often do not use the supplied capacitor jumper kit that comes with the new feed motor and he was nice enough to raid a new feed motor he had sitting on the shelf and give me the jumper kit with the in line capacitor at no charge !! That'll keep me coming back and it wasn't even the dealer where I bought the stove !
I next take the cover off the feed motor and start looking at the connections. The feed motor has a four pin connector on it with only three pins used, in the positions 1,2 and 3 with pin four unused. The matching connector on the jumper that the dealer supplied me with also has wires running from pins 1, 2 and 3 with pin four unused and the wire colours matched the existing jumper, so that's all good. However, on the other end of the jumper provided by the dealer, the end with the capacitor wired in it, it uses pins 1, 2 and 4, while the matching connector on my stove uses pins 1, 2 and 3. I decided to move the connector and wire that was at that end of the "new" jumper to position 3 so that it would match up with the stove. I wired it back in, replaced the feed motor cover and left the hopper almost empty so I could observe the auger turning. On the startup cycle, the auger turned normally and I observed and listened for about 15 minutes. No buzzing, no reversing of the auger.
While it may not be conclusive yet and I have not been sitting watching/listening, so far (it's been about 5 hours now) all seems to be good. The basement was cold and the thermostat is still demanding heat and the stove is still running. I am pretty confident that this has fixed it. I would not have found this info without my searching on this forum - great info here and while I probably won't be a regular on this forum, I will certainly keep it bookmarked if I run into problems in the future.
Thanks
--flexbert
Classic Bay 1200
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
This is my first post here. I have a Classic Bay 1200, which I purchased new in January 2002. I just wanted to say that through searching on this forum I found the problem and fixed it. Many thanks to the contributors here. If you're interested, here's the not so short version of my problem.
The stove has been working great - the only thing I've had to do besides cleaning and a bit of painting was to replace the convection blower last year. This year I started to experience unexpected shutdowns. The stove would come on normally when the thermostat demanded heat or on power up if the room temp was below thermostat setting or with with a manual reset. At some point it would shut down, with no unburned pellets in the firepot but the call light on. Sometimes the stove would stay on for 15 or 20 minutes, sometimes it would stay on for many hours, but almost always it would shut down at some point while the thermostat was still demanding heat.
I started with the manual and the first thing it says is that the stove may be out of fuel - not the problem. Next it suggests snap disc #2, so I replaced snap disc #2 and it continued to experience the shutdowns. The next culprit on the list was the vacuum switch - since the stove would often burn for many hours, I was pretty certain that there was a good vacuum and that this was not the problem - I also figured I could come back to that if needed. The next thing the manual says is the control board. While I am willing to spend the $250-$500 (from a quick online search, that was the price range I found) if it is needed, I'd rather spend a little more time digging into the problem.
So, that lead me to this forum and I found some similar problems. I started going through the troubleshooting recommended on some of those posts i.e. make sure the stove is clean, clean, clean - check; thermocouple - clean the cover, make sure it is touching the end, make sure it is positioned correctly over the firepot - check; etc. None of these seemed to be my problem, so I thought I might have to go back and check the vacuum switch, clear the hose, etc or worse yet, bite the bullet on a new control board. I then came across a couple of posts that talked about the feed motor reversing sometimes. That made me think - there has been a strange noise coming from the feed motor periodically, almost a buzzing noise when it is trying to feed pellets. This noise isn't there all the time and it started near the end of last season - the stove was working great then so I didn't think too much about it and then over the summer, the pellet stove was furthest from my mind...
So, I removed the pellets from the hopper so I could see the bottom part of the auger turning when the stove was restarted. During the startup cycle the auger turned normally, feeding pellets into the firepot. It ignited and started to burn. After a while, the stove fed some more pellets. I wanted to keep watching until I heard the buzzing noise and see if the feed motor was reversing when this noise came on. I only had to wait a few minutes and sure enough, the auger reversed when the buzzing noise came on. I observed it reversing a couple more times, each time the buzzing noise happened when the auger reversed so that clinched it for me - I now knew my problem.
Now to the solution - Quadrafire now makes an in line capacitor jumper to resolve a failed capacitor in the feed motor system. I went to my local dealer and they did not have the part. However, I explained what was happening to the service manager and he had heard of this, but did not have the part in stock (part # 213-2150) and has not yet ordered one in. He did say that when they install new feed motors they often do not use the supplied capacitor jumper kit that comes with the new feed motor and he was nice enough to raid a new feed motor he had sitting on the shelf and give me the jumper kit with the in line capacitor at no charge !! That'll keep me coming back and it wasn't even the dealer where I bought the stove !
I next take the cover off the feed motor and start looking at the connections. The feed motor has a four pin connector on it with only three pins used, in the positions 1,2 and 3 with pin four unused. The matching connector on the jumper that the dealer supplied me with also has wires running from pins 1, 2 and 3 with pin four unused and the wire colours matched the existing jumper, so that's all good. However, on the other end of the jumper provided by the dealer, the end with the capacitor wired in it, it uses pins 1, 2 and 4, while the matching connector on my stove uses pins 1, 2 and 3. I decided to move the connector and wire that was at that end of the "new" jumper to position 3 so that it would match up with the stove. I wired it back in, replaced the feed motor cover and left the hopper almost empty so I could observe the auger turning. On the startup cycle, the auger turned normally and I observed and listened for about 15 minutes. No buzzing, no reversing of the auger.
While it may not be conclusive yet and I have not been sitting watching/listening, so far (it's been about 5 hours now) all seems to be good. The basement was cold and the thermostat is still demanding heat and the stove is still running. I am pretty confident that this has fixed it. I would not have found this info without my searching on this forum - great info here and while I probably won't be a regular on this forum, I will certainly keep it bookmarked if I run into problems in the future.
Thanks
--flexbert
Classic Bay 1200
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada