QuadraFire Santa Fe emitting fumes

[genesuggins]

Hello.
This is my first post

I have a problem with fumes/emissions smell from my pellet stove. I have tried almost all I can do and I hope someone can help me think of something else to check. Here is what I have done so far:

Cleaned the stove; burn pot, chamber, the upper pan, the tubes, the hopper and feed shoot, the fins on the blower fan and cleaned the stove pipe and tee. Still the smell. Then I replaced the door gasket (for lack of a better term) and that did not fix it. Then I called a reputable tech and he found I had a faulty vacuum switch. First thing he saw was that the original vacuum switch was bad and the plastic terminal could slide in and out and wasn't sealed. So he replaced that and on startup he saw the startup smoke coming out of the back of the stove to the tee for the exhaust piping. He said that whoever installed this did not install an appliance adapter which is required. Mind you the stove is nine years old (in great shape..his comments). So I got one, installed it and used high temp silicon sealant and waited 24hrs for it to cure. But still I have this exhaust/fumes smell in the house. It is less than before I replaced the door gasket, vacuum pump and the appliance adapter but still very present.

When it starts up the red demand light is on and in the control box you can see a blue light with a slow blink rate which at some point turns green. That light goes red after a few minutes but before the main blower turns on.

I don't know much about the safety part of the stove and was hoping someone might know what might be a troubleshooting path to take at this point. I just can't figure out why after all these years its happening. I hope it's not a crack in the heat tubes or back plate I can't see or something.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[DMKNLD]

Hello gene and welcome to the forum !

It sounds like your venting that is inside the house - your clean-out T and whatever other vent sections are connected to it - is likely leaking at the pipe connections behind the stove. Some brands of venting seal better at the junctions than others, but few are completely air tight even when new. After multiple years of heating and cooling cycles the gaskets in between the inner and outer pipe layers can shrink and start to leak.

The easiest way to find if there are any smoke leaks is to turn out the lights in the evening, to have the room as dark as possible, when the stove is first igniting the pellets and the most amount of smoke is generated. Then shine a flashlight or a laser light from behind each vent junction section and you should see any wisps of smoke that are leaking out.

You can buy foil tape that is temperature rated at Home Depot / building supply BBS or on-line to seal the connections, or better yet IMO is silicone self-fusing tape, which comes in a variety of colors to match your venting. Unlike the foil tape, the silicone tape can be easily removed from your T clean-out cap when you want to sweep the vent, then you can re-seal the cap. The silicone tape is not too expensive, so I silicone tape wrapped all my inside vent junctions to make sure they were air tight. http://www.homedepot.com/p/1-in-x-3...-Fusing-Silicone-Tape-Black-1208952/100206050 . http://www.rescuetape.com/shop/

When your cleaned the burn pot did you make sure all the air holes and the igniter slit were clear of fly ash and any built-up carbon deposits? There are 4 small air holes at the bottom on the sloped section besides the 7 or 8 larger holes. Shine a flashlight with a small mirror into the burn pot to best visualize the igniter slit and the front side air holes.

I use 3mm and 5mm allen wrenches to clean the air holes out. Or alternatively. 22 and .25 caliber gun bore brushes, available at any gun shop or hunting supply store, work well also. If any burn pot air holes are blocked it will restrict the combustion blowers forced draft, reducing the air flow through the burn pot as well as the exhaust blowers ability to push the smoke out the venting. What is your venting configuration? Attaching a cell phone pic of it is the easiest, including the outside vent termination.

Your start-up sequence you described - flashing blue lights, the red 'call for heat' light and your green light , that then turns to red in the control box all indicate your thermo-couple and control box are functioning normally.

Hope you have functioning smoke and CO detectors in the stove room?

Try the above and post back on the results, OK? Regards, DK

 

[alternativeheat]

I agree with DM and in fact had this very issue with my Harman about a year ago. The T in the fireplace was leaking in several spots ( found that with a light as indicated above). This is located directly behind the stove, when the room fan turned on it sucked in the wisps of smoke and distributed it out the room fan. I siliconed the joins and I sealed the cap with tape. Done deal. This was a year or more into the install incidentally, it's a very common complaint around the forum..

 

[kappel15]

Another place to look is the exhaust fan. Make sure nothing is leaking around it. It could have been serviced without a new gasket being used, and have gaps around the seal. kap