Quadrafire Santa Fe staying running issue

[larry1271]

I just bought a 2018 Santa Fe, person who owned it appears to have taken great care of it, very clean and no abnormal noises. I did a test fire in my garage with a jumper wire instead of a thermostat. It started up good, ignite pellets, room blower came on so I figured I was good. Shut the stove down. I did a second test fire, same start up however after about 10 minutes after startup, it stopped feeding pellet and the stove shut down. I attached the thermostat to it and same thing. I took the side cover off to view the lights in the control box. After startup, the green light came on, great fire, feeding pellets, red light came on, still feeding pellets, then the green light came back on and it shut itself down again. I checked the thermocouple and it seemed the wire wasn't all the way in the ceramic piece. Started it again and same thing, I did mess with the switch on the back, moving it from high to low and it started feeding pellets again, put it back to high and it stopped after a while. I gave up after this to take a break. Anyone think its the TC or control box or something? Thanks for any input

 

[larry1271]

Just as a followup, I have attempted to run this with no exhaust pipe attached. Getting feedback from other sources stating it needs the pipe attached for vacuum.

 

[stovelark]

Testing it with an exhaust pipe (even just say a 2 foot extension) would be good to do. Sounds like the stove got through startup, but did not continue. That is unusual, but I think I would start with the TC, if not having an exhaust attached was not the issue. I wonder too if its something funky, like the auger motor not working after it warmed up? Could still be the control board too, its an unusual problem... do you maybe have a dealer in the area who would let you test your control box out in one of their stoves? We used to do that at the store I worked at long ago, the control boards have gotten so expensive. Good luck with her.

 

[larry1271]

New development, I attached 2 elbows and about 5 feet of pipe to create it being hooked up. Once it started, the green light came on in the control box. I had to toggle the switch on the back to keep it feeding pellets, otherwise it stopped feeding them. The red light finally came on after about 20 minutes and then the auger motor would feed pellets. The stove struggled to keep the red light on. The green light would come on but the unburnt pellets in the pot would catch and heat it enough for the red light to come on but it eventually lost it and it died. I did make sure the wire in the thermocouple was to the end of the ceramic piece and emptied the little bit of ash. Thought is maybe the TC is the one struggling to get up to temp because the fire seems good. Not sure if I should maybe increase the feed rate?

 

[stovelark]

Good going- the flame on high should average about 4-6 inches above the burnpot opening with good pellets and the correct feed rate.
You could open the feedrate a quarter inch more and see if it improves. Trying another brand of pellets might help too. Does the stove output feel hot espec on high? If its not feeding enough pellets, then it could go from red to green back and forth. The flame height on high is a good gauge as to how feed rate is. I'd check feed rate and/or try different pellets. Good luck.