Quest plus burn problem

[Neilt]

I recently purchased a home with a quest plus already installed. I decided to clean it and see how it works before the winter really hits. I have to use the gel to light it, as there is no auto igniter. Once lit, I wait and hit start and the pellets begin to very slowly drop in, and the smoke chokes the flame out. I have tried to clean it as the owners manual states( not very in depth). But I have vacuumed out everything I can see. It seems like there is no air being pushed through... But I can hear a fan.

The stove seems to just run a pipe into the old brick chimney from a wood stove. The pipe does not extend the length of the chimney.

Also while cleaning I broke the firebrick. Is this necessary or just for decoration?

This is my first Pellot stove, so I am learning as I got on this. Thanks for any help.

 

[Delta-T]

if you have not done so do these: clean combustion blower & its impeller (must remove from unit to do a good job). clean vent pipe pipe.
If the quest is like all the other whitfields you 'll have to remove the bricks, access the air paths that run down behind the firewall. No shortcuts. You will need the bricks, not just for show.

 

[bbone]

quest plus is a great stove, as stated above clean blower and that exhaust. Next to air tubes are channels that get filled up
I always use fire squares to light, seems to work better than gel
mine is in a old wood stove chimney and it works fine

 

[Ricks]

I have this same stove with a similar problem I had a very lazy flame regardless of how much I turned the air knob. In all likelihood the air chambers are plugged and need to be cleaned out.

There is no way to access the air paths behind the firewall. Removing the bricks does not reveal an access panel. If you call Lennox they will direct you to drill a large hole behind the bricks.

The best idea is to full clean the stove, then disconnect the vacuum switch located to the left of the control panel. You will have to remove the screw to allow the panel to swing open. Then with the door of the stove slightly open take a leave blower and connect the suction side of it to the exhaust pipe located outside your home. Turn the blower on and it should suck out a large amount of ash / soot.

If you cannot access the exhaust pipe outside the house, I know of one owner that used a shop vac on the exhaust pipe inside his house with success.

The problem is the air chambers on either side of the firebox as well as the tube that connects the left air chamber to the exhaust fan get plugged up and you cannot easily clean them out.

If you have an air compressor you maybe able to blow the ash / soot out of the air chambers. These air chambers can be located to the far left and far right at the top of the firebox to either side of the tubes that push heated air into the room.

Rick.......

 

[Neilt]

Thanks for the replies. I tried cleaning the fan, that didn't fix it( but it did help). I then tried to attach a vacuum to the exhaust on the stove. I moved the stove while doing this and felt quit a bit go into the vacuum. I had put the vacuum in the exhaust before, but never tried to suck what was was in there out. The stove will stay lit for now(something it would not do before).

The stove turns off after half an hour on its own(fans, and pellet feed). After looking at the owners manual, it suggests the lower limit snap switch. Have any of you replaced these, or have any idea how difficult they are to change?

Also the window turned black after burning the stove for half an hour twice.

Thank you for all of the help.

 

[krooser]

The fact that it's burning better indicates you are on the right track. You must still get that ash out that's plugged up the stove… use a small hammer and tap the back and sides of the burn chamber to help loosen that ash. Better yet move the stove outside and connect a leaf blower in the vent and suck out all that ash.

 

[Neilt]

I am a little confused as to where I am supposed to hook the leaf blower to. Am I supposed to hook it to the exhaust? And I supposed to remove the fan and hook it there? Or am I supposed to put it as close to the air chambers as I can with the door open?

If the compressor method works better, I have a compressor. I think for that I just need to take it outside and out the tip in the air chamber and open it.

Thanks

 

[stellep]

Here is how I clean my Quest exhaust side.
First I clean the 3in exhaust pipe with the vent brush.
Second, I use a long bottle brush to clean all the way down into the vertical exhaust ports on either side of the heat exchanger (top corners). Don't, don't, don't get it stuck in there. Then, I pull the exhaust motor and clean the vertical parts of the exhaust before and after the motor. Open the damper to get the stove end and use the bottle brush. Then, the use vacuum through the motor hole to get the ash.
After that, I cover the motor hole with a dicey cardboard template I made and then go with the leaf blower from the end of the vent(outside the house!). Don't want to spin the exhaust motor at x zillion rpm with the blower, hence the template.
Replace the motor using a new gasket(you'll break it) and you're good to go.
I do this just once a year after about two tons per. YMMV.

After a few years, it's easy.

On this stove you need the firebrick, it's a safety thing. Hook the leaf blower to the end of the 3in pipe. If you can't get to it, you might have to forget the leaf blower. If you move the stove outside, you can get to it.

Best luck.

 

[Neilt]

Thank you for the in depth cleaning process that you use. I have been stuck at work and unable to work on it since reading this post. I also found that I needed to replace the low alarm switch, which I picked up but need to install. Hopefully when I get home on monday I will get the whole thing straitened out. Thank you all for the help with this.

 

[Stovensen]

The stove seems to just run a pipe into the old brick chimney from a wood stove. The pipe does not extend the length of the chimney.

This is my first Pellot stove, so I am learning as I got on this. Thanks for any help.

Hello Neilt, and welcome to the forum. In 2008 I was in a situation much like yours. My stove is also a Quest Plus vented in an old masonry chimney. See photos here of my flue and house with the 60 feet chimney. I live on the third floor right under the roof.


From reading here at Hearth.com I learned llttle by little how to maintain and tweek the stove for best performance and these days it runs like a charm.
Now, my living room is quite small, so the stove mostly runs on the two lowest settings. This makes the stove soot up quickly, so in my case a deep cleaning is necessary twice every season. These pics show the impeller on the combustion blower before and after cleaning. Note: My scrapings in the soot layer clearly indicate the chronology of the burn characteristic as the soot layer builds up... the innermost layer right after cleaning is light greyish ( = good burn ) and the outermost layer is dark and sooty ( = bad burn ). After each deep clean it burns like a brand new stove with a draft so violent that the damper needs to be pushed in a bit.

Yes, the different cleaning advice given by the members in this thread is the way to go. Only one cleaning method is not possible in our chimney set up: The leaf blower trick. Also an Outside Air Kit is very difficult to install on my stove. But then again, my house is old and drafty, so there's plenty of fresh air

BTW. the modification ( ash clean out ports ) suggested by forum member Ricks is something I am planning to do in the future, as it would make cleaning of the "exhaust manifold" much much easier. Ricks states that Lennox will be helpful, if we contact them on this matter, and that is what I intend to do. The Profile 20 is the stove that succeeded the Quest Plus and the Profile 20 ( of the second generation ) is built with these ash clean out ports, as we can see here:


Neilt, I hope that you will become as happy for your Quest Plus as I am. And if any issues turn up, there's always a bunch of helpful people here at Hearth.com.

Bo

 

[Neilt]

Thank you all for the help. I cleaned used the leaf blower today as I only have to move the stove 15 feet to be outside. The stove works great now. I found my big problem. Thanks to the pictures from stovensen, I noticed the fan did not look the same as the one I had pulled and cleaned. When I pulled the fan out, there was a mouse that was in the exaust. He must have been in there when I turned it on for the first time. As I said the house was vacant, and I just purchased it. Anyways I finished the rest and it is getting plenty of air now. So now it's off to search this forum again for the fine tuning of the stove. Thanks again to all of you.

 

[briansol]

nice! pics of dead mouse or it didn't happen. lol

 

[Neilt]

I didn't take pics, as I pulled the fan out. It was laying right inside. You couldn't miss it.

 

[Neilt]

Since a few of you have the same stove, and I was unable to find anything through searching, I have two more questions.

The first is does anyone make a hopper extension for the whitfield quest plus? I'm unable to find one currently.

Also I am trying to find what thermostats will connect to the quest plus. I really want something I could control with my phone. With the way my work schedule goes, it would actually save me money in the long run. Any ideas where to look?


Have any of you installed an auto igniter and a thermostat? If so will the quest plus turn off and back on from the thermostat. Thanks for the help... Again hahaha

 

[Ricks]

The Whitfield Quest is one of the original pellet stoves. So it does not have a lot of the bells and whistles of the later models. The Quest was not sold with an auto igniter or a thermostat. I understand you have a Quest Plus which is a later model and that may an igniter and thermostat available.

With my Quest the hopper holds well over fifty pounds of pellets. You should be able to run the stove all day without refilling. In general I fill the hopper once a day (40 pounds) and have never come close to running out. The burn rate does depend on what you have set the pellet feed to; a lower feed rate would mean a longer burn time, and a higher feed rate would mean a shorter burn time.

While the Quest may not have all of the nice features of later stoves, it is a very simple and very reliable stove. My stove is almost 20 years old and given me very few problems.

Rick.........

 

[Neilt]

The quest plus also comes without an auto igniter, but they sell one for 130 dollars as an add on. I just don't know how reliable they are, or how well they work with the thermostat. It also has the connections for a thermostat. I read somewhere( I can't remember where) the thermostat has to be compatible with the stove. I have no idea where to look for such a list.

As for the larger hopper, my stove also has a fifty lb hopper. However, I work 24 hour shifts. My goal is to be able to leave the stove run on low during that period, and not run out.

If I am going to start doing this, I am also getting something like adt to hook the fire alarm into the system.

Right now I'm just looking and thinking about it.

 

[Madcodger]

I sort of have the opposite problem in that I can't seem to set my Quest's damper low enough to allow for a feed rate on low. I would like to turn the stove down to the "barely burning" point sometimes, just to avoid having to turn it off after the room gets warm. But it burns so well that even with damper on low it can burn up pellets. Great when you want heat, but wish I could turn it down even more. I wonder if a different grate would hold the pellet coals a bit longer and allow for this rather than letting them slip through the slats?

We also have a Mt Vernon AE so I have both ends of the tech spectrum. I'm not sure which I prefer sometimes!