I'm unlucky enough (to my mind) to have two pellet stoves, both of which are now inoperable. I'm hoping someone can help me figure out what's wrong with the one I rely on most, since we have some single-digit days coming up, and I'm about ready to cry.
The other day, the Quadrafire Castile (freestanding) started making this horrible noise; not the normal rattling from the stupid sheet metal, but a constant urrrrrrrrrr kind of sound. When the noise woke me up at 5 am this morning, I decided it was time to turn the stove off, clean it thoroughly, and remove the convection blower at least for a good dust/cat hair removal program.
I did those things, unplugged the two wires to the convection blower, cleaned it out, reinstalled it, and tried to start the stove back up. Nothing--red light, blue light, no motor movement. Remembering that, every year, the first light up doesn't work because of some nonsense with the vacuum switch, I unscrewed that piece from the back, and as it slid into my hand, the auger motor started. Weird, I thought. Went to put it back, auger motor stopped. After a few tries with this, I noticed a blue spark coming from one of the connections to the combustion blower. I unplugged the stove, touched the wire and found that it had come unplugged and was just barely touching for its connection. I reconnected it, thought all would be well, and plugged the stove back in
Presto! Pellets feeding, everything seems happy. But 10 minutes later, no ignition. Start over. Three times. Nothing. I pulled out the ash pan and found that the ignitor was cold enough to touch.
The man of the house took a quick look at wiring and couldn't find anything amiss. Connections for the ignitor are fine. We lit it manually, which worked, but now the blower really isn't coming on and the death rattle continues. The stove is only 4 years old; I just can't figure out how so much could go so wrong all at once. Help!
The other day, the Quadrafire Castile (freestanding) started making this horrible noise; not the normal rattling from the stupid sheet metal, but a constant urrrrrrrrrr kind of sound. When the noise woke me up at 5 am this morning, I decided it was time to turn the stove off, clean it thoroughly, and remove the convection blower at least for a good dust/cat hair removal program.
I did those things, unplugged the two wires to the convection blower, cleaned it out, reinstalled it, and tried to start the stove back up. Nothing--red light, blue light, no motor movement. Remembering that, every year, the first light up doesn't work because of some nonsense with the vacuum switch, I unscrewed that piece from the back, and as it slid into my hand, the auger motor started. Weird, I thought. Went to put it back, auger motor stopped. After a few tries with this, I noticed a blue spark coming from one of the connections to the combustion blower. I unplugged the stove, touched the wire and found that it had come unplugged and was just barely touching for its connection. I reconnected it, thought all would be well, and plugged the stove back in
Presto! Pellets feeding, everything seems happy. But 10 minutes later, no ignition. Start over. Three times. Nothing. I pulled out the ash pan and found that the ignitor was cold enough to touch.
The man of the house took a quick look at wiring and couldn't find anything amiss. Connections for the ignitor are fine. We lit it manually, which worked, but now the blower really isn't coming on and the death rattle continues. The stove is only 4 years old; I just can't figure out how so much could go so wrong all at once. Help!
