I purchased my home a couple of months ago and it has a Quadrafire Pioneer III. I have had several fires in the stove and the actual burning seems to go pretty well. I can't for the life of me figure out how the thermostat works (or if it does) and how the fan comes on... I have tried the thermostat at a high temperature and at a low temperature and it doesn't seem to make any difference in the operation of the fireplace. The next thing is the fan. It appears to work off of one of the thermocouples/heat sensors. There are two wires running out from the circuit board that are metal wrapped. I'm thinking they must go to a heat sensor. Anyway, the fan comes on after the firebox gets hot, though it sure doesn't seem consistent. Then it may run for a half hour to an hour, then it will turn off, then back on a while later... I think the first few times I had a fire the fan kept operating until the unit cooled down, but it goes on and off now. (not short on/off, but maybe 1/2 hour on, then off) The box is hotter than heck and may have a good fire going or good bed of coals. Does this sound like a circuit board problem, thermostat problem or ? Thanks in advance for any feedback. Oh... the local dealer retired and shut down his business... I'd also take any recommendations of someone to call.
How is the Pioneer III supposed to work? New owner..
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alforit
Feeling the Heat
It shouldn't be doing that, at least mine doesn't. Once it turns on and the fire is going good it'll stay on. It does sometimes go at different speeds depending on how hot im burning but never shuts off.
When I start a fire the fan doesn't come on until it's warmed up. I have the fan on low but if the fire gets roaring the fan automatically speeds up until it dies down some. Are you opening the door and not pressing the button before and after you've closed the door? I've had a smaller fire going and opened the door to throw a log on and not pushed the button and the fan has shut off. I believe its from the air cooling off the thermal couple thus telling the fan to shut off. But my fan stays on for the duration of the burn if i dont open the door or press the button. Sometimes after a big long fire the damper is closed for an hour or so and no fire is visible and the fan keeps running but the fire bo. Is still warm just no fire. I've also not had the fan turn on for over an hour when I made a small fire. Sometimes on the small fires the fresh air damper will close and I have to push the green button again. I know this is probably protecting it from creosote but I burned for 3 months just cleaned the chimney with only a small amount of soot.
I have a Pioneer III. I have read many reviews for the unit and most all say it produces tons of heat. I have the opposite result. The unit burns nicely and all but I get literally no heat from the fan. I used to own a Buck 81 stove at a previous residence. It was a wonderful unit with a 185 CFM fan and it would blow you out of the room on high. The Pioneer has a 400 cfm fan and you cannot feel any air on high more than 1 foot away from the front of the unit. Is this normal? I can't get heat in the room to raise more than a degree or two when using the unit. Granted the room is tall. My fan speed is on high. There is a thermostat connected to the unit but I can't see that is makes any difference what I set it to. Specs say up to 18 hour burn time but I can't get much over 5 hours from this unit. It's a huge disappointment. What am I doing wrong?
alforit
Feeling the Heat
Hi GVWP,
I sold my house in January that had the pioneer III in it that I had installed........ But I think I can still help you on this........ My house was the 3700 ft.² home with 20 foot ceilings in the great room........ that's where it was installed ........ I used double wall stainless steel chimney pipe all the way through the roof, which was about 28 feet....... That stove heated like I've never seen before and I've had many stoves..... I have no experience with the buck stove, but I've heard good things about it so I can't give you a comparison..... The fan that comes with this stove is not high powered by any means if that's what you're asking. But you can feel the air from about 10 feet away when it's turned on high........ the stove heated my home like none other that I've seen and pretty quickly....... it put out a lot of heat and I could feel it from my La-Z-Boy about 15 feet away in a room of 20 foot ceilings..... Keep in mind my house was a new build, and when the temperature dropped down below zero I did have to use the fan, but other than that, it wasn't necessary........ I honestly didn't really need that fan because of the amount of heat the stove was putting out, but I turned it on anyway because it would cause my wood mantle to get pretty hot if I wasn't blowing the hot air outward.
As far as Burn times go, I think that is overrated by Quadra fire. ...... I was getting about 7 to 9 hours with a full fire box box of wood....... But that was if I was putting it in East- West with 22 inch length splits........... if I loaded it north -south I could get 11 to 14 hours burn time but the splits had to be 11 to 12 inches length because the fire box is not that deep.
is your wood dry ? are you burning manually ? or using the auto burn with thermostat ?
I sold my house in January that had the pioneer III in it that I had installed........ But I think I can still help you on this........ My house was the 3700 ft.² home with 20 foot ceilings in the great room........ that's where it was installed ........ I used double wall stainless steel chimney pipe all the way through the roof, which was about 28 feet....... That stove heated like I've never seen before and I've had many stoves..... I have no experience with the buck stove, but I've heard good things about it so I can't give you a comparison..... The fan that comes with this stove is not high powered by any means if that's what you're asking. But you can feel the air from about 10 feet away when it's turned on high........ the stove heated my home like none other that I've seen and pretty quickly....... it put out a lot of heat and I could feel it from my La-Z-Boy about 15 feet away in a room of 20 foot ceilings..... Keep in mind my house was a new build, and when the temperature dropped down below zero I did have to use the fan, but other than that, it wasn't necessary........ I honestly didn't really need that fan because of the amount of heat the stove was putting out, but I turned it on anyway because it would cause my wood mantle to get pretty hot if I wasn't blowing the hot air outward.
As far as Burn times go, I think that is overrated by Quadra fire. ...... I was getting about 7 to 9 hours with a full fire box box of wood....... But that was if I was putting it in East- West with 22 inch length splits........... if I loaded it north -south I could get 11 to 14 hours burn time but the splits had to be 11 to 12 inches length because the fire box is not that deep.
is your wood dry ? are you burning manually ? or using the auto burn with thermostat ?
I have been trying for two weeks to get the company that installed the unit to visit to diagnose what is wrong. I am using good seasoned dry Black Locust and Oak split firewood. The wood burns beautifully. I have tried burning manually and with the auto burn. The thermostat, as far as I can tell, has no effect on how the unit operates at any temperature that I set. I have more luck in manual with getting a better burn time. I'm going to wait to see what the company who installed the unit says. Hopefully something simple.
alforit
Feeling the Heat
There is a thermal blanket at the top of the fire box inside the stove........ you're probably familiar with them. I'm guessing but it looks like a 2 inch thick insulation blanket....... just for curiosity can you check and see that that is in place and covering the whole top area?
Thank you for your input. I'm not able to see inside but I will pass this along when and if I can ever get the company that installed out to look at the unit.
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