quadrafire cb1200i incomplete startup

[sherriM]

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I have a cb1200i with a problem. 3yrs old and the fan would shut off numerous times during the
Heating cycle. Also am having a problem with nuisance shutdowns at ignition. They replaced
The snap disc and control box. The fan keeps running now, but the stove starts to light the pellets and shuts down before they light. There is 4-5 blackened pellets and a cup of unlit ones on top. Hitting the reset button always lights it fine. We replaced the igniter yesterday and still have problem. Doing this 3-4 x a day or 2-3 days it will work fine. Any suggestions?

 

[northeast puller]

If that stove is similar too my classic bay 1200. I had the same problem. It turned out that when I pull the burn pot dump rod the little flapper door to the ash pan was not closing tightly all the time. So the igniter was not starting the pellets all the time. Stick your hand in the front of the burn pot and comfirm that the door by the ingniter is closesing completely. I pulled my pivot rod a part and it was all rusted up . I wire brushed it put a little dap of never seize on it and for the most part has been trouble free. When I clean it at the seasons end I splash some WD 40 on it and pull the dump rod open and shut a couple of times.

 

[tjnamtiw]

First question> Have you adjusted the feed gate in HIGH HEAT mod to have a flame that is 4 to 6" in height on average?

Second question> On your control box, do you have a green or red light showing while the stove is running and the fan shuts off numerous times?

Third question> In your firepot, is the slot directly in front of the igniter clear? Are all of the small holes (mine has 8) clear. Not the big holes but the small holes at the bottom of the sloped section and around the bottom of the pot.

Fourth question> When the stove is burning, is the flame lively and jumping up or is it lazy?

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Your thermocouple end needs to be against the cover and the whole assembly needs to be a certain distance inside the lip of the burn pot.

All burn pot holes must be open. Your stove air input must be clear. The fuel gate must allow pellets to be picked up by the auger. The auger must turn properly.

The venting must be clean.

Which fan is stoping during the heating cycle?

 

[DexterDay]

I would suspet the ignitor if it wasnt lighting..
BUT, You said you replaced it and its still happening. My next guess, is feed gate is closed to far and not letting enough fuel into pot for start-up, so the 2nd start (when you hit reset) sends another portion of pellets down the chute.

As for the blower shutting off. Sounds like a faulty snap disc. The insert has snap discs in different locations than the freestanding.

How far open/closed is the feed gate? And have you adjusted the flame height on High like stated above? Or do you run on a lower setting than High??

When was the last time you cleaned the ash trap in the back of the stove (by combustion blower)??

 

[sherriM]

The fan seems to be working good after they replaced the snap disc. The light in the control box is green when it first starts and turns red after about 3min of running. When it shuts itself down there is only the red call light on, nothing else. I've never run it on high setting always on medium which is what service tech wanted it on. I have an active flame when running (4-5 in). The service tech was here again yesterday and he had a mirror that he looked into the burn pot and checked the closing/opening of the pot and the opening for the igniter and holes in bottom. He put a new ignitor in thinking it might have a crack and wasn't heating up consistantly. I also put on a new honeywell thermostat and all new wiring for that. I've adjusted the feed rate out a little more and it gets a huge flame at startup that settles down after running for a few minutes. When it doesn't start and I have to hit the reset, I always dump the pellets out of the burnpot first ( I don't like the way huge fire it makes with them in there) So I start with a normal batch of pellets. All of the maintenance was done in September before I started for the season and that's when I started having problems for the 3rd heating season. This has always done it.....Not something new. Just got tired of hitting reset and waking up to a cold house in the mornings.

 

[tjnamtiw]

Even if you run on a lower setting than HIGH the stove MUST be adjusted for the flame height on HIGH and then it will feed the proper amount on the lower settings.

Your service tech should read the owner's manual, which says how to adjust the flame height. If you have a 4-5" high flame on medium, then you will feed too many pellets on high. These stoves will run all day long on high, if need be. There's no reason to limit yourself to medium like the tech wanted.

 

[sherriM]

The thermocoupler is sticking into the firebox about 3/4" and the end of it is touching the end of the ceramic cover. I've just shut it down to recheck the holes in the botton of the box and am going to run it on high and I'll readjust the pellet feed then also. The service tech took the cover off the auger motor yesterday and checked that it was running right and pulling pellets up. I'm getting a good flow of pellets into the pot with the feed gate adjusted for the medium setting. The fan that was stopping about midway through the heat cycle was the blower fan to send out to the room. It was stopping for about 30seconds and starting back up and running for 1 min and repeating itself through the rest of the cycle. I haven't noticed it doing that since he replaced the snap disc and the control box. I'll repost after I've done all of the sugestions above and when/if it quits again.

 

[rparker]

Have the CB1200 freestanding. Had startup / shutdown issues for a while until I found the likely culprit. The push-on wire connection to snap disk #2 was loose. Getting intermittent connection so it was hard to follow the cause. A little pinch on the wire connection (with stove unplugged) and now runs fine.
Sometimes (not always) it really is that simple.