Quadrafire Castile random shutdowns

Help, pellet burning friends! I have a Quadrafire Castile pellet stove in the lower level of my house. It's been a great stove. My wife and I love it. It was in the house before My wife and I moved in. It was installed in 2013, so it's not that old. It's always been very reliable. It heats the downstairs like a banshee. But, in late November it started randomly shutting down. It will start up fine and run for anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour, then it will just stop dropping pellets. The remote still says "on" but it will just die out. I keep it exceptionally clean. There is no ash or soot buildup in it. I keep the pot clean. I keep the flu clean. I recently replaced the thermocouple. It's still cutting out on me. It's not making any weird noises. I'm thinking maybe it's the control box? I'm thinking about buying a new control box, but they are 190 bucks.

What do you all think?

 

It's late and I'm sure someone will pop in tomorrow. Hopefully sooner than later.
Welcome

 

Thanks, friend!

 

about 1:00 in.

 

That is a pretty stove Cash. Looks like the sun is coming up behind the moose! I don't know anything about pellet stoves, but I'd make sure that muley buck is dead. He might be messing with you when you ain't looking

 

Thanks, Smokey. What I got from that video is that it probably is the control box. But at least I feel better about dropping the cash to purchase a new one.

 

Ha ha. Thanks, Camber. My dad shot that deer with a 44 mag in 1977. If the 44 didn’t get him - old age probably has by now

 

NO,NO,and NO!

 

Try this, it is part way through the season ,maybe I just recently put a different batch of pellets in the stove and didn't adjust the feed or forgot the every ton cleaning , any way it is that time of the season for a dirty stove to show itself, hint,hint....

 

I already mentioned that the stove is clean. I completely disassembled it when it started acting up and cleaned it out. I’m good about cleaning it anyway, but you could eat out of that thing now. I’ve also been using the same pellets for over a year now with no problem.

 

I have heard both stories only to discover that the pellets were from different batches and that the stove wasn't so clean color me purple with pink stripes.

 

Could be vacuum switch or the nipple and/or hose going to it. Remove hose from the switch and blow through it ....you can also TEMPORARILY jump the wires together and run it for a bit and see what happens.

When was the last time you cleaned the vent?

If that is a wireless thermostat I would take that out of the equation also.

 

Hi friend! Yeah it’s a wireless thermostat. Thanks for the info. The vent is clean. I dismantled the whole housing and cleaned it out. Im telling you - This thing is spotless. I haven’t messed with the vacuum switch and hose yet. I must have overlooked that. I’ll give it a shot when I get home from work. Thanks again

 

Vacuum switch is on order. They are cheap. It wasn’t the control box. Already replaced that and still having the same problems. I’ll keep ya updated!

 

That's why we tell people to try the cheap things first.

 

Yeah. I hadn’t considered the vacuum switch until after I ordered the control box. All the internet research I did said it was the control box. Even my owner’s manual said it was the control box. The owner’s manual doesn’t even suggest a vacuum switch for the problem I’m having.

 

I had this same issue on my Harman 52i. It turned out to be the simplest issue to fix. There was was a plastic strip in the hopper from a pellet bag obstructing the flow of pellets to the auger.
So question is, have you complely emptied the hopper and vacuumed it out? I hope it's that simple for you rather than headaches and cash.

 

Yep. That was one of the first things is did, when I began having this issue.

 

Possibly thermocouple over the fire pot . Sometimes the wire is bad or! not all the way into the ceramic cover .