Mt Vernon AE Pellet stove shut down

[Tracey]

Hoping someone can give me some info. I decided to try our stove today before the weather gets cold and the stove worked for a few minutes then shut down. I plugged the stove in it cleaned then started up. After a few minutes all power was gone. I tried a couple more times and it would start back up then shut right down. To me this seems major. I am just not really sure. I usually fix any problems with our stove as we have had one of these for years but this is a problem I have not encountered. The place we purchased it from is not pleasant to deal with. They don't always have a reliable person to check out my stove! Any info would be greatly appreciated!

[ashtree]

Hello Ms. Tracey

Not sure what area you are in, but the best thing to do is have the shop that you purchased the system from and or installed it come check it out. I understand that it may be a hassle

and not pleasant but someone that is trained to work on that system with access to parts and support will be your best bet. Not sure if you were aware but pellet systems need to be

serviced on an annual basis. I explain to customers a ton of pellet use is what we ask customers stick to as intervals. When was the last time you had your pellet stove serviced?

Reason I was asking is because I went on a call this past week on that exact same system, they hadn't had it serviced for 2-3 years and had issues that first year but no one touched it

till last week. thank goodness it was something simple (loose connection) but they just put up with the system not operating normally. One thing I am beginning to find out about

pellet stoves is that if they are not inline with regular service intervals, component failure will come in bunches. small stuff like gaskets get worn, the exhaust motor just spins in flue

byproduct and fails, and the interior just gets clogged with byproduct etc.. all that just makes that troubleshooting call a whole diagnostic spill of bad news that gets really expensive

pretty quick. So Ms. Tracey have someone go out, if you have had it serviced fantastic if not apologize but be prepared for expensive news.

[Tracey]

I live in Northern Indiana. I don't have much luck with competent service people in this area!!

Let me state that I am not a professional about stoves however I have had to deal with Quadra fire for years and so I have taken it upon myself to understand my stoves. I service everything myself because the service people that always come out don't know what they are doing. I clean my stove often.
I know that I will be calling a service person out because this is something I can't fix. I just get very upset when they send a person out that doesn't have a clue. One of the things that bothers me is that I can't call quadra fire and speek to them about my problem directly. That would save me some money on a service call.
Thanks for you quick response!

[darthvader]

Well you are in luck, as I am one of the best AE techs in the northeast(self proclaimed). first on the part of the stove shop, when you call stress to them that your stove is a AE and that you would like a person who is very familiar with the MT V. AE. I used to work with a stove shop where I was the only one in the whole business that had a clue in regards to the AE. And sometimes they would send out someone who was a wood tech or new to pellet stoves, so i know what you are feeling. But when they specifically requested a tech who knew about AEs they would always send me.

Now onto your stove, we have a pretty strict non diy policy in that i cant tell you how to fix it if something is mechanically wrong. But I do need more information. When you say you started it up, did you get flame? or are you referring to the motors started up, also on the wall control screen did it say start up? and when it shut down did it say shutdown? or did the motors just stop? and was the wall control blank.

[Tracey]

The stove started like normal. It went through the cycles for about 20 to 30 minutes then it just shut down completely. No power, blank wall control screen. We unplugged it and was able to try it again but it only lasted a couple minutes. We tried again later and it ran for about 30 minutes then shut down.
This morning I cleaned it, and checked the plug and the thermostate connection. I tried it a couple time this morning and it worked. The wall control is staying on.(I have the stove off but I have the wall control on for the temp)

[darthvader]

Sounds like you got it, those t-stat connections can be problematic. I would disconnect them and reconnect them to remove any corrosion. Also I have seen where the home owner has moved the stove to clean and pinched the wire with the leg of the stove, follow the wire from stove to wall/or wall control to make sure there is nothing pinching the wire anywhere.

[ashtree]

What Darthvader suggests is spot on, that call last week was a loose connection on the t-stat sometimes the screen would

blank out on occasion and customers didn't see it as too much trouble so they just put up with it, tightened connection

and just to make sure went thru the menu prompts on the t-stat to induce a problem and operate and agitate the system

but to no avail the system didn't act up. Just to cover bases I called tech support for service bulletins or additional steps

just to verify diagnosis. They said "t-stat connection could be the culprit as well as voltage drop/spike etc.." Additionally if

you pop off your segmented t-stat from the base gently you can check condition of the board like vader posted above

corrosion and white marks that look like white film or check for black spots or arc marks. When the t-stat has batteries

corrosion can occur quite often when they aren't changed out with fresh ones and or fail, the batteries leak etc.. with this

unit the ones I have seen the t-stat is hard wired to the unit and it provides the secondary. but good to check the smart

board on the t-stat anyways. Hope you find the problem.

[Tracey]

Well the stove has shut down again! I am not sure what to do. Can you guys tell me if the company Quadra fire has contact information for compatent repairmen in my area? I would really like to find someone that knows how this stove works. I don't have confidence in the the place we purchased the stove from. They have went through a few repairmen! I live in Northeastern Indiana.
The stove went through the cycles as it should to start up it ran for 40 minutes then completely shut down. I have checked the connections and all seem to be fine. I am not sure where to start?

[darthvader]

Ok, lets go through the cycles. So It cleaned the burnpot, dropped the pellets, the pellets lit, then the distribution/convection fan turned on. is that all correct?
then when it shutdown, did the screen go blank again or did it say shutdown on the screen?

[Tracey]

[QUOTE=darthvader;14315161]Ok, lets go through the cycles. So It cleaned the burnpot, dropped the pellets, the pellets lit, then the distribution/convection fan turned on. is that all correct?
The stove then shut down completely(no power) and the screen went blank.We unplugged the stove and tried again it just shut right off again.

[darthvader]

Ok, sounds like it is a bad connection with the T-stat wire, either at the stove or at the wall control. Disconnect the wire from the stove and reconnect them, this gives the clamp a new bite on the wire.
Then the wall control splits into two pieces(front and back) pull the front of the wall control off(there are four tabs two at the top and two at the bottom that need to be pushed in in-order to pull the front off) once the front is off, you will see the 3 wires as they come into the back of the wall control, remove those wires and re install to give the clamps a new bite, making sure that everything is tight. Re install front of wall control and try stove again. Also make sure your outlet is in good condition and that the plug is securely into the wall and stove. Make sure the wire are connected to their corresponding color.

Also just on a side note this isnt the issue here, but make sure everything is clean, read the owner manual to make sure you are cleaning everything properly.

[Tracey]

Checked the wires. The stove has started as of right now but we will see how long it runs! I have cleaned the stove per the owners manual. I probably cleaned more that what they say too.
I plan on getting a thermostat this weekend. I feel like I need to try one. If nothing else to have a spare on hand.
Will update if this doesn't work.

[Tracey]

Well that didn't work!! It ran for approx. 45 min. then the same. SHUT DOWN! Could it be getting to hot and shutting down? I really don't think it is It doesn't seem to run long enough to get too hot. I just don't know!

[darthvader]

when you say shutdown, is the wall control saying shutdown? or is it still going blank and the stove acts like it loses all power?

[Tracey]

The same as it has been the screen is blank, nothing! The stove loses all power. After reading over the manual and looking at the diagrams. I am wondering if it could be the power supply box? I am not sure that it is the thermostat? Something is causing it to lose power completely.

[darthvader]

yes it could be power supply, or motherboard. the reason I was saying about making sure the wire for t-stat were making good connection is that if the stove loses connection with wall control it will shutdown and the wall control will go blank because it gets its power from the stove(and its the cheapest and most common problem) however if you are confident in the connections. Next I would look at power supply then motherboard neither option is cheap. In which case it goes beyond the scope of this forum and you are back to square one of finding a competent repair service. If you do end up replacing the power supply or finding a repair service lets us know how you made out.

[Tracey]

Ok so this is what happened! I was told to call Quadra Fire from a serviceman. He told me to check to see if my stove had a bad board. I guess there was a batch of bad ones. Boy that was a mistake!! The man I spoke with was terrible. Have I said before how unhappy with Quadra Fire I am!! Ok now onto my stove. I called the store where we bought the stove. I finally was able to connect with a service person! His name was Nate and he is awesome!! He came right out and checked my stove. Only to be told that I had a wire lose. I checked and double checked I thought every connection but I was wrong! I wasn't the easiest connection to see but it was my own stupidity of not seeing it!! So hopefully we make it through a season without any problems!! I must say I have every confidence in Nate. I appreciated that he didn't make me feel like an idiot because of my mistake. Even though it clearly was my mess up.
I want to thank everyone one here for helping me. I really appreciate it!

[Tracey]

Well the stove is not fixed!! This is what I go through with this thing!! It is doing the same thing. I guess I am back to the beginning!!

[ashtree]

My last service call today was a clean and service on a Mt. Vernon AE and kept thinking about the problems you had. The customer had simlar issues but

didn't go into detail what the technicians did to remedy the problem. Tracey my suggestion would be to

call Nate back out, the bad thing about that is that your most likely going to have this gentleman stay for a long duration to actually witness the operation

fail etc... and make sure its on a weekday because more than likely this guy will have to speak with tech support etc.... to cover all bases. When there is a

problem as technicians we find the symptoms that lead to the main problem, most of the time we let the unit tell us whats going wrong by schematical

analysis, troubleshooting line by line, and testing all loads/switches/connections. When nate gets back in hes going to have to go through the whole

process of this with that system. And it wouldn't hurt to get familar with components and ask questions while hes going through it because you know your

system better than anyone else and doesn't hurt to get information that could help you out down the road. Don't get discouraged by the tech coming out

fixing the terminal connection and it working and somewhere down the line it went down again, it happens. Now you know that a 25-45 minute service

isn't going to fix the problem because as soon as he leaves the unit will go down again so make sure all avenues are traveled by tech and the unit is up

and running for a couple sequences, unfortunately its going to cost more than a normal service call. follow through any questions shoot me a message Good luck and have a nice one.