Need help with quad Castile insert (again)

[kirkj]

I love the stove. It's beautiful and works fine except for cleaning the firepot. The cleaning rod opens the firepot floor just fine and the floor appears to be clean. The problem is when I attempt to close the floor, the rod does not close the floor completely. I have scraped the opening and the floor, but that doesn't seem to help. What does work is to continue to open and close the door many, many times. Suddenly, apparently by accident, it closes. I am convinced that it is not a problem with dirt, but I am stumped. Any help would be appreciated as I'm tired of spending more time closing the floor than it took to clean it. Thanks.

[jtp10181]

You can slightly losen the bolt holding the door on. Not too much though. Also you can take it off all the way and scrape it REALLY good.

[sysint]

I never open the door anymore. I simply vacuum it out. It helps to wait after it cools down... but since I vacuum everything weekly it's not a big deal to clean out the firepot.

[peirhead]

I have read that running some corn through the stove periodically will help burn out the deposits on the bottom of the quadrafire burn pot...no experience yet personally as I am still waiting for my castile to be delivered!!

[kirkj]

Thanks peirhead, but I'm not a corn burning guy.

[kirkj]

Thanks sysint. That seems to work. Do you use a special vac? I haul in the shop vac to do it, but that's not convienient. I looked for fireplace vacs and they seem to run around $250 which seems like overkill.

[kirkj]

You can slightly losen the bolt holding the door on. Not too much though. Also you can take it off all the way and scrape it REALLY good.

I did that, it's better but not good. Maybe I'm afraid to loosen it too much.

[sysint]

Normal shop VAC. I usually keep the small end on and smash up the clinkers. It works well.

I recommend a bottle brush for the upper tubes. And, when you are cleaning the back compartments try not to suck up the roping...

As far as this model goes I'd like high fire- medium fan setting, better fit, better OA intake (dedicated), and better idea with that front glass.

All in all it has been solid for what it does. Much better so far then their Mt. Vernon experimenting on the customer product line.

[jtp10181]

I am working to fix a Castile with a similar problem, might be worth checking. I noticed when the forepot floor is opened it actually hits a lip in the back of the stove which then lifts it up slightly. This causes it to jam up when trying to close it. I am going back next week to double up the firepot gasket which was suggested by Quad.

[sysint]

I noticed after having this unit a few seasons it "moves around" a little (heat/cool).

[kirkj]

Thanks guys. I'd be interested to know how the double gasket fix worked.

[jtp10181]

Thanks guys. I'd be interested to know how the double gasket fix worked.

It will only work if you are having the same problem. Watch your door underneath when you open it and see if its hitting that lip in the rear.

[rebeltown]

I have also experienced a sticking fire pot door and found that the culprit is the lip in the frame near the end of the path of travel of the door. My stove is 10 yrs old and I never experienced this problem until this year. I tracked the problem down to the fact that the floor of the firebox that the fire pit sits on tends to warp or sag. I found this out when removing the fire pot to replace the gasket underneath it. Doubling up the gasket will temporarily fix the alignment problem with that lip at the end of the travel path of the fire pot door and prevent sticking. But if your fire pot door returns partially and then sticks it's probably due to ash deposits on the door or the rim around the bottom of the fire pot that needs to be cleaned. Loosening that fire pot door bolt will give a bit more clearance.