Quadra-Fire Pellet Stove PLEASE HELP!!!

[DesertCloud]

I recently moved into a house that has a quadra fire santa fe pellet stove. The serial number is 0071641661 and it has the clear type control box.

When the landlord fisrt showed me how to use it it worked great. The auger dropped about 10 to 15 pellets to start and it would drop between 1-4 pellets afterwards about every 30 seconds.

Then something happend. One day I turned it on and nothing happend. I tried resetting the hopper, unplugging it, taking all the pellets out, cleaned the whole damn thing. Then I noticed that something clicked on and off if I wiggled the t-stat back and forth. If I pushed the lever of the t-stat towards me, it came on. So I used a small pice of wood to hold it forward so it would connect and run. Then when it went to start from being cold, the auger would run for about 45 seconds and put in alot of pellets, (about 1-1/2 cups), and after the fire got going the auger turns about every 5 seconds and alot of pellets drop, about 10 at a time. The feeder thing in the hopper is on the lowest possible setting.

If I don't keep a very close eye on the stove, sometimes the fire gets completely out of control and a rumbling harmonic can be heard. It scares the hell out of me so I shut it down when it does that. I drop the ashes in the fire pot after each use. I clean the inside every 3 days. Every time I pull the lever to dump the ashes it is real hard and usually doesn't want to be pushed back in. I was told to use a tiny bit of water inside the fire pot to make it move freely. I never dump the ashes when hot.

Anyway, if someone could please tell me what the problem is? My landlord will not come over to look at the stove and it is my only source of heat. I can fix myself, I just need to know what to do.

Thanks!

[wytcld]

Two things to try:

A different brand of pellets - some work much better in a Santa Fe than others, both in how fast they feed and whether they build up too much in the pot.

The pellet stove forum at hearth.com - there are some seriously knowledgeable people there, very friendly too.

[wytcld]

Another thought. That's a wall thermostat? If so, any standard thermostat will work, including the ones that sell for $20 or so at the big-box stores - some of which have the advantage of being programmable by time of day.

[elhigh]

Another thought. That's a wall thermostat? If so, any standard thermostat will work, including the ones that sell for $20 or so at the big-box stores - some of which have the advantage of being programmable by time of day.

This is just me, but if there was ever a thermostat to avoid, it's the Rite-Temp programmables with the Energy Star program pre-installed. That's from Home Depot, don't know if Lowe's tries to foist that off on anyone.

I'm a pretty smart guy, and I could not figure out how to get past it. I finally yanked all of them out and installed Honeywell PRO6000s.

[wytcld]

I finally yanked all of them out and installed Honeywell PRO6000s.

Got a couple of programmable Honeywells on sale for $20 each at HD a couple of years ago. Nice simple interface. Not sure of the model or if it's current. Regular HD price was maybe $8 higher. One of those has been running my Santa Fe pellet stove since and doing fine with it.

[Bobscatz907]

I had a similiar problem with my 3 yo Santa Fe. It would drop alot of pellets and that rubbling sound!!!!!! It scared the hell out of my cats and dogs both.The wife too! LOL! I did switch to a better low ash pellet and it works alot better now.