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mouser10

Quada Fire Santa Fe Pellet Stove

mouser10
14 years ago

We have had our Santa Fe for two years, have been very happy with it, and it has been trouble free. Two months ago it started woofing on start up with a high flame and a very pungent smell (like soot or ash and heated metal). Once the blower comes on, the flame goes to a normal flame and the smell dissapates. I called the dealer and talked to the service dept and was told that the the air holes were clogged and needed cleaning and to set the pellet feed control rod at a lower feed level. First, let me till you that I am fanatic about cleaning this stove. I clean the ash pot(and air holes), glass, and heat exchange rods daily. I scrape and vacuum out the whole area. Once a month I take the bricks and baffle out and scrub the heat exchange rods with a scrub brush to clean off the ash residue. I then vacuum all areas. We have used Lignetics pellets from the beginning without any problems. So I cleaned the whole stove once again and lowered the pellet feed control. This did not solve the problem. Called the dealer again and now we have had the service people out four times to no avail. They checked the stove out thoughly and said that there was nothing wrong with it and that it was one of the cleanest stoves that they had seen and that the air holes were not plugged. We still have a large flame up upon starting, woofing, and that pungent burning ash, soot smell. Once the blower starts the flame returns to normal and the smell slowly dissaptes. This happens every time the fire starts so the smell is now thoughout the house at all times. The chimminy and all piping were cleaned at the end of October. Has anyone else experience this type of problem? And if so, how was it resolved?