B. Troubleshooting Table
With proper installation, operation, and maintenance your wood burning appliance will provide years of trouble-free service.
If you do experience a problem, this troubleshooting guide will assist you or a qualified service person in the diagnosis of a
problem and the corrective action to be taken.
Start Fire Problems
Possible Cause
Solution
Can not get fire started
Excessive smoke or
spillage
Burns too slowly
Not enough heat output
Not enough kindling/paper
or no kindling/paper
Use dry kindling, more paper. Arrange kindling & wood for air
movement.
Not enough air for fire to
ignite
Check for restricted termination cap
Check for blockage of outside air kit (if installed).
Check for flue blockage.
Pre-warm flue before starting fire (refer to Building a Fire
Section).
Check for adequate vent height.
Open window below the appliance towards the wind.
Wood condition is too wet,
too large
Use dry, seasoned wood (refer to Seasoned Wood Section).
Bed of coals not
established before adding
wood
Start with paper & kindling to establish bed of coals (refer to
Building a Fire Section).
Flue blockage such as
birds’ nests or leaves in
termination cap
Have chimney and cap inspected and cleaned by a certified
chimney sweep.
Down draft or negative
pressure
Competition with exhaust
devices
Do not use exhaust fans during start-up.
Open window below the appliance towards the wind.
Activation button not
pressed when starting fire
Press activation button and ensure that the indicator light
turns solid green.
Actuator on air control
did not move to full open
position
In all cases the air control will move to the full open position
after pressing the activation button. A visual check of this
may be in order or follow the field diagnostics guide.
Blinking red light indicated
on activation button
This is indicating a fault of a component in the appliance.
Refer to the diagnostics guide to analyze the blinking and to
diagnose further. Do not operate appliance.
No AC power to appliance
Check breaker box and ensure both ends of the power cord
are plugged in underneath.
Low Batteries or NO
batteries placed in battery
backup appliance
Low voltage of the battery pack or lack of batteries in the
backup battery pack will not allow operation of system if
regular AC power is not available. Replace batteries.
Air control disconnected
from actuator due to
previous disconnecting
If the air control was disconnected due to no regular AC
power/ no batteries or low battery voltage condition then it will
be necessary to reattach the air control to the actuator.
35
Quadra-Fire • Pioneer III Owner’s Manual • 4182-900 • Rev D • 08/19
