THE LOW DOWN ON ELECTRIC IGNITORS:

Electric igniters use a 110 volt nicrome resistance wire encased in a high tempurature ceramic insulator that is prone to damage by physical shock or bending of the steel tube that surrounds the ceramic.

What happens is that the ceramic cracks & while the ignitor will still continue to function, the crack widens until eventually the nicrome wire touches the outside steel tube making a short to ground. This causes vastly increased current flow which burns out the nicrome wire leaving you with a open circuit.

The life of your ignitor is the condition of the ceramic insulator inside the steel tube & the condition of the ceramic is weather the ignitor steel tube was ever bent, or dropped or hit or bumped into,
either before or after installation. Subjected to any physical shock thqt might crack the ceramic.

The ceramic insulation also has a upper temperature limit ,over which it will not withstand more heat. This is determined by the grade of ceramic insulation and the length of “ON”
time of the ignitor.

The length of on time is determined by the computer control board of the stove & I am sure that stove mfg know how long a “on” cycle they can have without premature breakdown of the
ceramic insulator inside the ignitor.

I used to repair electric stoves for a living, so it is not a new question for me.

4 burner rings, & a bake & broil element , so looking sideways at it, you might say that
an electric range has 6- 240 vac ignitors that it uses to cook with & a pellet stove has 1 – 120 vac burner ring that it uses for ignition.

Manuel opperation vs wall thermostat opperation 11/1/08 new update

I just got off the phone with the mfg teck support for my pellet stove concerning my wanting to install a wall thermostat on my pellet stove so that I could let it run all night & the pellet stove would cycle on & off, from fire to no fire.
Aside from the wall thermostat costing $175.oo, I learned that the ignitor lifespan of 4 to 5 years on manuel opperation drops down to 1 year or less on wall thermostat opperation, because of the repeated off/on cycles
7 to 12 per night so that the electric ignitor sees 5 years worth of use in only 1 year of wall thermostat use.

The ignitor for my stove runs $90.oo +ship + handling + tax + installation , so this could be $160.oo a year
and I’m not sure that the thermostat could save 160.oo worth of pellets per year unelse pellets get a lot more expensive, which they probably will.

Anyways ,if $175.00 for a thermostat (one time only) & $160.oo for (an ignitor on a yearly basis) is ok for your budget, then a wall thermostat would be ok for you. I might install one when pellets go to $12.oo/bag because at that price, it would be cheaper to change the ignitor on a yearly basis.

There is also the option of setting up the thermostat so that it cycles from high pellet feed rate to low pellet feed rate, without opperating the electric ignitor so that the electric ignitor will last 4 to 5 years, as it does on manuel opperation.

This would provide a cycling between high heat & low heat, if that works out ok for your location. In my house
low pellet feed rate produces a 80 deg house when I wake up in the morning. So that wouldn’t help me at all.
Your situation might be very different, depending upon the heat output of your pellet stove & the size of your house.