theres a couple rasons why there might be too many pellets in the pot......the most common being that the stove didnt light on its first ignition cycle, and pushed more pellets into the post on subsequent cycles.......why does ths happen? usually a dirty igniter...almost always a dirty igniter......and scraping the burnpot frequently IS NOT cleaning the igniter at all....in fact, it might actually be forcing even more ash into the igniter area. That being said, it IS good practice to clean and scrape the burnpot......just dont forget to also clean the ignitor as well.
I clean the igniter often enough, I open it up to clean the fines out and vac with my Cougar ash vac with a rubber line attached for flexibility. Is there a better way to clean the igniter ?
9 years old.......probably fans getting tired.....the funny thing is, if the stove makes so much noise, how come the techs didnt say...."hey! thats yer combustion blower..."......or"thats yer distribution blower......"? Fairly easy to hear a noise and figure out whats making it....at that point, you can tell the customer how much the new part is, and give them the option of replacing it then and there, or waiting till the noise is really bad and relacing it then, or even selling the part to the customer and letting them replace it. Of course, there would also be the charge for the service call. We inform customers of what that charge is prior to coming out, so, its not a shock to them when you get there.
Exactly, the techs both said there was a problem , then when they could not find what they wanted they put it back together and said guess its ok. They also new of the other issues. Thats not a good pair of techs in my book .
As said before, noises are fairly easy to diagnose, but ACCEPTABLE noise is another matter. No two stoves will sound alike, due to the idiosynchracies of manufacturing, age of the unit, level of cleanliness, ambient noise in the home, the quality of the hearing and/or hearing aids of the end user and tech, etc. Unfortunately, there isnt a spec on how many decibels a stove can put out and have it be "acceptable", although I do like the idea, because it would solve the issue at hand as well......its either above or below the "acceptable" limit......if below, its no argument, no part gets changed, and the tech still gets his house call fee.....if above, the part gets changed out to be at or below acceptable limits, and the customer pays for the part and the house call....pretty simple (im assuming the stove is no longer under warrantee)...........still, the issue is a subjective one....whats acceptable?
The fact they said it wasnt right , and then changed their tune because they were stumped, or not qualified, is not acceptable.
My car analogy...I still stand by it. As machines age, they tend to make more noise, leak more fluid, and require repairs. Some of the things you might do yourself, some you hire a mechanic for. Now, if that mechanic made a house call to tell you your car is rattling due to a heat shield over your catalytic combustor, tells you it'll be $500 bucks to fix it,and you elect not to, he is still due his house call, even though he didnt fix it. Call me an arrogant a@@, or a dufus, thats fine, but hey, I did a service by coming out, finding the problem, and basically doing what the customer says. Pay me. (lol)
Not sure how this description applies, but they didnt fix anything , it was not that I chose to disregard their advice. They had none , I still paid. The stove has problems , the techs didnt know how to fix , which could be a safety concern for my family . But they didnt know what to do. Had they said , its you blower , that will be 500 bucks , I would say get it done.
In short, delayed ignition, as mentioned earlier, is nearly ALWAYS due to a stove which hasnt been maintained properly or PM'd properly, be it either the fault of the tech servicing the unit or the owner. That comes from the experience of working with quite literally thousands of stoves, as well as having received Harman tech training....but hey, im just a dufus.
