Ignitor is not getting enough yoltage

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.
P

purple29

New Member
Dec 16, 2012
13
NH
Hi

My quadra fire Mt vernon insert is not getting enough voltage. I ohmed out the ignitor because that was my first thought and I am gettin 36-40ohms I put it into startup mode and checked the voltage and I am only getting 92-94 volts.

What should the voltage be?? 120V I am guessing?
What could be making me loss voltage?

any help would be great I suck at electrical stuff!

It wont let me edit the title =(
 
Hi smwilliamson

If I wanted to check the control board powersupply before ordering one how would I do that? and what mode should the pellet stove be in? can I check in any mode or does it have to be in startup mode?

and $450 is not that much when I pay $1500 for a tank of oil.

Thank you
 
Did you chk the voltage coming into the house or even on the line the stove is connected to?A loose connection at the outlet or at the breaker or too much of a load on that circuit could account for a low voltage reading.Years ago my house being the last on the line feeding my street the incoming voltage would be low at certain times of the day.Burnt out 2 washing machine motors before the problem was solved.The power company had to put in a new transformer.
 
urkiddin said:
Did you chk the voltage coming into the house or even on the line the stove is connected to?A loose connection at the outlet or at the breaker or too much of a load on that circuit could account for a low voltage reading.Years ago my house being the last on the line feeding my street the incoming voltage would be low at certain times of the day.Burnt out 2 washing machine motors before the problem was solved.The power company had to put in a new transformer.
Click to expand...

I will go check those it could be the circut for that breaker I just had to reset my water softener system
 
purple29 said:
119-121V AC


I went thru the all my basement breakers and reset them just to make sure and I reset all the GFIs.
Click to expand...

Guess that leaves out an external problem.must be in the stove.
 
With out seening the PCB I image the out put to the ignitor goes either threw a relay or triac. Those 2 items either work or don't work. I would check the connections, clean them real good small wire brush and a solvent. If there are clean and your getting 117VAC or around there then I would try a new ignitor not the PCB. This is my experiences working in electronic and not pellet stoves.
 
4Dtvman said:
Un plug one side of your ignitor and check the voltage again at start up, let us know
Click to expand...

So I unpluged one side of my ignitor and checked only one side I got 1V AC and I repeated on the other side and got 20V AC,??? I then re checked both leads and I only got 90V AC all while in startup mode. I am not sure why I would check only one lead or if I did it correctly. I have a FLUKE multimeter with a red and black leads, I used the red led to check the one lead coming from the ignightor and didnt connect the black one to anything.

Look guys I am a mechanical engineer and I am a women I really suck at electrical stuff but I am trying to trouble shoot this my BF is out of the country or he would be doing this he is the electrical one. I just want to see if I can troble shoot this so I can order parts for him so they are here when he gets home and he can just replace them. So the more description you can give me the better.

Thanks for All your help so far btw =)
 
I think what 4Dtvman means is to connect one lead from you fluke to one of the wires to the igniter and than the other lead to a ground source(can be the frame on the stove) and see what the voltage is.One wire will be a neutral so the reading will be low.The other should read around 120 -121 or so.
 
urkiddin said:
I think what 4Dtvman means is to connect one lead from you fluke to one of the wires to the igniter and than the other lead to a ground source(can be the frame on the stove) and see what the voltage is.One wire will be a neutral so the reading will be low.The other should read around 120 -121 or so.
Click to expand...


Yes what he said. As I said before, the big problem I see in my field is dirty connections which is enough to drop that voltage. The other problem is the iginator. Even though you measured 30 40 ohms it still could be bad. The resitances changes as the elment heats up. But my money is in the dirty connectors.

After doing those steps and if you are REALLY careful you can jump the input voltage ( the hot side ) to the igintor hot side and see if it turns on. You can use your fluke meter. Put the meter on current (10A scale) change the wires to the scale that way it's a short going threw the meter and also you can check the current at the same time. Please be careful. Normally the black wires are the hot side.
 
urkiddin said:
I think what 4Dtvman means is to connect one lead from you fluke to one of the wires to the igniter and than the other lead to a ground source(can be the frame on the stove) and see what the voltage is.One wire will be a neutral so the reading will be low.The other should read around 120 -121 or so.
Click to expand...

Thank you for explaining this to me so I rechecked the voltage to the ignitor and it is 120-121V AC when I ground out to the frame of the stove, I guess I will put the new ignitor in just to be sure, while doing this I will shut down the whole system and clean the whole stove.

Thank you I will post if tis works or not.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SmokeyTheBear
purple29 said:
Look guys I am a mechanical engineer and I am a women I really suck at electrical stuff but I am trying to trouble shoot this my BF is out of the country or he would be doing this he is the electrical one. I just want to see if I can troble shoot this so I can order parts for him so they are here when he gets home and he can just replace them. So the more description you can give me the better.
Click to expand...
Don't worry about it. I'm a civil engineer and every time I have to think about electrical I get a shooting pain through my head. You should be able to get some step by step help here. I find keep a bottle of Glen Livet 18 year old single malt and a bottle of crown royal rye on hand and find it helps whenever I have an electrical problem. I drink the single malt and let a buddy of mine who is an electrician deal with it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: purple29
TLHinCanada said:
Don't worry about it. I'm a civil engineer and every time I have to think about electrical I get a shooting pain through my head. You should be able to get some step by step help here. I find keep a bottle of Glen Livet 18 year old single malt and a bottle of crown royal rye on hand and find it helps whenever I have an electrical problem. I drink the single malt and let a buddy of mine who is an electrician deal with it.
Click to expand...

LOL!
Most people don’t know this but 99% of all equipment and machines are built with Estrogen sensor in them so the minute I get near them they stop working. The only machinery that these sensors are not built in are the obvious “washing machine & dryer and the dishwasher” hehehe.
I am going to try and change out the ignitor since I have one on hand.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mralias
Doesn't everyone have a ignitor laying around in case they have to change it?? Welcome to the site, and hopefully you'll never need the services again. Just follow it and enjoy the fun.
 
There is no such thing as a AC power supply. That's what i do for a living, high voltage DC 240 with high current up to 800 amps. That control board just passes the ac along. As I said before clean your connectors before you spend any money.
 
Can you manually light it for now??
 
4Dtvman said:
There is no such thing as a AC power supply. That's what i do for a living, high voltage DC 240 with high current up to 800 amps. That control board just passes the ac along. As I said before clean your connectors before you spend any money.
Click to expand...


Th Mt Vernon AE takes 120 volt AC and changes it to 15 volt DC for everything except the igniter.

Eric
 
purple29 said:
Well That didnt work Looks like it is the control board power supply :'(
Click to expand...

If you have 120 volts going to the igniter than it should work unless the power supply is failing when a load is applied.If you have an electronics store around maybe they can check it out for you.personnally i light mine with a propane torch even though i have an igniter which i can switch on or off.Of course that won't work if your running on a t/stat.
 
kinsmanstoves said:
Th Mt Vernon AE takes 120 volt AC and changes it to 15 volt DC for everything except the igniter.
Click to expand...
Based on the Voltage behavior I would guess that the igniter is controlled by a triac. A blown triac can present Voltage under no load (leakage) but be unable to turn on properly on command. I doubt that it has anything to do with the power supply, but I have no idea in what part of the system they put the triac.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

J
Mt Vernon AE drop tube burned thru
Replies
0
Views
768
The Pellet Mill - Pellet and Multifuel Stoves
Jay LeDan
J
J
Harman Absolute 63 Blown Fuse Still After Some troubleshooting
Replies
8
Views
928
The Pellet Mill - Pellet and Multifuel Stoves
Iburnslow
Iburnslow
BGStG1aholic
Harman XXV ignitor hardly works and starting via firestarter gel is a bearcat
Replies
9
Views
1K
The Pellet Mill - Pellet and Multifuel Stoves
MarkF48
MarkF48
T
Quadrafire Mt Vernon Please help!
Replies
0
Views
524
The Pellet Mill - Pellet and Multifuel Stoves
Tone828
T
K
Quadra-Fire Castile not starting up
Replies
9
Views
1K
The Pellet Mill - Pellet and Multifuel Stoves
maraakate
maraakate
Top Bottom
Back