Ignigterphobia

A thought to ponder

F4jock said:

The term I've coined to describe those of us who insist that switching our igniters to MANUAL saves them Soooooo much igniter life. Here's a question for you: Have you considered leaving your car running when you are on errands so you can spare the use of your starter motor? Why even use the igniter at all?

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Yes, I have done this, but not to save the starter motor, but to keep the car warm when I get back to it 5 - 20 mins later, it's been too darn cold not to have it running, also helps melt that white crap off the car and allows me to operate my windows (darn ice locks them up tight).

If the stove does it, why not use it?

Do you save any electricity bye not having your igniter coming on and off all day? Or are you saving electricity by not having the stove running constantly. Just wondering?

On manual because the time it takes to get back to temp is a major swing. The ESP does a great job with our setup at keeping the slab at around 68 or so. Could not have designed the system any better. If its below freezing out the stove goes to manual.

Ill agree I had ignitor phobia since joining this forum. I relized how non logical it was to worry. All parts break sooner or later. Let em run

I've never experienced ignitorphobia because I've never had a stove with an ignitor..........

I experience hand sanitizer phobia and Sternophobia instead.

Maybe someday if I live long enough.......................sigh.

Never gets warm enough for the stove to turn off in the winter, unless I am cleaning it. I run a gas water heater also in conjunction most the time.

Only with temps regularly in the single digits / low teens during day and lows in negative do I put stove in manual, room temp (switched it over this past weekend). That is to keep the other end of the basement from getting a large temp swing - which also helps keep the floors of the rooms over that area warmer too. When the temps warm up, I'll put it back in auto. Never understood why people were paranoid about using auto.

I do exactly what Bioburner does just because a small maintenance fire in cooler temps will not hurt a thing but also keeps more of a constant warmth longer. Stove still ramps up and down just like in auto mode. I like the manual only because the maintenance burn keeps heat pumping and less time to get right back to where it left off. Any savings in pellets when it stops using them while off in auto is a moot point because some will be burned during the maintenance cycle but MORE will be burned to get the temps back up from cold to warm. It's not really any trade off there IMO for saving fuel. Keeping the homes core mass more steady requires less umph & energy to get it there from colder swings. Think about thermal mass in concrete floors like Bio and I have. They are a BTU sucking PITA to get up to speed but require little to maintain said speed.

Mine can take a lot of heat and wood to get up in temp once they are cold vs. smaller hot cycles to maintain them. Kind of like pushing a car uphill so you can coast down the other side. It takes much less energy (aka: heat ) if your car stays on top of that hill waiting to coast down maintaining enough energy to arrive at the top of the next one.

F4, I believe that it truly is a phobia. Great thread title BTW! Once colder temps hit the fire tends to throttle down and back up before completely going out anyway so the igniter isn't used again. I feel many people think that their igniters just constantly cycle whether needed or not which is NOT the case even while running in auto ignite. Just like glow plugs in diesel engines. They are used to fire and start but remain dormant once engine is running. In the shoulder seasons it will cycle more IF your stove goes out after temps are met. Something (igniter) has to get the fire going again but they do not just come on for chits and grins only to wear out and force the purchase of a new one.

Another point for some thought is many debate that lowering your room distribution blower saves pellets. OK.......... I am sure an argument can be made that in theory this practice cools the heat exchanger faster. Have fun proving that with any sizable or real significant numbers! I am very good with losing all three of those said pellets to keep my distribution blower on high throwing out all of the heat it can with the already burned pellets that were just sent out the exhaust anyhow. How many pellets are in the 40 lb. bags again? I don't think losing 3 will rock the boat much.

My point is that even running in auto the igniter ONLY fires when it needs to regardless. It just simply does not fire up on timed cycles just because it's time. Second point is that the distribution blower pushing out MORE heat is not killing anyone's MPG's either. The evil igniter wanting you to replace it just because and the frivolous pellet sucking distribution blower is a MYTH. I think Big Foot steals more pellets and runs around with static in his fur shorting igniters prematurely. I might not be the smartest kid on the short bus for the mentally challenged, but logic, fact, and fiction I do understand.

Now who's up for some debate on the overall wing span and speed the Tooth Fairy can fly with all of those baby teeth on board?

bags said:

I do exactly what Bioburner does just because a small maintenance fire in cooler temps will not hurt a thing but also keeps more of a constant warmth longer. Stove still ramps up and down just like in auto mode. I like the manual only because the maintenance burn keeps heat pumping and less time to get right back to where it left off. Any savings in pellets when it stops using them while off in auto is a moot point because some will be burned during the maintenance cycle but MORE will be burned to get the temps back up from cold to warm. It's not really any trade off there IMO for saving fuel. Keeping the homes core mass more steady requires less umph & energy to get it there from colder swings. Think about thermal mass in concrete floors like Bio and I have. They are a BTU sucking PITA to get up to speed but require little to maintain said speed.

Mine can take a lot of heat and wood to get up in temp once they are cold vs. smaller hot cycles to maintain them. Kind of like pushing a car uphill so you can coast down the other side. It takes much less energy (aka: heat ) if your car stays on top of that hill waiting to coast down maintaining enough energy to arrive at the top of the next one.

F4, I believe that it truly is a phobia. Great thread title BTW! Once colder temps hit the fire tends to throttle down and back up before completely going out anyway so the igniter isn't used again. I feel many people think that their igniters just constantly cycle whether needed or not which is NOT the case even while running in auto ignite. In the shoulder seasons it will cycle more IF your stove goes out after temps are met. Something (igniter) has to get the fire going again but they do not just come on for chits and grins only to wear out and force the purchase of a new one.

Another point for some thought is many debate that lowering your room distribution blower saves pellets. OK.......... I am sure an argument can be made that in theory this practice cools the heat exchanger faster. Have fun proving that with any sizable or real significant numbers! I am very good with losing all three of those said pellets to keep my distribution blower on high throwing out all of the heat it can with the already burned pellets that were just sent out the exhaust anyhow. How many pellets are in the 40 lb. bags again? I don't think losing 3 will rock the boat much.

My point is that even running in auto the igniter ONLY fires when it needs to regardless. It just simply does not fire up on timed cycles just because it's time. Second point is that the distribution blower pushing out MORE heat is not killing anyone's MPG's either. The evil igniter wanting you to replace it just because and the frivolous pellet sucking distribution blower is a MYTH. I think Big Foot steals more pellets and runs around with static in his fur shorting igniters prematurely. I might not be the smartest kid on the short bus for the mentally challenged, but logic, fact, and fiction I do understand.

Now who's up for some debate on the overall wing span and speed the Tooth Fairy can fly with all of those baby teeth on board?

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I have to admit I am one of those who feels that a Higher blower speed uses more pellets.. a full blower speed will reach set temperature quicker but at pellet exspense I would assume.
same as an A/C Compressor will cycle more[ or longer on high speed due to not being able to keep up with the blower demand.
basically blowing the cold air out faster than it can produce it....Maybe.
But I could be all wrong..about the pellets...I would like to be wrong in this situation.

Tonyray said:

I have to admit I am one of those who feels that a Higher blower speed uses more pellets..
same as an A/C Compressor will cycle more[ or longer on high speed due to not being able to keep up with the blower demand.
basically blowing the cold air out faster than it can produce it....Maybe.
But I could be all wrong..about the pellets...I would like to be wrong in this situation.

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I also believe that a higher fan speed does in fact use more pellets on a Harman. The esp regulates stove exhaust temp. More airflow across the heat exchangers extracts more heart from the firebox and therefore stove needs to feed more pellets to keep the esp satisfied.

F4jock said:

Depends on the mode you are operating in. See above.

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So which is the more economical mode to use higher fan speed?

mepellet said:

I also believe that a higher fan speed does in fact use more pellets on a Harman. The esp regulates stove exhaust temp. More airflow across the heat exchangers extracts more heart from the firebox and therefore stove needs to feed more pellets to keep the esp satisfied.

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I imagine so if you are using stove temp, but I don't think that applies for using room temp. I used 1/2 bag yesterday while I was at work keeping the basement at ~75F, in room temp, manual light, with the fan up high (where it always is) in a mostly un-insulated basement. I left at 5AM and got back home sometime after 5PM - the temp at that time was 5F (so highs were at best, low teens). I used another half a bag overnight, same settings and at -15 at 4 AM. If I used a couple more pellets from fan speed, I'm good with that.

bogieb said:

I imagine so if you are using stove temp, but I don't think that applies for using room temp. I used 1/2 bag yesterday while I was at work keeping the basement at ~73F, in room temp, manual light, with the fan up high (where it always is) in a mostly un-insulated basement. I left at 5AM and got back home sometime after 5PM - the temp at that time was 5F (so highs were at best, low teens). I used another half a bag overnight, same settings and at -15 at 4 AM. If I used a couple more pellets from fan speed, I'm good with that.

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do u think you use more pellets in lower fan speed?

considering the ignitor seems to be the part most-often-replaced based on what I've read here, maybe it's justified?

F4jock said:

Have you considered leaving your car running when you are on errands so you can spare the use of your starter motor?

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No, but I've been known to push a car rather than start it (getting it out of the garage to wash it, etc.)

F4jock said:

Actually it depends on how you run your stove. If you run in room temp it won't matter where you set the blower as the stove will put out enough heat to satisfy the temp probe and that only.

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Actually.....
The esp is still controlling the exhaust temp in room temp. The esp temp setting in room temp is dependent on temp difference between the room temperature seen by the room temp probe and temperature setpoint on the stove.

tiger said:

considering the ignitor seems to be the part most-often-replaced based on what I've read here, maybe it's justified?

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Lately it seems its the ESP on Harmans.

I feel very strongly both ways.