Bosca Soul Won't Ignite

Heftiger said:

This stove does have clean outs. I cleaned those out too. I'll try the leaf blower trick to see if I can get more ash out.

I had the local "stove experts" here last week to install the igniter and clean the stove. Needless to say he didn't do a great job. And he told my wife "tell your husband he'll never get it to ignite, the Bosca's don't work". Now I'm even more determined to get it working.

Click to expand...

Get up and above those clean-outs and around and through the heat exchangers. From those clean-outs towards the center of the stove behind the firebox wall. If that rear firebox wall is steel and not cast iron a few whacks with a hammer on a piece of wood against that wall will loosen up crap stuck behind it.

LordmetalZ28 said:

Sounds like there Is some know defect with that model stove. You should research that stove maybe theres a quick fix

Click to expand...

Sounds like the local "expert" wants to sell him a stove.

Have the same stove and will make a recommendation that will sound so stupid......make sure the burn pot is inserted the right way.High side of the pot towards you and pushed all the way towards the igniter.

I was stupid enough to insert it the wrong way which keeps the igniter from doing its job but pellets still drop in fine. Took me a few hours to figure it out.

Oh and I love our 700. Using it with Green Teams has made it even better.

The photo of the cartridge heater glowing red hot looks normal. The tip won't run as hot as the rest of it.

I have a Bosca as well. Like the above post indicates, make sure that the burn pot liner is installed correctly into the burn pot.

The photos below depict correct orientation. Also, the tip of the igniter should not be flush with the end of the tube it is installed in. It should be set back inside the tube about 0.125"

You do have the igniter centered in the tube and secured with the 2 set screws, right?

Your setup looks fine

It is open in the back just like mine.

Not sure what else it could be.

The board has triacs that apply voltage to the igniter. They can go bad and not apply all 120 volts. Check the leads with a volt meter on startup to see if it's getting 120v

Smokey is likely the on the right track in that the stove is not getting draft enough to pull air through the igniter tube. Stove is several years old and if the passages are clean the next culprit could be failing gaskets on the doors.

No
I meant to say 4 setscrews

My mistake

New gaskets?

I usually just take a piece of gasket from the project to the store to buy what matches. Have a couple good home and farm stores that stock most gasket sizes around here and more reasonable vs the fireplace stores. Have very good luck with graphite impregnated rope that has made it way to retail market in the last couple years.

You have the hopper lid closed during startup right?

Other than that, start checking and replacing gaskets where necessary. Don't forget to make sure the igniter is getting 120v at startup (triac suggestion from earlier post).

Most dampers do not completely block the air flow.

What the initial setup for that stove is I haven't a clue.

And to go along with Bioburner poor gaskets and seals can absolutely ruin the air flow through the air intake.

I would start with the damper 1 # 2 pencil width open, new gaskets at every spot there are gaskets in the intake air path plus the door and I still would not count out ash in the works from the burn pot out through the vent system. I keep harping on ash in the works simply because I've seen what is inside a pellet stove that is a couple years old and was not properly cleaned.

Back a couple of seasons ago I was contacted via PM by a woman on here that was having absolutely no luck in getting her stove even half way running, she had even had the flue professionally cleaned (whatever that means). The crap in flue was simply pushed into the area where the vent transitioned to vertical just after the combustion blower.

While it is possible that your igniter isn't firing on all sections it looked fine when you posted the picture and as long as you haven't positioned it so it blocks the air flow going into the burn pot the stove should light, while it is possible for a triac to fail the normal presentation would be full on or full off.

To bad you have no way to check the rpm of the exhaust fan to see if its spooling up to speed.

I will say this just one more time.

From the pictures you posted above there is still ash in the works.

The air flow enters the burn pot through the hole that the super heated air does that will light the pellets.

In order for there to be an airflow that can light the pellets the internal passages in the stove below, above, and between the heat exchanger tubes all the way on both the left and right sides of the stove, from there down behind the rear wall on both sides of the stove and at the bottom of both sides of the stove and towards the middle of stove then out to the combustion blower cavity must be clean.

Thumping on the rear walls of the firebox after removing any fake bricks, using a hammer striking a block of wood held against the firebox wall until the area behind it is clear of ash. If you have not done this kind of cleaning at a one ton interval on a regular basis you will likely need to repeat the cleaning operation several times as the ash will bond to the metal all along the internal air passages due to moisture condensing during the off season. This ash can become rather hard to remove without elbow grease and a means to poke at it.