Very smokey ignition on Accentra

glockshooter · Oct 26, 2015

Ran a small test burn this past weekend, it was cool enough and late enough to make sure everything was decent before it got really cold. I noticed last season that my freestanding Accentra would start to take long to ignite. I never really timed it, but it was noticeably longer than I was expecting. I read people here saying they light in 1-2 minutes, I'm probably close to the 7-9 minute range.
If I sit and watch, I see pellets feeding, nothing really going till very late in the cycle. Then I get a wispy smoke that gets heavier and heavier. Eventually I get a heavy gray boiling smoke that totally fills the combustion chamber and puts a decent cloud out the stack to annoy the neighbors. After a minute or two of this, I got a heavy puff as the pellets light into a full flame. The combustion chamber goes totally clear, and the external smoke is minimal as the heat builds. I noticed once or twice last season it would actually push smoke through the seals into the living room as it lit. It was a concern obviously, between a smoke issue in the house and the fact that there's only a glass insert in a point to fail and extend to the house.
The stove is about 10 years old. In that time I changed the ignitor about 5 years ago. I'm burning Cheat River pellets now, and a decent mid level BBS pellet last year.
Should I consider replacing the ignitor or trying a manual ignition to see if that's the issue? When it went before, it totally went. I bought a replacement from my dealer so I believe the one in there is OEM.
Advice??
thanks in advance.

jackman · Oct 26, 2015

My stove does the same occasionally. A good cleaning including the vent stack and the igniter chamber usually takes care of any issues for me.

tonyd · Oct 26, 2015

Mine will do the same when there are to many pellets in the burn pot over the igniter. Not sure about the smoke in the room.

Peterfield · Oct 26, 2015

My Accentra does the same thing. You can throw a few handfuls of pellets into the burn pot before turning it on. In that way, the ignitor is heating up pellets right away and not waiting for the auger to feed the pot. A Harman technician advised me to do that. Cuts down the time from start to ignition and less smoke.

MuchoBueno · Oct 26, 2015

Peterfield said:
My Accentra does the same thing. You can throw a few handfuls of pellets into the burn pot before turning it on. In that way, the ignitor is heating up pellets right away and not waiting for the auger to feed the pot. A Harman technician advised me to do that. Cuts down the time from start to ignition and less smoke.

That's a great tip. I'll try that next time I shut off the oil burner and turn the stove on.

Bioburner · Oct 26, 2015

When was the last time you got new gaskets or at least tested them. A poor vacuum will slow down the the air through the pot and really slow down ignition too. After 5 years I had a big increase in ignition time so I replaced and time to fire was way better and pellet consumption went down a bit too.

mikesj · Oct 26, 2015

My p61a has also done this. the smoke ignites and once the fire starts it clears up. making sure the burnpot is reasonably clean seems to help. if i notice a bunch of extra pellets in the burnpot i will knock a few out- it seems to happen when it is overloaded.

AccentraRRT · Oct 27, 2015

Mine does the same. Doesn't matter how clean it is.
I will have to try the handful of pellets trick next time.

glockshooter · Oct 27, 2015

I haven't checked the gaskets, I research that today. Currently the stove is about as clean as I can get it, and I think I did a pretty solid job at end of season last year. Tonight I should be home long enough to make starting it worth while, I'll check the gaskets and try the manual loading trick and see what that does.
Thank you all.

glockshooter · Oct 27, 2015

In all honestly, it may be nothing. I'm just looking at it as a firefighter, thinking "smoke is fuel" when that kicks off and thinking it's more than it should be. I found my old post about the ignitor, it's been in since 2012. Might look for another one and see if that makes any difference.

F4jock · Oct 27, 2015

Sounds more like a draft problem to me. Combustion fan may need cleaning or a voltage adjustment. If I remember my manual the recessed white pot on the control board controls this. I run with mine cranked WAO. People get technical about draft, using manometers etc, and although I have one, I found adjusting the screw and evaluating the results empirically worked fine for me.

If you want to lessen the amount of pellets in the firepot the first three dipswitches on your board control the initial start feed time. I have mine running for about a minute thirty after which my time to fire is consistently under a minute.

Finally, as suggested, make sure the exhaust is clean.

glockshooter · Oct 27, 2015

Did the dollar bill test when I got home. 1 spot in the bottom questionable, the rest is tight enough I was afraid of tearing the dollar. I put a few handfuls of pellets in the pot, fire in 5 minutes. Dancing fire and burning clean now.

Bioburner · Oct 27, 2015

What about the ash bin door?

glockshooter · Oct 28, 2015

It's an Accentra, only 1 door. Ash bin is inside that.

stoveguy2esw · Oct 28, 2015

not real familiar with the Accentra's design but you are taking too long to ignite and building too much fuel over the igniter port before ignition. if the igniter sleeve is "adjustable" it may have gotten moved somehow to where its no longer "bore-sighted" to the igniter hole in the pot. this can drastically reduce the amount of energy on the fuel thus increasing start times.

F4jock · Oct 28, 2015

Have you tried removing the igniter from its mount (Leave it connected but unplug the stove.) cleaning it and repositioning it? You can also try repositioning the first three dipswitches to have a little more or a little less pellets fed on a cold start before auger stop and evaluate that.

tiger · Oct 28, 2015

Peterfield said:
My Accentra does the same thing. You can throw a few handfuls of pellets into the burn pot before turning it on. In that way, the ignitor is heating up pellets right away and not waiting for the auger to feed the pot. A Harman technician advised me to do that. Cuts down the time from start to ignition and less smoke.

Clever and, based on my other topic on Accentra ignition, might be worthwhile to try among the other fixes offered. My smokes like this (not to the point of smoke in the room, however) once in a while.

F4jock · Oct 28, 2015

tiger said:
Clever and, based on my other topic on Accentra ignition, might be worthwhile to try among the other fixes offered. My smokes like this (not to the point of smoke in the room, however) once in a while.

By any chance does it do this when the weather is very cold or rainy and the air is more dense? If so it could be that it's having a bit more trouble establishing a good draft.

Rather than tossing a handful of pellets into the thing which seems kind of counter-intuitive to what is supposed to be an automatic operation, take a look at the thread I just posted on dip switch settings. Maybe you can adjust your DIP switches to do this instead of you having to be there and be the automatic tosser.

glockshooter · Oct 28, 2015

I'm thinking Saturday was the first instance, if I remember it was damp and cool. Yesterday was drier. I'll see if I can pull the ignitor and see what shape it's in. I remember having issues with it previously. It's possible something isn't right.
Where do i look for the dip switches? I'd rather try that than shovel pellets in every time.

F4jock · Oct 28, 2015

Not hard to pull the igniter. Two screws. Just be careful as the wires will still be connected. Sometimes fun getting it back in.

Take a look at the control panel. Screws there to remove it but be gentle as wires will still be connected. Mine allows just enough slack to move it out about three inches. DIP switches are on the top rear of the board.

Be SURE the thing is unplugged !!!

So you, like my bride, are a devotee of plastic pistols?

glockshooter · Oct 28, 2015

Another 5 minute, minimal smoke ignition tonight. And its raining all day, although I did manually start the pot.
And a definite fan of the glock line, a 35 at home, and either a 27 or 23 with me. ?

Peterfield · Oct 29, 2015

F4jock said:
Not hard to pull the igniter. Two screws. Just be careful as the wires will still be connected. Sometimes fun getting it back in.

Take a look at the control panel. Screws there to remove it but be gentle as wires will still be connected. Mine allows just enough slack to move it out about three inches. DIP switches are on the top rear of the board.

Be SURE the thing is unplugged

So you, like my bride, are a devotee of plastic pistols?

Let's have a little respect and refer to them using their formal name, Tupperware pistols. I have a Model 23 that treats me well.

F4jock · Oct 29, 2015

Peterfield said:
Let's have a little respect and refer to them using their formal name, Tupperware pistols. I have a Model 23 that treats me well.

I prefer my Bretta 92 or Smith 1006. Fit my hand well and I like the heft although wife is a natural pistol shot and can do lots better than I. Even shoots combat.

F4jock · Oct 29, 2015

See above for my preferences. Never could get used to the feel of a Glock. Wife carries a 40.

NHcpa · Oct 29, 2015

From inside (door open), bottom left corner of gasket is chewed. New stove too.

Very smokey ignition on Accentra

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