Yet another Big E problem

woffman · Nov 23, 2008

I have a 2006 Big E. I have gone through 2 convection blowers in the first two years and now this! It feeds pellets, but will not ignite. When the burn pot overflows it stops and the #3 light flashes. This just started happening overnight one night while the pellet stove was working in on/off mode on a thermostat. I figured it just needed cleaning so I cleaned the inside, burn pot, interior chambers, and complete chimney. It has plenty of pellets and feeds pellets normally so I know the auger is working. I have tried adjusting the damper, but that doesn't help either. I usually don't have to mess with it and leave it in the same position. There is 5 volts at the POF disk, and it is open when I disconnect the brown wires from it so I know it is okay. I know it is not the high limit disk because it doesn't work even when cold and I have metered it to be closed. The fuse is good on the control board as I have metered it to be closed. There is not a blockage in the igniter tube and is clean from the inside. The firebox is completely seated and the burnpot is pushed to the rear of the firebox. Here's where I'm trying to figure out the troubleshooting according to the manual. It says to put power directly to the igniter element, how much power do I try? Is it just a straight 120 AC Volts. I have checked power coming out of the control board and it is sending 40 Volts AC to the ignitor. This is coming directly from the board. Should it be 120 Volts AC? If you could help me with troubleshooting in any way that would be great because I can't find anybody to service it and I'm without heat in my basement! I really don't want to spend $400 on a new board either if I can help it. Would it just be a bad transformer on the board by chance?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

buildingmaint · Nov 23, 2008

you can lite it with a propane torch and run it on manual until you fix the ignitor

kinsmanstoves · Nov 23, 2008

woffman said:
I have a 2006 Big E. I have gone through 2 convection blowers in the first two years and now this! It feeds pellets, but will not ignite. When the burn pot overflows it stops and the #3 light flashes. This just started happening overnight one night while the pellet stove was working in on/off mode on a thermostat. I figured it just needed cleaning so I cleaned the inside, burn pot, interior chambers, and complete chimney. It has plenty of pellets and feeds pellets normally so I know the auger is working. I have tried adjusting the damper, but that doesn't help either. I usually don't have to mess with it and leave it in the same position. There is 5 volts at the POF disk, and it is open when I disconnect the brown wires from it so I know it is okay. I know it is not the high limit disk because it doesn't work even when cold and I have metered it to be closed. The fuse is good on the control board as I have metered it to be closed. There is not a blockage in the igniter tube and is clean from the inside. The firebox is completely seated and the burnpot is pushed to the rear of the firebox. Here's where I'm trying to figure out the troubleshooting according to the manual. It says to put power directly to the igniter element, how much power do I try? Is it just a straight 120 AC Volts. I have checked power coming out of the control board and it is sending 40 Volts AC to the ignitor. This is coming directly from the board. Should it be 120 Volts AC? If you could help me with troubleshooting in any way that would be great because I can't find anybody to service it and I'm without heat in my basement! I really don't want to spend $400 on a new board either if I can help it. Would it just be a bad transformer on the board by chance?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Forget the thermostat and run it in manual on a set level #2 or #3 does not matter. put the damper at approx. half way and leave it alone once it is adjusted. See what happens.
I have never had a disk go bad but I have seen a lot of bad boards. A board is not $400.
To check the ignitor unclip the igniter wires and put AC to it and see what happens.
Let me know.

Eric

travlnusa · Nov 23, 2008

I run mine on manual all the time as I do not have a t-stat hooked up.

Try turning it off, moving slider to manual, and then turning it back on.

I have read here that if you must shut it down , then move switch, to get board to see the new setting.

woffman · Nov 24, 2008

buildingmaint said:
you can lite it with a propane torch and run it on manual until you fix the ignitor

Do I just light the pellets with the door open, close it, and then turn the stove on???

I'll try the manual start tomorrow night as it's all apart right now! Thanks for the help guys!

travlnusa · Nov 24, 2008

Once you get this behind you, you will be very happy. I have a Big E, and after getting the finer points of the stove from this website, I only have one problem.

My house is to warm. It is in the mid 70's main level and upper 60's upstairs. This is at setting #2 and outside temp around 20 or so.

The coldest outside so far this year has been 8 above and it was 66 degrees inside again at setting #2.

We are saving the upper settings for when winter really gets here.

foldsct · Nov 24, 2008

As a matter of fact, I just turned my Big E down.

I'm starting, FINALLY, to get the hang of it. Not there all the way, but I'm learning.

I can't believe I'm WARM !!!

LOL

travlnusa · Nov 24, 2008

Forget the thermostat and run it in manual on a set level #2 or #3 does not matter. put the damper at approx. half way and leave it alone once it is adjusted. See what happens.
I have never had a disk go bad but I have seen a lot of bad boards. A board is not $400.
To check the ignitor unclip the igniter wires and put AC to it and see what happens.
Let me know.

Eric[/quote]

Eric,

For future refrence, what is the cost of a control board? I did not buy via a dealer, but rather had a odd chance to but it.

Thanks

Bob

kinsmanstoves · Nov 24, 2008

travlnusa said:
Forget the thermostat and run it in manual on a set level #2 or #3 does not matter. put the damper at approx. half way and leave it alone once it is adjusted. See what happens.
I have never had a disk go bad but I have seen a lot of bad boards. A board is not $400.
To check the ignitor unclip the igniter wires and put AC to it and see what happens.
Let me know.

Eric

Eric,

For future refrence, what is the cost of a control board? I did not buy via a dealer, but rather had a odd chance to but it.

Thanks

Bob[/quote]

I have a few on backorder. They cost $258 suggested retail, once they come in. Please remember I do offer a Pellet Pig or VFW Member discount.

Thanks
Eric

woffman · Nov 26, 2008

Just for future reference for anyone else having problems, it is a bad board. It should have 120V coming out of the board in order to ignite the igniter. I've just been lighting it with a torch like suggested and turning it on low and leaving it there. If I'm actually in the basement I turn it up for a little while, but so far leaving it on #1 has proven okay. I'm thinking about just leaving the bad board in and hooking up a switch going right to an outlet and turning the switch on to light the igniter and then turning it back off when lit, but I might just use a torch from now on. It was nice to have it in on/off mode for the spring and fall because it only ran once in awhile when the weather was some what brisk in the morning and then shut off the rest of the day. But I'm not paying $250 for a board that will probably fail again anyway.
Thanks for all the help guys!

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