Harmon XXV feeds but won't light - updated

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dogugotw

New Member
Sep 27, 2009
20
Central NH
I've been using my stove for a week or so and it's been working just great. This morning, I cranked it up a bit to take the chill off; pellets feed, the ignition led is on, but no fire.

About a month ago, I did a good cleaning of the stove - scrapped the inside, cleaned the burn pot, vacuumed out the igniter area, pulled the back off, removed fines from the feeder (almost not btw), vacuumed the fan (also looked great), pulled the T fitting off and did what I could in the exhaust stack (nobody has 3" brushes so that'll have to wait a bit), then buttoned it all up and did a test run.

I run auto, room temp mode. This will be our 2nd year using the stove so it is almost exactly 1 year old (I think we got it in Nov/Dec last year).

I'll be re-cleaning the inside once the family is up. I've looked in the manual, and didn't find anything for this problem. I'm assuming that a blown fuse kills the whole stove so since everything else is running, that's not the problem. If I'm wrong and the fuse can kill just the igniter, let me know where the durn thing lives and I'll check it out.

I've searched the forum and the closed I found was someone who had a similar problem, but in that case the igniter led did not come on.

Is there anything else I should try/test/do before I call the dealer?

If it turns out to be a bad igniter, is that a homeowner fixable thing or should I expect the dealer to handle it.

TIA for any tips or advice.

Doug

Update 1 - cleaning didn't fix the problem.
Update 2 - I found the thread with directions for replacing the igniter; doesn't seem too hard so I'll give it a go. (/https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/35605/)
Update 3 - very glad it's not all that cold yet...
 
Even though I vacuum out the igniter area, I always take my finger and manually scrape ash from inside the area. Also, I tap on the igniter and fins to knock any build up off the top of the igniter, I have found that just using a vacuum does not get it all. Make sure your holes at the bottom of the burn pot are cleaned out. There are about 4 or 5 holes at the very bottom. These tend to get carbon build up and become hard to even see they are there. I have found that when those bottom holes are blocked, the stove becomes very hard to light.

Also, when you do vacuum, stick the vacuum hose right over those burn pot holes. A good vacuum will pull out some of the ash from off the top of the igniter and from in between the igniter fins.
 
Is the burn pot getting hot, check to see if all the wires are connected, you might have disconnected one of they when you were cleaning.
 
BxPellet makes a couple good points. Make sure that your burn pot is getting hot. If it is then make sure the holes in the burn pot are clear. The pellets light from air being pulled past the igniter to heat up and then through the pellets to ignite them. If the airflow is diminished by blockage your pellets will be hard to light or won't light at all. If you have a multimeter, you can check the resistance on the igniter against the specs.

If your igniter does turn out to be bad, Yes it is something that you can replace yourself if you consider yourself to be somewhat handy. If you decide to that, PM me and I can email you the detailed instructions for replacing it. Also, if you search the forum, you will find some info from previous posts on replacement.
 
BXpellet said:
Is the burn pot getting hot, check to see if all the wires are connected, you might have disconnected one of they when you were cleaning.
Click to expand...

No heat at all from the burn pot. I'll check the wires but I did the cleaning 2 or 3 weeks ago and the stove has been running fine up to last night.

Thanks for the suggestion.


The wires all seem to be connected. I pulled the left rear pane (the one that covers the air intake tube), found a blue wire/yellow wire pair coming out of the stove and up into the guts of the electro/mechanical stuff. Both seem to connect to other wires so I think they're OK.

Re-cleaned both the burn pot (got the holes at the bottom) and made sure the area where the igniter lives was dust free - knocked the igniter around a bit to dislodge anything on it.

Buttoned everything backup, still no joy.

Have not tried manually lighting. No starter fluid and no hand gel...

The store opens in 2 hours.
 
Along with checking the igniter, also check whether the flexible hose connected to the vacuum switch is still attached.
The vacuum switch is located above and to the right of the combustion blower motor. (when looking from the back of the stove)
I'm not sure if a disconnection at the vacuum switch will interrupt the ignition sequence, but it's worth checking.
I've knocked mine off once when cleaning the combustion blower and didn't realize it until replacing the back panels.
Just my $.02
 
cantman said:
Along with checking the igniter, also check whether the flexible hose connected to the vacuum switch is still attached.
The vacuum switch is located above and to the right of the combustion blower motor. (when looking from the back of the stove)
I'm not sure if a disconnection at the vacuum switch will interrupt the ignition sequence, but it's worth checking.
I've knocked mine off once when cleaning the combustion blower and didn't realize it until replacing the back panels.
Just my $.02
Click to expand...

Just checked, looks like both ends are connected. Thanks.
 
codebum said:
...If you have a multimeter, you can check the resistance on the igniter against the specs.

If your igniter does turn out to be bad, Yes it is something that you can replace yourself if you consider yourself to be somewhat handy. If you decide to that, PM me and I can email you the detailed instructions for replacing it. Also, if you search the forum, you will find some info from previous posts on replacement.
Click to expand...

No multimeter so that's a no go.
Somewhat handy...OK, I'll go with that. As we stand right now, the stove doesn't light. Worst case, when I'm done it still won't light (assuming I don't rip something else important out...and that NEVER happens!). I'll see what I can get from the dealer. If it looks like I'll be trying the replace, I'll send you a PM.

In the mean time, since I like to play...I did find instructions in the forum (turns out, they were posted by you! Thanks!) but now that I've looked at the whole thing, there are two pieces I don't get.

First - The instructions describe the igniter being held in place by two screws/bolts. I can't see inside the area where the igniter is located but I can't feel anything in there that feels like I can unscrew it. I see two screws on the lower left front side of the burn pot (just above the clean out port) but it doesn't feel like they're attached to anything on the inside of the pot. Are those the mount screws or am I looking at something else? If the screws are inside the area where the igniter lives, any tricks on finding them and getting them undone/redone (the redone part especially)?

Item 2 - The blue wire/yellow wire coming out the back - are the spade connectors for the igniter inside of the stove or are they outside in the back area of the stove? I believe that the igniter is disconnected from inside stove. Am I correct on that?

Thanks for the help. This is great.

Doug
 
THE ROOSTER said:
Manually light it!!! Use some hand sanitizer on top of the pellets if you don't have any fire starting gel!!! PLUS if it burns fine manually lighting it, then you'll know it's the ignitor !!!
Click to expand...

Just fired it up and it works great once it gets burning. Thanks.
 
Update - just got back from the dealer. No service folks on duty today and the sales people are sales people. Service will call me tomorrow and I'll go from there.

Thank you all so very much for your time and thoughts - it's been a huge help.
 
If vacuum switch is bad the pellets won't feed either. But if draft is marginal, when pellets cover the burnpot I guess there could be a restriction in flow which would open vac switch and prevent the ignitor from working.
So check to make sure the fresh air inlet is open this little flapper can get stuck, make sure it moves freely.
(FWIW when a stove is burning the draft will increase a bit though not much but can hide problems)

But I am leaning towards the ignitor too....
And codebum had a great thorough posting last season on Ignitor replacement.
 
...there are two pieces I don't get.

First - The instructions describe the igniter being held in place by two screws/bolts. I can't see inside the area where the igniter is located but I can't feel anything in there that feels like I can unscrew it. I see two screws on the lower left front side of the burn pot (just above the clean out port) but it doesn't feel like they're attached to anything on the inside of the pot. Are those the mount screws or am I looking at something else? If the screws are inside the area where the igniter lives, any tricks on finding them and getting them undone/redone (the redone part especially)?

Item 2 - The blue wire/yellow wire coming out the back - are the spade connectors for the igniter inside of the stove or are they outside in the back area of the stove? I believe that the igniter is disconnected from inside stove. Am I correct on that?
Doug
Click to expand...

Item 1: The two small bolts on the front of the burn pot are what hold it in. I think they need a 5/16" socket or wrench to remove. The igniter is part of a built on bracket. Those two bolts are going into the bracket holding the igniter/bracket in place.

Item 2: When you remove the two screws (mentioned above) and pull the igniter out through the access port at the burn pot, you will be able to disconnect the spade connectors from there. Make sure that when you install the new ignitor, that all of the blue/yellow wire is pulled to rear from in back of the stove. The instructions will detail this.
 
codebum said:
...there are two pieces I don't get.

Item 1: The two small bolts on the front of the burn pot are what hold it in. I think they need a 5/16" socket or wrench to remove. The igniter is part of a built on bracket. Those two bolts are going into the bracket holding the igniter/bracket in place.

Item 2: When you remove the two screws (mentioned above) and pull the igniter out through the access port at the burn pot, you will be able to disconnect the spade connectors from there. Make sure that when you install the new ignitor, that all of the blue/yellow wire is pulled to rear from in back of the stove. The instructions will detail this.
Click to expand...

Excellent. Now all I need is the igniter...

Thank you!
Click to expand...
 
I had a similar problem with my XXV. The ignitor was bad so my dealer provided a new one which I installed a few weeks ago. You have to access the back and pull out the plug the ignitor wire go through so you can get enough slack to disconnect and then reconnect the plugs. Then make sure you pull the wires all the way back so the connectors are up against the plug. I fired my stove up yesterday for the first time since replacing the ignitor and everything appears to be fine. Took less than 30 minutes to fix.
 
codebum said:
BxPellet makes a couple good points. Make sure that your burn pot is getting hot. If it is then make sure the holes in the burn pot are clear. The pellets light from air being pulled past the igniter to heat up and then through the pellets to ignite them. If the airflow is diminished by blockage your pellets will be hard to light or won't light at all. If you have a multimeter, you can check the resistance on the igniter against the specs.

If your igniter does turn out to be bad, Yes it is something that you can replace yourself if you consider yourself to be somewhat handy. If you decide to that, PM me and I can email you the detailed instructions for replacing it. Also, if you search the forum, you will find some info from previous posts on replacement.
Click to expand...

The holes in the burn pot should not have to be clear, otherwise the stove had to be cleaned pretty much after each use. The real problem is that Harman use junk ignitors. I replaced mine last year, and now it seems to be broken again. Harman needs to get their act together and make available an ignitor that last.
 
Thought I should close this one out. It was the igniter. The seller sent out a service guy, he replaced the igniter, stove is working great now.
Interestingly, he said Harmon used to ship the stoves with the igniters installed, now they don't and require them to be installed during the stove set up. He wasn't sure about the quality issue so he neither confirmed or denied the 'crappy igniter' issue.
It looks like this one was a total freebie for me; so far, no bill for parts or labor so I'm a happy camper.
 
dogugotw said:
I did find instructions in the forum (turns out, they were posted by you! Thanks!) but now that I've looked at the whole thing, there are two pieces I don't get.
Doug
Click to expand...

Can you post a link to this, I don't have any problems, YET, but would love to read this and be prepared!!! THANKS...
 
dogugotw said:
THE ROOSTER said:
dogugotw said:
I did find instructions in the forum (turns out, they were posted by you! Thanks!) but now that I've looked at the whole thing, there are two pieces I don't get.
Doug
Click to expand...

Can you post a link to this, I don't have any problems, YET, but would love to read this and be prepared!!! THANKS...
Click to expand...

I did a search for 'igniter' and posted by codebum and found the posting:

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/35605/
Click to expand...

THANKS!!!
 
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