Harman owners, P-38 people, stand down.

Good advice Eric, thanks

Well exactly how many cycles are these ignitors good for? One of the selling points was that it wouldn't have to run 24/7, just when needed. Though it seems to never shutdown anyway, just goes into a low burn. I do turn the mode dial to off, let the stove cool down, and then scrape the pot and clean the glass daily. So it is at least needing to re-ignite once a day.

lordgrinz said:

Well exactly how many cycles are these ignitors good for? One of the selling points was that it wouldn't have to run 24/7, just when needed. Though it seems to never shutdown anyway, just goes into a low burn. I do turn the mode dial to off, let the stove cool down, and then scrape the pot and clean the glass daily. So it is at least needing to re-ignite once a day.

Click to expand...

U actually shut down to scrape?

samm6 said:

lordgrinz said:

Well exactly how many cycles are these ignitors good for? One of the selling points was that it wouldn't have to run 24/7, just when needed. Though it seems to never shutdown anyway, just goes into a low burn. I do turn the mode dial to off, let the stove cool down, and then scrape the pot and clean the glass daily. So it is at least needing to re-ignite once a day.

Click to expand...

U actually shut down to scrape?

Click to expand...

Yes, I wait for the fire to die down(still coals going though) then scrape it before the combustion fan goes off, the stove is still warm, but also to avoid cleaning the glass when its hot. I may wait several hours to turn it back on, depending on how warm the house is. I guess i don't understand why the stove has to be going 24/7, unless people like burning more pellets for nothing. I was actually hoping this stove would be able to turn on long enough to heat the house, then shutdown by itself for several hours, before turning back on.

One of the main selling points of the stove is the ability to start and restart if necessary a few times per day. I have never run mine that way, because I am afraid for the ignitor. I really like to run these stove the best when the temperature drops and only shut them down once per week for cleaning. I always flip over to manual.

kinsman stoves said:

I guess it comes down to the price of a new ignitor (parts and service call) every 3-5 years or the price of pellets that you burned on a trickle setting (about a pound an hour) when the stove would have been shut down.

Eric

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So how much is the ignitor? I most likely would change it myself, if its not too involved. But calculated on what you said, its about $300-$500 of burned pellets, or maybe have to replace the ignitor.

EDIT: I checked, the part is only $100, it doesn't look like much, I assume its simple to replace. I might as well buy one as a spare, still cheaper than burning thru $300-$500 of pellets, or more.

This is one of those issues where if you ask 6 people their opinion, you'll get 6 different answers. Does it take more pellets to restart the stove on a very cold day, then get it up to temperature after it's been off? Some people swear by stove temp mode during the really cold part of the winter, others say room temp is better. Who the heck knows? It takes some experimenting to know what you should set stove temp on because it doesn't consider the temperature of the room, just the stove. I thought my stove was quieter running in stove temp. Try it yourself and you can tell if you are going through pellets quicker with one mode than the other. If that doesn't sit well with you and you don't care about the ignitor issue, run it in room temp.

Running a pellet burner on minimum burn for hours isn't the best option ether.