Alert - Harman - Crazy startup issue on first fire of the year!!!

[lbcynya]

So I fire up my Harman XXV (2008) for the first time tonight… Squeaky clean from a thorough Spring cleaning. Patiently sit and wait for smoke then sparks then fire… Wait, nothing’s happening… Burn pot feels warm, pellets aren’t igniting. Must be a bad igniter, so I go ahead and replace it with my spare. Get cleaned up and give it another try, same exact result… Really, do I have a bum igniter fresh out of the package? Get my meter out and the board is delivering 2 1/2 A at 120 V which seems appropriate for an already warm igniter… Go outside and check the exhaust which had a plastic cap on it all summer so I know it’s not blocked. Noticed that there was a little air coming out of the exhaust. How can that be? I don’t have a very long exhaust system for the stove and it’s 4 inch, so I know there can’t be any blockage. Take my fresh air intake off and it doesn’t seem like any air is going into the stove. Stick my finger inside the intake and there is a metal flapper which apparently seized closed causing no air to enter the stove. When I tapped it with my finger it was enough to break the seal and the stove took off like normal.

So, the moral of the story, if you have a Harman pellet stove and you’re having a really lazy burn or failure to ignite after summer, take your fresh air intake pipe off (if you have one) and make sure the flapper is moving freely before you do any additional troubleshooting. Not super easy to get to and I feel bad for the insert people, but it’s one more thing to keep in mind if you have issues.

I guess I’m starting the season off with a fresh igniter and will save the old one as a back up…

 

[bogieb]

Glad you got it figured out and didn't spend too much money (as opposed to say, a new board) before figuring out that the fix was a freebie.