I'd been having trouble with the Empress not starting by itself and then shutting down due to no-fire. I could start it just fine with the torch, and thought I'd have to buy an ignitor.
Turns out that wasn't the problem. I'm always one to spend money as the last resort (could be the Scot in me). I'd had a lot of very early days and so getting the stove going in the quickest amount of time so that I could get out of the house was important. So I'd just started it with the torch, and promised to come back to it later.
The fourth time it happened, I took the 20 minutes to troubleshoot it, and here's what I found. Now, I clean out the burn pot liner every morning before I start the stove, but I hadn't been dumping out the burn pot itself. After all, it's the liner that always needs the attention.
But look here - in the time between I'd removed the burn pot liner, the vibrations of me checking the rest of the stove has caused pellets to fall down into the burn pot itself. And I didn't see this when I replaced the liner. (Hey, it was dark, and I was working in the dark!)
In the Empress, there's a port in the burn pot liner for the ignitor's highly-heated air to come in. BUT if the burn pot liner doesn't sit all the way down in the burn pot, those holes won't line up... and no self-ignition.
The pellets were keeping the burn pot LINER from settling all the way down into the burn pot itself. I couldn't see that it hadn't settled all the way down because it was being held up from the back. The burn pot liner looked OK when the stove was running.
Moral of the story: Dump BOTH the burn pot and the liner, then watch as you reassemble - the vibration of your work can knock pellets down into the burn pot...
Hope this helps somebody else out.
Turns out that wasn't the problem. I'm always one to spend money as the last resort (could be the Scot in me). I'd had a lot of very early days and so getting the stove going in the quickest amount of time so that I could get out of the house was important. So I'd just started it with the torch, and promised to come back to it later.
The fourth time it happened, I took the 20 minutes to troubleshoot it, and here's what I found. Now, I clean out the burn pot liner every morning before I start the stove, but I hadn't been dumping out the burn pot itself. After all, it's the liner that always needs the attention.
But look here - in the time between I'd removed the burn pot liner, the vibrations of me checking the rest of the stove has caused pellets to fall down into the burn pot itself. And I didn't see this when I replaced the liner. (Hey, it was dark, and I was working in the dark!)
In the Empress, there's a port in the burn pot liner for the ignitor's highly-heated air to come in. BUT if the burn pot liner doesn't sit all the way down in the burn pot, those holes won't line up... and no self-ignition.
The pellets were keeping the burn pot LINER from settling all the way down into the burn pot itself. I couldn't see that it hadn't settled all the way down because it was being held up from the back. The burn pot liner looked OK when the stove was running.
Moral of the story: Dump BOTH the burn pot and the liner, then watch as you reassemble - the vibration of your work can knock pellets down into the burn pot...
Hope this helps somebody else out.
