Great American Pellets - trouble igniting

[fyrfyter4]

About a week ago I bought 10 bags of Great American Pellets to try out. I burned 2 bags last week, and was really happy with them. They burned about as hot as the Stove Chow I've been burning, but with a lot less ash.

On Saturday afternoon I filled the hopper with GAPs a couple of hours before shutting the stove down for the night. When I started it yesterday morning, the pellets had trouble igniting. After about 20 minutes the stove shut down, displaying error code E2. The burn pot had a small pile of light gray ash/partially burned pellets. I unplugged the stove while I cleaned out the burn pot and checked the hopper. When I re-started the stove, I could see the igniter glowing; it seemed like the pellets were hard to ignite, but they finally did light. It also took a long time for the fire to spread across the width of the burn pot. But this time the stove did reach proof of fire temp and kept burning.

This morning when I started the stove (again with GAPs), it triggered code E2 again, but this time the pellets hadn't ignited at all. There was a pile of unburned pellets in the burn pot, along with maybe a dozen charred pellets. I cleaned out the burn pot and re-started the stove. This time it lit, but again it seemed like the pellets were hard to ignite.

Has anybody else had trouble igniting GAPs? Or is it possibly my igniter starting to go? I did clean the stove out Saturday morning, even chipping the carbon buildup out of the igniter hole and vacuuming it out.

 

[Pelleting In NJ]

My GAPs ignite with no problem. Either they are damp, or your ignitor is failing, or there is some flue or OAK blockage/restriction which reduces the amount of heated air volume from the ignitor, which is blown on the pellets.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Make certain there is no ash in the igniter area including in the tube it sits in.

 

[pelletdude]

I had the same problem lighting the GAPs when i did my 2 bag test. That was in a M55

 

[jtakeman]

No issue with the GAP sample I burned. I also had no issue with the Power House sister pellet. Burned a bunch of those last fall and I had the stove on auto/off. Fired without a hitch both morning and night.

 

[greg13]

I've been burning Great Americans & Currans with no problems. Sounds like they may have gotten damp somewhere along the line.

 

[twojrts]

I've gone through almost 1 1/2 tons of GAP's and no problems! They seem to ignite quickly for me. And I have a very nit picky stove!!

 

[imacman]

Did you try another brand? Also, when was the last COMPLETE stove cleaning? (not just vacuum out the firebox) And I mean removing & cleaning blowers, checking the wear plate, removing the impingement plate and cleaning behind it in the ash traps, cleaning the ENTIRE exhaust system, etc, etc.

What I'm getting at is a possible air flow problem.....not enough air to keep the flame going. You're mention of "took a long time for the fire to spread across the width of the burn pot" might indicate this as the problem.

 

[fyrfyter4]

Did you try another brand? Also, when was the last COMPLETE stove cleaning? (not just vacuum out the firebox) And I mean removing & cleaning blowers, checking the wear plate, removing the impingement plate and cleaning behind it in the ash traps, cleaning the ENTIRE exhaust system, etc, etc.

The blowers were last pulled at the end of last season. I have just over a ton through the stove since then.

The vent was cleaned a couple of weeks ago. Most of it was new then (previous owners did a straight out install...I added about 3' of rise to meet manufacturer's recommendations). The rest was cleaned when it was taken apart. And after re-assembly I cleaned it out with a ShopVac hooked to the cleanout in the same way you would use a leaf blower.

The holes in the burn pot and wear plate are cleaned with a drill bit once a month, and the impingement plate is removed weekly (this past Saturday) and the heat exchanger/ash traps cleaned.

I'm starting to suspect I may have been a little too aggressive when cleaning the igniter hole and maybe pushed the igniter back a little bit. I'm planning to give the stove a thorough cleaning again tomorrow and check the depth of the igniter.

I didn't have this problem until after I cleaned it Saturday. The first 2 bags of GAPs lit without a problem. Same for the Stove Chow I've been burning all year and the 10 bags of Barefoots I tried last year.

 

[jcayer]

I'm almost through my first ton without issue. Interestingly enough, my dealer owes me a couple tons because of a delivery mix up and when I scheduled to deliver, they said they would be giving me something else because they were getting complaints about the GAPs...too much ash. I thought I was getting too much, but it's my first year, so I wasn't sure.

The new ones are New England something or other...coming early next week.

 

[imacman]

I'm starting to suspect I may have been a little too aggressive when cleaning the igniter hole and maybe pushed the igniter back a little bit. I'm planning to give the stove a thorough cleaning again tomorrow and check the depth of the igniter......

Try looking at this thread about another person who had trouble with pellets igniting in a PDVC....it might help out.....Mike Holton makes some suggestions on post #7:

www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/84854/#1057641

 

[fyrfyter4]

Well, this morning I gave the stove a thorough cleaning. It wasn't bad at all, since it was just done on Saturday. I also followed the suggestions Mike made in the linked thread. I pulled the igniter back just a little bit (less than 1/8") and removed the plug from the igniter housing.

I don't know if either of these things fixed it, but the stove lit on the first try today using pellets from the same bag as yesterday. It still seemed to take a long time to ignite, but I never really sat and watched it before. The burn pot was pretty full before I even had a wisp of smoke. But once I had smoke, there was a flame within 1 minute.

I have 5 more bags of the GAPs left, so that should be enough to see if I have any more problems.

 

[fyrfyter4]

My GAPs ignite with no problem. Either they are damp....

Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!

I burned 2 more bags without a problem, but I did notice that they were still hard to light. They took at least 15 minutes from the time I pressed the "on" button. Every time I was afraid the stove would shut down. This morning the stove failed to light twice, so I decided to do a little more investigating. I grabbed a handful of the pellets, put them in a bowl with a plate over top, and microwaved them for 2 minutes. The plate was soaked when I took it out.

I emptied the hopper and put in about 5 lbs of Stove Chow. I had fire within 5 minutes of starting the stove.

Thinking back, when I got the pellets, the open skid was stored in a shed. However, there were several full skids outside. I know this dealer stores a lot of his stock outside, and I've never had a problem in the past. But this was a very wet fall, so I bet they got damp from the heavy rains and early snowfall.

I have 4 bags of these GAPs left. I'll have to burn them up after starting the stove on SC (or light them manually).

I really want to like the GAPs...once I get them lit, they burn great for me. I think next weekend I'll pick up a few bags from another dealer.

 

[twojrts]

So sorry you have this problem, fyrfyter4. Below the Grid stores theirs Inside!!

Just did the moisture test on mine and NADA!! I had to REALLY look to find moisture!

Let this be a lesson for you. DON'T buy pellets that are stored outside. Even under a shed row............I got Bayou pellets my first year and they were full of moisture because of where they were stored!! Really liked them too, but they just wouldn't ignite properly.

Just my 2 cents worth.