ignitor problems for a harman xxv

[MountainStoveGuy]

Im not sure I understand the question, but, if the stove is set to high on the shoulder season, it cycles alot which causes the igniter to cycle alot, wearing on them pretty good. The rule of thumb with every other pellet stove i have sold was to run them at the lowest setting possible to get the desired heat out put. This keeps the stove hot, puts it in its peak efficiency range, and reduced the power needed for the cold start cycle.

 

[amick780]

I might be wrong as the manual is not clear on this, but my understanding is that when the stove is set on room temp mode it will control the feed rate. I left the feed rate on 2-3 all last year, and if you sit and watch the stove when it calls for more heat or the temp drops it seems that the feed rate speeds up. The stove kept my 2900sq/ft colonial pretty warm last year without playing with the feed rate...and it always had that perfect 1 inch of ash built up in the burn pot. Room temp Aprox 68-70 Feed rate 2-3. Burning eagle valley and rocky mtn pellets last year.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

Thats possible, if the lowest setting in thermostat mode cycles the stove alot, you need to move it to the manual setting on the top left knob to make it run at a constant desired output. That might overheat the room a bit, and waste some pellets, but its better for the stove to not be constantly cycling on and off.

 

[Delta-T]

MSG, i don't htink you should be doing anything differently during shoulder season than you would during prime heating season. Stove temp mode basically tells the stove to cycle based on Lbs/hour (rescale the knob from 1-7 and think of it more like 3/4 lb - 5.5 lbs/ hr). The auger is set to pulse based on a preprogram in the CPU and benchmarks the temp at ESP to a set range based on the 1-7 and its expectations for that temp. IF it slightly low the machine increases slightly and it high is decreases slightly. There a good bit of "fuzzy logic" going on in there to get the machine to optimize within reason. If the unit is installed correctly and you have decent minimum draft then theres not really anything you can do to "improve" the operation. But there plenty you can do to interfere .
Room temp just tells the stove to ramp up when there is a steep differential between what the room currently is, and what temp you want to acheive. Having a low feed adjuster setting in room temp can definitely hamper the performance of the machine (for example: If the stove has to increase your room by 10 degrees it may try to go to max burn to get you up to temp fast and then slow down as you approach desired temp, if you have the feed adjustr set to 1 then the auger is only allowed to feed for 10 seconds and then must wait for 50 before it can feed anymore. This makes it aweful difficult to get to max burn and therefore the stove feels like something is wrong when the ESP temp doesn't increase, hence the 3 blnks, assuming that it is suffering form incomplete combustion).

I always try to take manuals in stride. Technical writers are not necessarily part of the design team, and often have to "interpret" what the engineers have said should be written. I think its inane to call it the "feed adjuster" and to make the knob the same size as the other 2. Its just begging to be messed with if you as me.

 

[amick780]

Just a note...on above settings my stove might of cycled on and off a handful of times from November thru the beginning of March. I am not a fan of cycling the stove on and off, it takes a while to get the thing back up to temp wasting pellets. It is real inefficient to do so.

 

[Vermont-XXV]

So to get a low steady heat with no cycling on and off - you should:

Set Top Left Dial at Stove Temp - middle distribution blower speed,

Manual Igniter on Auto - cause it won't matter anyway,

Top Right Dial (Temp Dial) at 50 - 55 degrees,

Lower Left Dial - Feed adjuster at the usual 4


And this will run the stove all day at a low steady heat - never going out - or igniting - unless:

it runs out of pellets, or

stove temp rises above the setting (i.e. it's not cold) - I think that's why setting the blower distribution on at least midway is important because it will send the heat out of the stove into the room.

clifford

 

[Delta-T]

if you want the stove to run all day, outputting at minimum burn....set the stove to "stove temp" and put the ohter knob (ignore feed adjuster after setting to 4) to 1 and all day long the stove will run burning ~3/4 lb/ hour. If you want to set a temp but never want the stove to turn off then put it in "room temp" set other knob to desired temp (say 68) and after its lit, switch the auto/manual igniter switch to manual (remember to put switch back to auto when you change seetings or turn the stove off). Set the blower speed (via the room temp/stove temp knob) to wherever you like.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

great info delta. thanks for the post!

 

[tinkabranc]

...If you want to set a temp but never want the stove to turn off then put it in "room temp" set other knob to desired temp (say 68) and after its lit, switch the auto/manual igniter switch to manual (remember to put switch back to auto when you change seetings or turn the stove off). Set the blower speed (via the room temp/stove temp knob) to wherever you like.

I have always run my XXV on room temp during the shoulder seasons, and switch over to stove
temp for the winter.

I saw a suggestion like this on an older thread somewhere and decided to try it.
It did seem to work because the stove never shut down but, my ignitor died this past
spring anyway

 

[Delta-T]

excluding the "bad" igniters, which hopefully have all failed and been replaced at this point, the #1 thing I see that is the killer is carbon and ash building up on the mounting brackets for the igniter. Keeps all the heat from trasfering to the incoming air. Basically the ignitor just gets cooking hot and with no way to expell the heat they warp or stretch until they no longer maintain continuity. I suggest jabbing and old paintbrush up in there every couple of weeks or so (usually i do this when I'm emptying the ash pan). #2 thing I see is the wires for said ignitor have a few inches that are insulated up by the ignitor, but the rest of the wire is not insulated. If you've pulled the ignitor out to clean it some of the slack wire sits too close to the hot stuff and the wires melt and arc to the burnpot. Then, of course, some just die, with no real indicator as to why. One of life's great mysteries I suppose, like gravity, or tofu.