NON COMBUSTIBLE WOOD PELLETS?

[rickwai]

I was called out on a Harman p52i last week do to not wanting to light. Stove is about 1 yr old and homeowner has had continual trouble and dealer had replaced circuit board, igniter, taped over part of air intake and changed dip switches. Finally HO called us, gave me details on what all has been done. I looked at igniter and both wires were pinched up over igniter and bare. I thought that is probably it so I changed igniter. Same problem. I went thru everything, draft, voltage, wattage, checked for voltage drop in wiring harness, plugged into different outlet, tried a different circuit board. Nothing changed. I was on this 5 hrs and could not come up with anything! It seemed igniter was not heating up enough. It would sit in ignition mode with a pot full of pellets and when opening the door there was no burn smell or charred pellets. I did this probably 10 times. Finally I told homeowner I was going to empty pellets and try somersets just to rule out a fuel issue. I put Somersets in and it fired within minutes like Harmans do! He had American Wood Fiber pellets in the stove from Home Depot. The ones in the red white and blue bags. This is only the 2nd time in 10 yrs that I have been servicing stoves that I have seen pellets that would not light.

 

[Wilbur Feral]

Tried a few bags of those AWF last year and believe it may have been the worst pellet I ever burned. Cool, ashy, etc. Sorry to hear they sucked up well over half a day of your time, and needless expense for the homeowner.

 

[bogieb]

Thanks for the heads up!

 

[Bioburner]

Hope HO can return the pellets. Bad enough the cost of your visit.

 

[Chrisnow86]

i seen these pellets and just kept walking.. i was wondering when pellet bags "and i know this company doesn't" list what type of wood the pellets are made of.. so whats in the bag? i know with AWF it just says premium wood fiber.. but never says hard or softwood..

 

[rickwai]

Sorry I haven't been on in a while. Yes I kinda felt embarrassed that I overlooked the fuel...... It seemed to simple of a solution. I have been servicing Harmans for 8 yrs now and consider myself a pretty decent troubleshooter. 95% of the stoves I service are Harman do to that is about all that the shop I work for has sold. When I was given the background of this unit( which was bought from and installed by another dealer) I started digging deep. They had been out there many times since unit was installed. Problem was always that unit was very sluggish to lite. Which is not typical of Harman. Homeowner called us and we told him we will warranty parts but not labor do to we did not sell unit. I guess I did find the root cause of the problem, homeowner was happy. He is a retired elect. engineer and totally agreed w/ my troubleshooting path and even commented on how thorough it was. I learned something new!!

 

[xSpecBx]

Sometimes the easiest solution is the last thing you think of just because it way to easy. Im sure it happened to all of us.