St. Croix Revolution igniter false alarm

[slangtruth]

I thought I needed one when it stopped self igniting. My nightmare "authorized" dealer couldn't make it out any time soon and I needed the heat, so I had them call St. Croix (since they won't talk to owners) and ask if I could start it with gel in the meantime. Turns out you can, although it's very tricky to do so with this device since it's not meant to work that way. I did it a couple of times and since it was such a PITA to pull off just kept it going 24/7 after I got it lit. Finally had a cold cleaning scheduled for today and took it apart to see what the igniter looked like (was hoping for a third party solution), and found that the hole which lets the igniter superheat the pellets was plugged up. It's way down on the burnpot in the part you can't see from the front. I'd been reaching around with a wire brush and scraping down there on every cold cleaning (once a week), but somewhere in there it got bridged and closed off. Attacked it from the igniter side (since I had it out) until I saw clear light from a flashlight from the igniter hole through to the burnpot, put it all back together and it's back. Now I have another couple hundred bucks to spend on beer, and I get the satisfaction of calling my nightmare dealer (who's never there or just doesn't answer the phone, and doesn't answer messages left on his machine) to tell him I don't need him anyway, thanks.

 

[jtakeman]

Glad all is well and you saved a few bucks.

Other than this little minor issue, How do you like the furnace(oops!-almost called it a stove) so far?

 

[slangtruth]

It's generally OK. At its maximum heat output with about 56K per hour BTU input (which means ~4 bags a day, do the math) it's really not enough to keep a large, badly insulated space (which is what we have) fully heated in sub-30 degree weather. It maintains a good, comfortable level when outside temps are in the mid to higher 30s-40s. In a better insulated, more modern space 60K could probably blow you out, but in a a 19th century-built New England building with 12 foot ceilings it's a lot more marginal. Maintenance isn't bad, but ash builds up very quickly in the baffle below the heat exchangers, even with premium fuel - St. Croix says to clean it out "once a month or sooner" but it's really once a week, and you can't do it unless it's stone cold. Still trying to get a handle on proper damper adjustment, which seems to vary somewhat with heat level settings. A furnace is what we wanted and at the time we got it it was pretty much either this or the Harman PF100 - this was actually available with a one month wait and at the time (Fall 2008) the Harmans were back ordered for several months. so we had to jump. I'm generally pleased with the product, but bought it from an incompetent dealer (the only one in my area code at the time, although there's another now) who bollixed up the installation, and I'm not used to buying anything from a manufacturer who won't support the end user directly, but insists that even routine parts orders go through the dealer network.

 

[jtakeman]

Pellet stoves and Furnaces don't have much of an aftermarket parts supply. Not like auto's anyway. We all deal with this no matter the brand name, But there are a few places to get OEM motors that are darn close. Igniters may be available through grainger. But you need to do some home work. Most just stick to dealer parts, As they drop right in. You can find some retailers on the web. But the prices usually aren't any better than the local shop. More and more I see the manufacturer's selling parts right on there web sites. Still no break in price though!

Happy heating!