Ran a small test burn this past weekend, it was cool enough and late enough to make sure everything was decent before it got really cold. I noticed last season that my freestanding Accentra would start to take long to ignite. I never really timed it, but it was noticeably longer than I was expecting. I read people here saying they light in 1-2 minutes, I'm probably close to the 7-9 minute range.
If I sit and watch, I see pellets feeding, nothing really going till very late in the cycle. Then I get a wispy smoke that gets heavier and heavier. Eventually I get a heavy gray boiling smoke that totally fills the combustion chamber and puts a decent cloud out the stack to annoy the neighbors. After a minute or two of this, I got a heavy puff as the pellets light into a full flame. The combustion chamber goes totally clear, and the external smoke is minimal as the heat builds. I noticed once or twice last season it would actually push smoke through the seals into the living room as it lit. It was a concern obviously, between a smoke issue in the house and the fact that there's only a glass insert in a point to fail and extend to the house.
The stove is about 10 years old. In that time I changed the ignitor about 5 years ago. I'm burning Cheat River pellets now, and a decent mid level BBS pellet last year.
Should I consider replacing the ignitor or trying a manual ignition to see if that's the issue? When it went before, it totally went. I bought a replacement from my dealer so I believe the one in there is OEM.
Advice??
thanks in advance.
If I sit and watch, I see pellets feeding, nothing really going till very late in the cycle. Then I get a wispy smoke that gets heavier and heavier. Eventually I get a heavy gray boiling smoke that totally fills the combustion chamber and puts a decent cloud out the stack to annoy the neighbors. After a minute or two of this, I got a heavy puff as the pellets light into a full flame. The combustion chamber goes totally clear, and the external smoke is minimal as the heat builds. I noticed once or twice last season it would actually push smoke through the seals into the living room as it lit. It was a concern obviously, between a smoke issue in the house and the fact that there's only a glass insert in a point to fail and extend to the house.
The stove is about 10 years old. In that time I changed the ignitor about 5 years ago. I'm burning Cheat River pellets now, and a decent mid level BBS pellet last year.
Should I consider replacing the ignitor or trying a manual ignition to see if that's the issue? When it went before, it totally went. I bought a replacement from my dealer so I believe the one in there is OEM.
Advice??
thanks in advance.