Accentra, what causes the ignitor not to work?

[Hammerjoe]

Hi,

First of all the stove seems to be working fine when the fire is going (either manual or auto).

The problem seems to be with the ignitor.
Tonight the cat must have triped the sensor wire and the stove shut down (as it should).
Plugged the wire back in and too the oportunity to do a good burnpot cleanup. Also removed any fiens in the ignitor area.
Turned the stove back on and after three attemps the stove did not ignite.
On the second attempt I opened the door and touched the burnpot and it was cold, obviously the ignitor did not work.
Unpluged the stove, and restarted and checked the burnpot during startup and it felt warm, so I thought that it would work.
No dice, it failed and as soon it started blinking 5 times, checked the burnpot and once again it was cold.
Third time and the burnpot was cold, it failed and I had to do a manual ignition.

Everything works, or so I think, but there is something that prevents the ignitor to work.
For all the experts out there, what causes the ignitor not to work besides being broken (which it doesnt seem to be, it is fairly new, it was replaced earlier this year) and I confirmed that it does work on the second attempt?
I feel that I will have to go to the dealer to have the stove fixed, but right now I have nothing that explains this behaviour and the really cold days are coming and I cant afford a stove that doesnt light up as it should.

 

[toastyinri]

You said your cat tripped the sensor. I have a Harman Advance. My cat thought the sensor was a plaything and chewed the little thermistor at the end of the wire. The stove will not auto ignite if the sensor is damaged. However, you said you were sure that was working. Make sure the ignitor holes in the burn pot are clear. The ignitor holes are set lower down in the burn pot and go about half way across. If those are clogged your ignitor will be sluggish. I unplug mine with a paper clip.

 

[Hammerjoe]

You said your cat tripped the sensor. I have a Harman Advance. My cat thought the sensor was a plaything and chewed the little thermistor at the end of the wire. The stove will not auto ignite if the sensor is damaged. However, you said you were sure that was working. Make sure the ignitor holes in the burn pot are clear. The ignitor holes are set lower down in the burn pot and go about half way across. If those are clogged your ignitor will be sluggish. I unplug mine with a paper clip.

Checked and checked.
There is something that prevents the ignitor from working.
The pot stays cold, which means that the ignitor does not receive power.
But what causes that?

 

[FireJumper]

There is a pressure switch in the stove that will cut the power to the ignitor and feed motor if your draft is too low. If that is not the case then I would venture to say that there is something physically wrong with your ignitor.

 

[Hammerjoe]

Thanks for the reply, but the feeder motor is working fine, at the end of the operation I have a burnpot full of pellets.

Its possible that the ignitor is gone for good, but how is this possible?
This ignitor is not one year old yet. How can it go bad so quickly??
Has to be something else otherwise I am replacing ignitors every year??
I bought the stove in 2006, so I take that a third ignitor would still be under warranty am I correct?

Btw does the ignitor work out of 110Volts?
I might try to connect it directly to see if does work.

 

[FireJumper]

The only way to check to see if the ignitor is gone for good is to pull it out of the burn pot and plug into direct current to see if it glows red. If it doesn't then its dead. If you're replacing them every year I would have you dealer check to see if you're getting constant current to the ignitor from your circuit board. This has happened before and kills the ignitor prematurelly. The ignitor light goes out but there is still current getting the ignitor kind of like it's back feeding into it somehow.

yes it works off of 110 volts and Yes you are correct, it is still covered under warranty. Mechanical and electrical components are covered for a period of 3 years from the date of purchase. so you're covered until 2009 somtime.

 

[Hammerjoe]

Yep, its the ignitor.
Thanks for the tip.
I pulled it out and used a voltimeter and it confirmed that the ignitor was getting 110volts fromt he board.
I only checked for a few minutes but it was steady, no power fluctuation but the ignitor was cold as a stone.

Time to call the dealer...

 

[smirnov3]

One really odd problem I have seen with my accentra is that sometimes the software will crash & require a rebooot.

What happens is that my wife likes to turn off the stove during the day if we are not there, so every once in a while, (happened twice in the past year), the stove doesn't ignite once I turn it back on.

the solution is to unplug it & replug it back into the AC.

seems stupid, but now it's the first thing I try before I panic.

 

[FireJumper]

yea but you would think since the board is sending power to the ignitor it would get hot regardless. idk.

 

[Hammerjoe]

One really odd problem I have seen with my accentra is that sometimes the software will crash & require a rebooot.

What happens is that my wife likes to turn off the stove during the day if we are not there, so every once in a while, (happened twice in the past year), the stove doesn't ignite once I turn it back on.

the solution is to unplug it & replug it back into the AC.

seems stupid, but now it's the first thing I try before I panic.

I did that a couple times with no luck.
I thought the same thing thou.

 

[GVA]

Just for Chits and Giggles what did you get for a reading when you checked resistance on the ignitor?
One other thing that happens once in a while is the auto/manual switch gets bumped, which is not the case here since you have voltage......Hmmmm although with solid state you will show voltage unless the load (in this case the ignitor) is hooked up to the stove. I don't know if the ignitor circuit is switched from a relay or not.

Firejumper I think one of the problems with the ignitor burning out is the fact that they are switching the neutral on the ignitor and auger with the vac switch which is a floating neutral and a big NO NO.
Something that Harman should have addressed by now...

 

[Hammerjoe]

Unfortunately my voltimer does not read resistance, or maybe I just dont know how to use it.
I did not unplug the ignitor, I just used the voltimer prongs and made sure they contacted the wire and turned the stove on and there was voltage sent to the ignitor.
The ignitor remained cold thereby I concluded that it is dead.
I called the dealer and left a message to come by and replace the ignitor.
This is the second one in a very short period of time, I am afraid that there is something wrong with the stove that burns the ignitors and the warranty only lasts one more year.

 

[GVA]

when you first start up your stove how long does it take to start feeding pellets?

 

[Hammerjoe]

The feeder starts imediately.
It doesnt fill the burnpot, it does it in steps which I think is normal.