Harman Advance Igniter Problems

[herbsties]

I have a Harman Advance that is about 3 years old . At the end of the winter last year i did a major cleaning to prep the stove for summer. I have tried to use the stove a few times recently and it will not light. About a week ago I tried it and the fuse in the control panel blew and my breaker kicked . I replaced the fuse took the igniter out to inspect it and tried it with it outside the stove I did get some small shocks from it in the process . Because of this I assume that the igniter is getting power, The light for the igniter also illuminates when the stove is trying to light. It seems that the igniter just does not get hot . If I light the stove manually it works fine. Does this sound like the igniter is bad ? control board? ESP control? any ideas? Is this common for this stove?
Thank you in advance for your help .

 

[Wood Heat Stoves]

sounds like a bad ignitor to me...
ignitor failure is common on all pellet stoves.
get a new one and test it. if its not broken now you can save the extra one for when it does fail(and it will)

 

[Lousyweather]

remove the ignitor and test the resistance.....a "good" ignitor around 3 years old will give you resistance of about 42-45 ohms......most of the "bad" ignitors have no continuity at all.......Im guessing though, that instead of being fried, which it might have been, when you checked the thing, you didnt push the ignitor leads far enough abck into the unit, and the wires might have shorted out against the housing they sit in.....pullt he old ignitor out, test it, expect it to have no continuity, and replace it with a new one....but this time make sure you take ALL the slack out of those wires! The spade connector should be right at the black rear retainer plug.....oh, and replace the fuse with a 6 amp one.....all new units are 6 amp now.

 

[summit]

harman iginitors do go bad, i see it all the time... unfortunatly 4 u, the wtty has run out on that part at 3 yrs old.. good news is its a pretty easy fix... bad news is its @ 75 bucks for the part...

 

[crausch]

Herbalou,

I agree with the others and a multimeter could confirm the suspicions by testing the resistance as lousyweather suggests. If you need any technical details or if you plan to replace it yourself and need some nice instructions, let me know? I can send you some step-by-step instructions with some all important pictures.

 

[eikeland]

I replaced mine last year, and it's broken again. I hate to replace it again to the tune of $120 this year, and probably next year again.... The warranty on the igniter is only 3 months instead of 3 years on the igniter on a new stove. It seems to me that all it is is a resistor with some ceramic or something around it. Anyone out there tried to make one themselves?

 

[Stentor]

If and when my igniter goes, can I wait a while to replace it if I'm willing to light manually? (I'm assuming cold enough weather that the stove will have to stay lit when it gets started.) In other words, does a broken igniter on a Harman XXV have any effect on how the stove works except that it won't start or re-start automatically?

 

[Lousyweather]

absolutely you can light it with gel, Stentor! Flip the toggle into MANUAL, fill the burnpot half full with pellets, spray on a generous amount of gel, light it, close the door, set the feed selector to TEST for a cycle or 3, the stove will be lit! Also, dont forget to put the feed selector back to 3-1/2, and leave the toggle in MANUAL.....dont put it back into AUTO until you get the ignitor fixed!

 

[tinkabranc]

My ignitor let go on my XXV at the end of last season and had to start the stove
manually for a couple of months till the back-ordered ignitor came in. Lasted 3 years.

It took a few tries for me to get mine to fire up quickly (learning curve) but I eventually got it.
Makes no difference on how the stove runs though. Just a PIA because I am spoiled with the
auto ignite.

 

[Stentor]

Thank you both for the posts. I was pretty sure that the automatic ignition is just a nice bells-and-whistles feature but I wanted to be sure I wouldn't be messing up the feed rate for pellets or something like that. So the plan now is to switch to manual when the igniter goes, until I get the replacement.

 

[dillydo]

I've had my Harmon Accentra 2 since Oct, 2004. I have only had to replace the auger motor and just now the igniter. I called my dealer & the igniters were on order so I called another dealer & they had them in stock. I paid $107 including MA sales tax. I now only have to get the 2 nuts off of the front of the burn box. I just have to find a tool that will work. These are the stupid hex screws & are difficult to find a socket that will fit them.

Meantime, I have the stove on manuel & didn't have starting gel but I did have some cans of sterno so used same & the stove is now happily burning.

My stove wouldn't start so I thoroughly cleaned it & duct taped a length of garden hose to the vac & was able to get all of the ash out of that stupid tube that has a sensor in it.

I did get instructions for removing the old igniter & will get it replaced when we have a warm spell & I can get the aforementioned bolt screws out

I would like to know who designed the stoves. They are a pain to clean!

 

[smwilliamson]

I would like to know who designed the stoves. They are a pain to clean!

Try getting the ash out of dirty Whitfield P20 or any St. Croix. Makes your Harman seem pretty sweet.