Harman XXV not igniting

[Jenque]

Hi All:
I have a new Harman XXV and sometimes it will not ignite when it has shut down. The room temperature probe works great. My house will warm up to the desired temperature and then if the sun is keeping the rooms warm, the stove will shut down. When the room finally cools, the pellets start to feed and the "pot" (?) gets full and the pellets don't always ignite. Eventually the light on the controls will blink indicating that the stove hasn't lit after 30 minutes of trying. If I turn the temp. to "off" and then "on", the pellets will feed again and overflow the "pot"....so, I empty the "pot" of the pellets and usually it will ignite after this second try. Should I inform the dealer where I bought it? This morning I woke up and the room was 60 degrees (stove was set at 70 degrees) and the light was blinking.
Thanks for any hints or help.
Jen

 

[lbcynya]

Could be junk pellets, but I'd do the following first...

1. Give the burn pot a good cleaning. Make sure you really scrape the carbon off the top and sides of the burn pot. Harman tool works ok, mechanics pry bar works better. Make sure all carbon is removed. Use a flashlight and insure all is good. Vacuum everything out of the burn pot so you have a "clean start".

2. Clean out the igniter area. You'll need to remove the 2 wing nuts to access that area. Be careful not to damage the igniter, but make sure all ash is out of the igniter area. Tap on the burn pot with the Harman tool to insure everything is out of the igniter fins.

3. Remove and clean the flame guide (cast iron cover).

4. While the flame guide is off, inspect the 2 air inlets the reside just below the flame guide and insure they are clear. You could use a pipe cleaner or zip tie to insure they are clear. Also make sure all holes in the burn pot are clear.

Fire it up and see how long it takes to ignite. If it takes more than 5 minutes or so, I would suspect junk pellets.

If it doesn't fire up, carefully inspect the pellets in the pot and see if they are black/smoldering from the attempt to light. Also, carefully see how warm everything is... If you have black pellets and heat then the pellets are likely the problem. You can try to get everything going with a torch to burn out the rest of the pellets. Try a different brand of pellet to see if that helps. If not...your igniter might be failing early. This can happen from time to time.

Good luck, let us know how it goes.

PS - Run the stove with the igniter switch in manual when it's cold. This will prevent cycling of the stove and trickles heat into the room in-between calls for heat. No sense having your stove shut off when your house is always losing heat. Early fall and late spring (shoulder seasons) are the exception where running in auto does make sense.