How well does your stove ignite?

[Hammerjoe]

Hi,

My accentra failed me once again this morning.
I just installed a t/stat to allow the stove to turn on at 8am which it did, but the stove failed the ignition and I got up in a cold house... Not nice.

I find the Accentra to be very unreliable as far auto ignition is concerned.
It fails alot.
Just for info I use shaw pellets (canada) and my settings are feed rate 5, room temp set @ 71F.

How is your stove doing?

Inst there some kind of a solution to make the stove ignite properly other than cleaning the burn pot everyday (not practical and messy)?

 

[stovemanken]

It is not a question of how often you clean your burn pot but how well you clean your burn pot. The key is making sure the last row (the ones closest to the auger or farthest from you) have no carbon buildup on top of them. Occasionally these holes will actually become plugged with carbon will have to be cleaned with a small drill bit.

As has been posted elsewhere, making sure no ash builds up around the igniter will also improve airflow and improve igniter reliability.

The best hint I ever got was to invest about 15 bucks in the Sears tool department and buy a mechanic's prybar. Get the 17 inch one. (p/n 9-43276) It is the absolute best tool for cleaning a Harman burn pot.

SMK

 

[Hammerjoe]

Thanks fro the tip about the holes.
I kinda forgot about them...

I used the metal scrapper that comes with the stove, it does a pretty decent job on my opinion and if the burn pot is still warm then the carbon i seasy to remove.

I will make sure the holes are unclogged tonight.
Hopefully that will help.

 

[FireJumper]

SMK made a very good point, make sure you remove the clean out plate located in front of the burn pot to make sure you don't have a lot of ash build up "inside" the burn pot around the ignitor.

 

[Tom D]

i have harman xxv never had problem scrape pot every other day,thanks for the information on the tool from sears.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

mine fires in about 6 minutes every time, in 3 seasons its failed to fire 3 times, all with wife who forgot to clear the pot. if the unit uses a sleeve and pulled air method, make certain that ash has not built up in the sleeve, this restricts the flow of air through to the pot from the igniter and consequently the pellets do not receive enough heat to start.

 

[Xena]

auto ignite has worked every time on ours.
We're on the third season with this stove.
Oh, and the tool that came with this
stove works awesome for cleaning the burnpot.

 

[MrWinkey]

I had the same problem and it was ash that had fallen down into the holes of the burnpot. It was blocking the flow of air to the coil.

(broken link removed to http://www.harmanstoves.com/maintenance/accentracleaninginstructions.pdf)

You may need pliers to open the wing nuts at the front of the burn pot. It's easier to get at w/ the ash pan removed. Do not use the pliers to re-tighten.

Good luck!

 

[jtp10181]

I have had problems with ignition due to sawdust in the vacuum hose. The blower would start but it would not aug. This is on a Quad though, not familiar with the Harman's (yet).

 

[GVA]

I have had problems with ignition due to sawdust in the vacuum hose. The blower would start but it would not aug. This is on a Quad though, not familiar with the Harman's (yet).

Good point JTP. Hammerjoe did you have a overfull burnpot with pellets?
On Harmans with an open vac switch the neutral is cut on the auger motor........AND the Ignitor...........

 

[jtp10181]

I also forgot to mention that it would work sometimes, especially if the homeowner hit the reset button many times. Since I told them they should never need to use the reset unless it runs out of pellets they called me right back. I took the hose off (forgot to on the first trip) and blew it out. A whole cloud of stuff came flying out. Have not heard from them in two weeks now.... so it must be working.

 

[Hammerjoe]

I have had problems with ignition due to sawdust in the vacuum hose. The blower would start but it would not aug. This is on a Quad though, not familiar with the Harman's (yet).

Good point JTP. Hammerjoe did you have a overfull burnpot with pellets?
On Harmans with an open vac switch the neutral is cut on the auger motor........AND the Ignitor...........

I am not sure of what you are talking about Gva!
I always let the stove shut down by itself and it usually means that all there will be left is just ash and carbon deposits. The pellets in the burn pot burn completely.
When I got home tonight, I did a cleanup of the burnpot (it was of course full of pellets because of a failed ignition earlier).
Tried again to ignite the fire with no luck. I opened the door after a few minutes during the ignition procedure and the burnpot was cold.
So I pulled the plug and plugged the stove back in, with the hopes that it would reset the computer, and this time I could feel the burnpot getting warmer. It failed to ignite but when the light started blinking there was some smoke coming out of the pellets and as soon I restarted the ignition procedure the pellets caught fire imediately.
I dont know what to make of all of this, but I am not impressed with the auto ignition of thise stove. It's unreliable.

Btw whats an open vac?

 

[LI-Mini-Owner]

I have an Enviro Mini that almost never lites on itsown. The first season it was pretty reliable, but since then I've used at least 4 different brands of pellets and it alomost never lites. My typical routine now is to throw a handfull of pellets in the burn pot and hit it for a few seconds with a tourch.

The burn pot gets hot during the ignitian cycle, just not enough to get a fire going most times.

Any ideas?

 

[GVA]

I would repost in a new thread and then Hearthtools would see this. Just put enviro mini in the title.

 

[Shane]

Make sure the ignitor hasn't shifted in the tube and is touching hte side of the tube causing a heat sink. You may need a new bracket that puts the ignitor slightly closer to the burn pot. I had one that we sold last year that gave us a bunch of trouble. The new bracket solved the problem. THere are also some auger trim settings you can mess with to make it light better.

 

[barbarabate]

mine fires in about 6 minutes every time, in 3 seasons its failed to fire 3 times, all with wife who forgot to clear the pot. if the unit uses a sleeve and pulled air method, make certain that ash has not built up in the sleeve, this restricts the flow of air through to the pot from the igniter and consequently the pellets do not receive enough heat to start.

I have a Harmon XXV which is going into it's 3rd Maine Winter. A great stove but having difficulty lighting automatically. It ran out of pellets last night. My husband cleaned out the burn pot and heat plate but it wouldn't light again. I cleaned out the ash, vacummed, etc this am. Ran on test mode. Everything seems to be working but the heat plate stays cold. Plate is nice and clean. Any ideas?

 

[Hammerjoe]

I would say that the ignitor is done... Time to get a new one.

If the pot stays cold hats because the ignitor didnt work.
Is still not working?

The guy came in last week and put a new ignitor on my Accentra and now it lights up in less than 5 minutes. WOW, what a difference, the previous one even when it was replaced took longer to ignite so that ignitor was definetly defective from the get go.

Just in case I now have the stove connected to an apc battery 520W to basically filter the electricity so theres no spikes or noise going to the stove.

Lets see how long this ignitor will work, but I have to say that with the stove igniting so quick not only it feels different but the stove impresses me more. Basically now it delivers heat on demand, which is awesome.

 

[smirnov3]

Except for having carbon buildup because of cleaning, my Accentra has failed to light maybe twice. both times were software errors corrected by unplugging, waiting 2 minutes & replugging in the stove.

 

[barbarabate]

I would say that the ignitor is done... Time to get a new one.

If the pot stays cold hats because the ignitor didnt work.
Is still not working?

The guy came in last week and put a new ignitor on my Accentra and now it lights up in less than 5 minutes. WOW, what a difference, the previous one even when it was replaced took longer to ignite so that ignitor was definetly defective from the get go.

Just in case I now have the stove connected to an apc battery 520W to basically filter the electricity so theres no spikes or noise going to the stove.

Lets see how long this ignitor will work, but I have to say that with the stove igniting so quick not only it feels different but the stove impresses me more. Basically now it delivers heat on demand, which is awesome.

Thanks. I actually have someone coming in (in two weeks) who thinks it is the ignitor. Looks like it's time to utilize the gel to get it going.

 

[Mr Whitfield]

My Whitfield Advantage II-T ignites very time, I do not use a thermostat to start the stove. Have you tried a Super igniter??

 

[hearthtools]

I would repost in a new thread and then Hearthtools would see this. Just put enviro mini in the title.

What shane said about the MINI
The original Tube the ignitor goes in was bad and would move every time you put the burn pot holder in and out of the stove
You can fix it by welding it or calling your dealer and getting a new tube
Part #50-1408
I will post photos when I get time

 

[GVA]

I would repost in a new thread and then Hearthtools would see this. Just put enviro mini in the title.

What shane said about the MINI
The original Tube the ignitor goes in was bad and would move every time you put the burn pot holder in and out of the stove
You can fix it by welding it or calling your dealer and getting a new tube
Part #50-1408
I will post photos when I get time

Hey you already fixed it in the other thread....


And Barb make sure the toggle switch on the board is set to auto other than that I agree with the rest........ :coolsmile:

 

[hearthtools]

I would repost in a new thread and then Hearthtools would see this. Just put enviro mini in the title.

What shane said about the MINI
The original Tube the ignitor goes in was bad and would move every time you put the burn pot holder in and out of the stove
You can fix it by welding it or calling your dealer and getting a new tube
Part #50-1408
I will post photos when I get time

Hey you already fixed it in the other thread....


And Barb make sure the toggle switch on the board is set to auto other than that I agree with the rest........ :coolsmile:

yes I I just posted a photo
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/11236/#131409

 

[wilbilt]

Mine is manual ignite.

So far, it works fine....