New 52i Not Igniting

[deercamp]

Hello, we are in Mass and it's been real warm the last few days here so we have not had the stove on.
My wife called me earlier at work today and said that the stove would not light. She had it on room temp
auto with the feed rate at 3.5 and room temp on 70. This is how we have been running it since we first started using it in October. I gave it a good cleaning and vacumed it out when I got home and then I tried to light it and the same thing happened. The hopper fills up with pellets and then finally we get the staus light with 5 blinks
after it fails to ignite. When I went to remove the pellets out of the burn pot they were fairly hot but never did ignite. Any advice to what might be going wrong here would be greatly appreciated. I hope it's not the ignitor already. Other than this problem I am very happy with the stove. It hasn't been to cold here yet but it's heating our 2,500 sq ft colonial with no problem at all. Ty

 

[TimfromMA]

Sounds like the igniter to me.

 

[Husky]

Did you clean out the ignition chamber under the firepot. I am new to wood pellet stoves and I had the same thing happen to me after 3 weeks of burning. Didn't realize that this needs to be cleaned out often. As soon as I cleaned it out the stove fired up again. Now I clean it once a week.

 

[deercamp]

Did you clean out the ignition chamber under the firepot. I am new to wood pellet stoves and I had the same thing happen to me after 3 weeks of burning. Didn't realize that this needs to be cleaned out often. As soon as I cleaned it out the stove fired up again. Now I clean it once a week.

No I did not. Do I need to take the firepot out in order to get to it? I had to light the stove manually for the first time to keep the family warm. I will definately look into that. Ty

 

[Husky]

No I did not. Do I need to take the firepot out in order to get to it? I had to light the stove manually for the first time to keep the family warm. I will definately look into that. Ty

There are 2 thumb screws under the pot that hold a plate. Loosen them up, pull the plate and then take a vacuum and suck out the ash. I guarantee this is your problem. I stick me finger in there and work out the ash while you are vacuuming. You'll be up and running again in no time.

 

[deercamp]

There are 2 thumb screws under the pot that hold a plate. Loosen them up, pull the plate and then take a vacuum and suck out the ash. I guarantee this is your problem. I stick me finger in there and work out the ash while you are vacuuming. You'll be up and running again in no time.

I would have bet that you were correct.
After I took the cover off it was kind of
full with ash. I vacuumed it out just like you
said and figured that I would be all set.
30 minutes later the stove will still not ignite
and the pellets are dumping into the ash pan.
Now what should I try?

 

[Bioburner]

If its getting cold try a manual start? Then keep the stove in manual mode to keep the fire going till your comfortable and have the time etc to try another repair attempt.

 

[fmsm]

Make sure the air holes are clear. A nail, paperclip, or some other device to poke in there will work. If you do not have good flow the pellets may not heat up enough to ignite.

 

[Jumpman227]

I would have bet that you were correct.
After I took the cover off it was kind of
full with ash. I vacuumed it out just like you
said and figured that I would be all set.
30 minutes later the stove will still not ignite
and the pellets are dumping into the ash pan.
Now what should I try?

I've had this problem several times and it has always been fixed by cleaning out the igniter area. Instead of just using the vacuum to clean it out put your finger in there and get all of it out, the vacuum may not be cleaning all of it out. Get as far as you can with your finger and clear everything out. After that put the "room temp" on off and turn the feed adjuster to test. Let it run through the tests. After that I'd set the temp high at say 80 and put the room temp and feed adjuster wherever you normally do. Hope this helps, I've run into this several times and this has always fixed it. Keep warm.

 

[rickgrimes2]

Try taping on the front edge of the burnpot, then take the access cover off and vacuum it again. The igniter is probably full of debris. Rick

 

[lbcynya]

Could also be excess carbon build up insulating the pellets from ignition. Get in there and scrape the heck out of the pot with the sharp end of the Harman tool. If you dislodge large chunks of carbon, that might fix it... Mechanics pry bar works really well too.

 

[Peterfield]

Try taping on the front edge of the burnpot, then take the access cover off and vacuum it again. The igniter is probably full of debris. Rick

I thought I had removed all the ash but when I got down to floor level after vacuuming, there was a pile of ash still in the back of the space. I used the small brush that came with the stove and swept out the space and a lot of ash came out.

 

[notch]

Same advice as others have already given. Make sure the burn pot doesn't have carbon buildup. When I first started I thought the burn pot was scraped clean, but as I got more experience I realized those "humps" weren't part of the pot! With the medallion and flame guide removed, have at it with both ends of the scraping tool. Prybar, or a cheap wood chisel from your local Chinese tool store works really good. Next make sure the igniter chamber is clean. As previously suggested, use your finger. After I vacuum it, I whale on the burn pot with the scraping tool and never fail to get a LOT more ash out of the chamber. If after that you still get no joy, vacuum out the pellets in the burn pot and add FRESH pellets by hand to the burn pot. This week in MA we've had some crazy warm and humid weather, so maybe the pellets in the hopper got a little wet. Adding dry pellets from an unopened bag may do the trick. See here: https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/non-combustible-wood-pellets.135828/

If none of the above work, then you may be looking at a warranty replacement. Given the time of year, and the really cold forecast, it would be best to just pick up some starter gel and fire it up manually to get you through the cold snap until your dealer (or you) can get a replacement igniter. If you plan to replace the igniter yourself, here's a good piece of advice: https://www.hearth.com/talk/posts/1807100/

Good luck, and let us know how you make out.