No ignition in my St Croix Hastings pellet stove

[Jim Kassal]

My St Croix Hastings pellet stove is about 15 years old. It’s been running fine all these years except for a couple occasions when a part failed. Recently, the combustion started to get a little sooty, and I thought I just needed to clean everything, sweep out the flue, etc. But the problem persisted and the burn pot started to accumulate creosote. Last night, the stove went out, the burn pot was loaded with pellets, the #3 light was flashing. I emptied and cleaned the burn pot and attempted to start the stove . Everything went as normal, the auger started loading the burn pot, but there was no ignition. I turned the stove off, emptied the burn pot of pellets, and there was no sign of any warmth, so I assume the igniter is not functioning.

I do not see an igniter in the parts list so I don’t know what to do. Is the ignition a magnetic induction arrangement? I’m quite stumped. What should I do?

Aha, I found the "hot rod" - Igniter in the parts list. Is this the most likely problem?

Jim

 

[jzm2cc]

Sounds like stove could use exhaust channels, back wall, and piping cleaned out with leaf blower trick if firepot is overflowing. If you can measure resistance across igniter with it unplugged, that will confirm whether it's good or bad. A good igniter should be approximately 40 ohms, a bad one will be much higher or infinite resistance.

 

[bigupnorth]

I have a 14 year old Ravelli Pisa and must have replaced the igniter 3 or 4 times. If you couldn't feel any heat I'd say yours has died. Mine 'ticks' as it heats up, so I can hear when it's gone - no ticking = no ignition! I always like to have a spare one in the house so that I can replace a dead one immediately.

 

[rickwai]

Sounds like stove could use exhaust channels, back wall, and piping cleaned out with leaf blower trick if firepot is overflowing. If you can measure resistance across igniter with it unplugged, that will confirm whether it's good or bad. A good igniter should be approximately 40 ohms, a bad one will be much higher or infinite resistance.

I second that. Do the leaf blower trick first.

 

[Jim Kassal]

Thank you all. I did the continuity check and the old igniter is an open circuit. I have a new one on the way. Also did the clean out.

 

[Jim Kassal]

I have been struggling with igniters that don't last very long. My St Croix Hastings is about 17 years old but I only started to run it on a thermostat about 10 years ago. And that's when the igniters started to fail too frequently. I know that cycling on and off puts extra stress on them, but the last few have only lasted a few months. In fact, the last one failed in just over a week. So I suspect something else is going on. Does anyone have any suggestions about this?

 

[Ssyko]

That sounds about right, I have been experimenting with igniters for about 2 years. So far I have found Oem last a lil bit longer than aftermarket. Ingniter rods anywhere from 1 week to 5 weeks. They have all come from diff stores in China. I bought some from Amazon this year and they have lasted the longest so far, 4-5 weeks a rod. None are made the way they were 20 yrs ago unfortunately. I run my maxx on thermostate only and it is kept clean. If you question it remember the stove only turns on a switch (triac/HF chip) it does not control the amount of voltage or amperage to the igniter. The control board will only handle around 5-6 amp through it before the fuse blows.

 

[Jim Kassal]

I did a thorough cleaning not along ago in accordance with the manual guidelines. But I just looked at the door gasket and although it seems OK, I wonder if it has been compressed too much over the years and not proving as good a seal as it should. That said, there is never any problem with the negative pressure switch during startup or while running. Still, I might replace it just to avoid a possible issue down the road. It is the original gasket and coming up on 18 years old.

 

[johneh]

If it is not frayed or coming apart, use a spray bomb of water, wet it down and scrub
With a toothbrush, then using your fingers, fluff it up . If it isn't broke, don't fix it

 

[Jim Kassal]

Ok, that makes sense. I'll try that. Thanks.