Time to pick some brains.

[John Fortier]

As many here may know I have had a few headaches with our stove. Stoves and Stuff along with Titanmatt have stepped up to the plate. My question is..What would cause our igniter to burn out before we can get 3 months out of it. It was just replaced again on Friday. 2nd one. Stove is hooked to a thermostat ,so in the colder weather it will cycle quite a bit. Could that cause the burn out? I don't want to burn 24/7 as the house will get to warm and burn many more pellet. I do have a surge protector hooked up.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Your thermostat must have a swing capability or the short cycling will stress the igniter. There may be a sturdier igniter available, this would not be the first stove to benefit from an igniter upgrade. But I'd start by making sure that your thermostat can establish a cycle that allows the igniter to cool down before firing up again. I would also look at the igniter placement they work by the heated air flow going past them so proper distances and a clean air path over them are required.

 

[Bioburner]

Poorly manufactured igniter? Changed glow plug manufactures on a truck and went for years without issue.
Igniter being exposed to fire to much? bad burn pot design? Just shot in the dark without looking at the stove and comparing to other successful designs and the timing controls.

 

[johnoutdoors]

Have you looked at your electrical system? Are you getting 120 volts to the outlet? Is it higher, causing issues with an overload on the ignitor or a tranformer on the stove? It wouldn't be common, but I've read your posts and just trying to think out of the box at low hanging fruit that is easy to test.

 

[John Fortier]

Thermostat is a Travis Industries House of Fire. I have searched all over and find no real info on it, swing temp etc. I would like to stick with a simple thumb slide up and down thermo where I leave in the morn slide..get home at nite slide..Any suggestions would be appreciated for a better one. Igniter has been replaced and in the same position. When I pull the firepot I need to angle it towards me to pull it out. Can take photos if that helps.

 

[John Fortier]

John thought of the same..with a surge protector and a control board that I would think is a bit more sensitive. My thought is an igniter would be the bull and not the lamb. Am I on track there?

 

[bogieb]

Stupid thought here from someone who knows exactly zero about electronics, but if this is an ongoing problem maybe the igniter keeps going even when its job has been done? Could it be a wiring or grounding (mighty big words for me to be using) where it keeps trying to ignite while there is fire present but shuts off when the thermostat quits calling for heat?

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

John

I went looking for t-stats that are relatively simple and came up with a non programmable one from LUX that has 2 swing settings (narrow and wide) and two cycle (break) settings (these require the stove to remain in whatever state they are in for a minimum amount of time (2 different time periods) and a save temperature for set back (your sliding of the control lever would become a button push). I don't know what the swing width settings are but maybe a visit to their website would be in order. Yes it is a digital one.

Also that stove supposedly can operate in hi/low mode.

The t-stat is a Lux DMH110.

 

[ebengel]

John, not that it helps much now, but when the weather gets colder there is a jumper on the circuit board you can use to change the thermostat from on/off to high/low operation to save use of the ignitor. The jumper is shown on page 40 of your manual

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Here is a link to Grainger for cartridge heaters (aka hod rod igniters, gluing machine glue melters, etc ...) you need to match the diameter, and length with what is on that stove and keep the wattage under what the controler can handle but pick the higher wattage units when there is an option.

They have just a few to choose from also don't forget to keep the area around and in front of the igniter clean or it wont work fast and will stress the igniter such that it will fail quicker.

(broken link removed)

 

[John Fortier]

Thanks all for the feedback. Will look into all when I get back home.
Smokey and Eben. Thought of changing the jumper, the only thing Im not sure of is it will burn through a lot more pellet and heat the house to near 80. Runs continuously just switches between medium and low. Like when the igniter is out and I gel fire.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Thanks all for the feedback. Will look into all when I get back home.
Smokey and Eben. Thought of changing the jumper, the only thing Im not sure of is it will burn through a lot more pellet and heat the house to near 80. Runs continuously just switches between medium and low. Like when the igniter is out and I gel fire.

Yes there will always be at least a low fire in the stove so the pellet consumption may increase and you may get a bit warmer.

But the igniter will only get used when you turn the stove back on after cleaning it.

 

[John Fortier]

Ok first step will be the thermostat Smokey came up with. Simple to use, has a swing of 9, and when I leave in the morning hit the save button and it drops by 5 degrees come home at night and hit save again to bring it to my set temp. Easy and all for 20 bucks. Question..What do most set the swing to? I was thinking 4 or 5.

 

[John Fortier]

Dumb question..Up my chimney about 24' would an OAK benefit me? How tough to do as an add on?

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Ok first step will be the thermostat Smokey came up with. Simple to use, has a swing of 9, and when I leave in the morning hit the save button and it drops by 5 degrees come home at night and hit save again to bring it to my set temp. Easy and all for 20 bucks. Question..What do most set the swing to? I was thinking 4 or 5.

The swing setting depends upon what units it is in, they must have an update for that t-stat because the swing setting I saw was a jumper and only had wide and narrow.

You need to realize what swing means, it is above set point for turn off and below set point for turn on and this can interact with the cycle feature on the t-stat ( + or minus any cycle time requirements).

What I use likely will not work for you as I'm heating from a basement level, you'll need to experiment with the swing setting. I had to.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Dumb question..Up my chimney about 24' would an OAK benefit me? How tough to do as an add on?

I am not the one to ask because I refuse to burn without one but my money is on yes because I know the effects of not having outside air with a pellet eater with no real vertical length for venting and a few other considerations.

Inserts are a different sort of headache when it comes to making holes.

 

[John Fortier]

Thanks Smokey, from this site I did learn what the swing time means. I thought this would be a good start point to get the best performance. Since my warranty is still being honored I don't want to mess with the igniter yet as it may be voided if I go after market on an igniter. Side note...thank you so much with your help.

 

[John Fortier]

Oak for me would have to be up. My fireplace is in the center of my home and going through the ash clean out would put the OAK in my basement and from what I have read is a big NOPE!

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Oak for me would have to be up. My fireplace is in the center of my home and going through the ash clean out would put the OAK in my basement and from what I have read is a big NOPE!

Usually you would run the OAK through the ash dump and out the clean out in the basement and then outside. Yes you can''t draw the combustion air from a basement and have it be an OAK. You also have to deal with any length limitations.

 

[johnoutdoors]

John thought of the same..with a surge protector and a control board that I would think is a bit more sensitive. My thought is an igniter would be the bull and not the lamb. Am I on track there?

I don't disagree, but I think it would depend on where a transformer is in the line. If the onlything downstream is the ignitor, it would be the only bull in the slaughterhouse. That brings me to wonder if its a tranformer issue. Do you have factory voltage values and can you use a multimeter to verify?

 

[John Fortier]

Out my ash dump would then mean a 3' drop down then a 90 degree to bring it 3' up to the floor joists then another 90 degree to run at ceiling height 9 foot long to go out the foundation at 1 foot off the ground. Doesnt sound to efficient to me.

 

[John Fortier]

John I can peruse my manual and see if I can figure this all out, With a little bit from my friends!!

 

[johnoutdoors]

I just tried to download the manual myself. My computer wasn't liking it, so I'll try again in a bit. Where in Warren County are you? I'm in Augusta, just north of Newton.

 

[John Fortier]

Hey John,
Im at the lower end in Pohatcong. We are 1/2 a mile from the Delaware into Riegelsville, Pa. Ever get a chance check out the Riegelsville Inn..great place. Orrrrrrrr stop in and say Hello!!

 

[hossthehermit]

PICK ME PICK ME!!

........sorry, couldn't resist .......................