First off, thanks for all of the info here, going into my third season for my sotve and have not had any problems at all,,,, until now. this summer I did a thorough cleaning, both blowers, greased bearings, swithched auger motors top to bottom and bottom to top, replaced all gaskets that needed it, (Thanks Englander for putting together that kit of gaskets!!),removed ignitor and cleaned out its hole, and cleaned everything really good.
OK so this morning it was a little chilly so I decided to fire it up, augers worked fine, OAK worked fine, but ignitor did not start the pellets in the burn pot. I manually started it with my torch and stove worked great, (thermostat controlled).
This afternoon i took the back off, unplugged the auger motors,(hopper is full) and set it into start sequence. Ignitor never "glowed" but did get warm, really too hot to touch, but never cherry red. I noticed that the very tip of the ignitor was not inside the cut out hole in the steel plate, but behind it and not centered. After it cooled down, i tried to center it in the hole but was unable to unless i moved the locking collar to give it more depth. I did not remove or loosen the collar in my cleaning endeavor, is it supposed to be "in" the hole, flush with the plate? or behind it?
I tried 3 more "dry" tests w/o pellets and not once did the ignitor glow,,,, but it did get very warm. Is it unusual for the ingitor to get "tired" or "lazy"? I always though a resistive heating element either worked or didn't, but i am no expert by any means.
Also I did not remove any wires from the board so I think I can rule that out. The ignitor is 120 volt right? so i should get 120 volts off of the tabs on the board during start up, right?
I appreciate any help on this as I thought it would be clear sailing after spending so much time cleaning it and doing what I thought was some preventative maintenance.
John
OK so this morning it was a little chilly so I decided to fire it up, augers worked fine, OAK worked fine, but ignitor did not start the pellets in the burn pot. I manually started it with my torch and stove worked great, (thermostat controlled).
This afternoon i took the back off, unplugged the auger motors,(hopper is full) and set it into start sequence. Ignitor never "glowed" but did get warm, really too hot to touch, but never cherry red. I noticed that the very tip of the ignitor was not inside the cut out hole in the steel plate, but behind it and not centered. After it cooled down, i tried to center it in the hole but was unable to unless i moved the locking collar to give it more depth. I did not remove or loosen the collar in my cleaning endeavor, is it supposed to be "in" the hole, flush with the plate? or behind it?
I tried 3 more "dry" tests w/o pellets and not once did the ignitor glow,,,, but it did get very warm. Is it unusual for the ingitor to get "tired" or "lazy"? I always though a resistive heating element either worked or didn't, but i am no expert by any means.
Also I did not remove any wires from the board so I think I can rule that out. The ignitor is 120 volt right? so i should get 120 volts off of the tabs on the board during start up, right?
I appreciate any help on this as I thought it would be clear sailing after spending so much time cleaning it and doing what I thought was some preventative maintenance.
John