Harman P68 igniter will not light pellets

[SidecarFlip]

I go through 10 tons of pellets a year and use very little oil or propane. I have a 3300 sq ft house that is open concept so my P68 heats 90 -95% of the house. The oil only goes on when it is windy and under 15 degrees. Hopefully you have a mild winter where you live so that the cattle have plenty to eat.

10 tons, that is a bit... Propane is dirt cheap here and has been for a number of years (knock on wood). Not sure about fuel oil, which, I presume is really diesel fuel, red dyed (off road, no highway use tax). Farm diesel for me is around $1.70 a gallon when I buy 500 or more.

You do bulk delivery on pellets or bagged on pallets?

I work on the one for the cattle, one for me philosophy. They eat and we heat.

Won't be lighting the stove for a while yet, most likely around the middle of November. It stays pretty moderate here until then. We have the Great Lakes to moderate temps.

Like having it on. It makes a comfortable 'cozy' type heat, but in reality, for me, it's a net looser, even burning my own field corn. Pellets are (for me), $4.30 a 50 pound bag and it costs me, about 90 cents a bushel to take it off (field corn) and dry it down to 12 %. Wish it came off at 12. it don't. I've seen 15 but it's usually in the 20's. At least biomass pellets are tax exempt in this state and of course so is the corn.

Keep the pellets on skids in the barn and 4- 30 gallon plastic trash cans of corn in there as well. I take 8 empty plastic 30 gallon trash cans and mix 2 parts field corn to one part pellets and fill 8 cans on 2 skids and those go to the house and that lasts us about 2 weeks. and repeat the process.

Unlike most people that burn corn, I don't ever clean it. I burn everything. The pellets help the corn along and eliminate the clinkers.

 

[SidecarFlip]

I not so fondly remember when we lived is north eastern Ohio and we heated with coal. Chunk coal is a touchy fuel to heat with. It's toasty warm heat but a real PITA to maintain properly, especially when working all day. Came home many a night to an unhappy wife and a cold house because the coal furnace had lost it's fire. I not so fondly remember using my oxy-acetylene torch to get the coal burning quick.

Pellets are much easier to ignite. Those were the days. Was an old Iron Fireman coal furnace with shaker grates. Probably hit the scrap yard decades ago.

 

[Tonyis]

10 tons, that is a bit... Propane is dirt cheap here and has been for a number of years (knock on wood). Not sure about fuel oil, which, I presume is really diesel fuel, red dyed (off road, no highway use tax). Farm diesel for me is around $1.70 a gallon when I buy 500 or more.

You do bulk delivery on pellets or bagged on pallets?

I work on the one for the cattle, one for me philosophy. They eat and we heat.

Won't be lighting the stove for a while yet, most likely around the middle of November. It stays pretty moderate here until then. We have the Great Lakes to moderate temps.

Like having it on. It makes a comfortable 'cozy' type heat, but in reality, for me, it's a net looser, even burning my own field corn. Pellets are (for me), $4.30 a 50 pound bag and it costs me, about 90 cents a bushel to take it off (field corn) and dry it down to 12 %. Wish it came off at 12. it don't. I've seen 15 but it's usually in the 20's. At least biomass pellets are tax exempt in this state and of course so is the corn.

Keep the pellets on skids in the barn and 4- 30 gallon plastic trash cans of corn in there as well. I take 8 empty plastic 30 gallon trash cans and mix 2 parts field corn to one part pellets and fill 8 cans on 2 skids and those go to the house and that lasts us about 2 weeks. and repeat the process.

Unlike most people that burn corn, I don't ever clean it. I burn everything. The pellets help the corn along and eliminate the clinkers.

I get pellets by the bag, 1 ton pallets. They start at $5.00 (at Lowes and Home Depot)and up in this area (Lower NY). Propane and fuel oil are not cheap in this area I have been using pellets for 13 years. The pellets are also tax exempt here also, which is a surprise. NY taxes everything.

 

[Former Farmer]

How does your burnpot look? Does it have a bump or cracks on it where the holes are located? This was a problem with the burnpots on Harman PB105 boilers.

Did you take your ignitor and see how hot it gets? You should be able to connect it to a 120 volts and have it heat up. It should turn a glowing red color. Did you check the voltage to the ignitor? Is it possible that the voltage is not high enough. It should be 118 VAC or higher. What is the voltage at the outlet that you have the stove plugged into?

 

[Tonyis]

Check the auto damper to see if you have a stuck flapper.
The igniter Triac on the circuit board could be weak or defective. Check the current draw with a amp clamp around one of the igniter wires.
Good luck.

I guess you hit the nail on the head.The meter reads just 1 amp or less. So as you say, it could be a defective Triac. Is there anyway to fix it? I already had to replace a MOV on the main board.

 

[cpetku]

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You say you've already replaced a MOV, so this implies your ok with a soldering iron. The triacs appear to be T835's from the pictures I can see. These are common and can be ordered on digikey.com. We can guess at which one it is based upon the P68 manual (ohm out pin 8 to each triac, but its probably Q6), I'd just change all four at $1.30 ea since shipping will cost more than the parts. I assume the IC on the gate is an opto-isolator. Probably cheap as well if you can identify the markings on it.

 

[Tonyis]

You say you've already replaced a MOV, so this implies your ok with a soldering iron. The triacs appear to be T835's from the pictures I can see. These are common and can be ordered on digikey.com. We can guess at which one it is based upon the P68 manual (ohm out pin 8 to each triac, but its probably Q6), I'd just change all four at $1.30 ea since shipping will cost more than the parts. I assume the IC on the gate is an opto-isolator. Probably cheap as well if you can identify the markings on it.

Thank you