This is our third season with the stove and we have burned about 10 tons. We have never had an ignition problem unless the stove is very dirty. Tonight the stove won't light and the burn pot is not getting warm. I inspected the ignitor and it's not even getting warm after being on for a couple of minutes. So, I'm assuming it's shot. My question is how is it attached to the burn pot? I'm assuming that it will take a couple of days for the dealer to come out and replace it. The unit itself should be covered under warrenty, but if it takes weeks to get it repaired I'll look to replace it myself.
ignitor problems for a harman xxv
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ddsailor25 said:
Welcome to the forum Sailor.
Unfortunately, as I read the Harman limited lifetime warranty, the ignitors are only covered for 2 years from date of installation.
macman said:
if you got it 3 yrs ago it may fall under the original wtty coverage which was 3 yrs parts and labor electrical parts.. call your dealer, if he wont do it, i'll talk you thru it: it is absolutely teat... pm me i'll call you up.
Thanks,
I'll call today at 10am when they open. If it's not covered I'll buy one today. The shop I bough it though is a good group of guys. They should give me some directions on replacement, but if not I'll get in touch with you.
Dave
I'll call today at 10am when they open. If it's not covered I'll buy one today. The shop I bough it though is a good group of guys. They should give me some directions on replacement, but if not I'll get in touch with you.
Dave
I think that the ignition system used by Harman is flawed in its design.
I would say that in this forum 99% of ignition problems are from Harman owners which indicates that theres a problem.
My Accentra is 3years old going on 4 and I already had to replace 5 yes FIVE ignitors. Pretty much two every year.
This is not normal.
The last one was replaced in April I believe and I am just waiting for it go as well.
Once that happens I am going to pressure the dealer to do something otherwise I will have to go directly to Harman.
I would say that in this forum 99% of ignition problems are from Harman owners which indicates that theres a problem.
My Accentra is 3years old going on 4 and I already had to replace 5 yes FIVE ignitors. Pretty much two every year.
This is not normal.
The last one was replaced in April I believe and I am just waiting for it go as well.
Once that happens I am going to pressure the dealer to do something otherwise I will have to go directly to Harman.
Be sure to ask about warranty coverage. They are not cheap.
Just replaced my ignitor this past spring and it was covered under the original
warranty. My XXV is going on year 4.
Supposedly, Harman finally acknowledged there was a problem with the premature
ignitor failure and resolved it.
Also note, dealer I got mine from stated the ignitor is covered if it is within the warranty
period but only ONCE.
Just replaced my ignitor this past spring and it was covered under the original
warranty. My XXV is going on year 4.
Supposedly, Harman finally acknowledged there was a problem with the premature
ignitor failure and resolved it.
Also note, dealer I got mine from stated the ignitor is covered if it is within the warranty
period but only ONCE.
Amaralluis said:
5 ignitors in 3 years?? :bug: YIKES! There's a problem with a Harman???? Can't be
:roll: My Astoria is an '05 model, and has the original ignitor (and it's an on/off design, so the ignitor gets a pretty good work-out on the not-so-cold days). I even bought a spare ignitor last year, thinking it would go bad, but it still works fine (just fired it up the other day for the prospective new owner). Hard to believe this is possible, since it's NOT a Harman.........
I have read that's damn near impossible, but maybe Harmon's customer service has improved?Amaralluis said:
Mike -
almost any ignitor that fails that often its due to excessive cycling of the unit. If the stove is always ran in thermostat mode with the wrong range it will start and stop to often and burn out ignitors. This is true for harman, quad, enviro or any other pellet stove that runs on a true thermostat mode. If the unit can be set up to cycle less, the ignitors will last allot longer. On a harman, the way to do this is to run it on the low range of the thermo setting. IF that still cycles the stove to much you might have bought to much stove in the first place. The other option is to run it on the manual mode.
Since were on the topic of ignitors...How do you change the ignitor on a Harman? Is it the two screws on the front of the burnpot? I think other members and myself would benefit from the info. Thanks
Thanks tinkabranc, I was trying to locate that one.
I have a link to a PDF file in the thread that tinkabranc supplied. It is containing the instructions with pictures. The link is invalid right now. I will try to supply a new link tomorrow.
I have a link to a PDF file in the thread that tinkabranc supplied. It is containing the instructions with pictures. The link is invalid right now. I will try to supply a new link tomorrow.
I just replaced the ignitor in my Harman XXV this past weekend. It wasn't too difficult, you just need access to the back to be able to pull through the ignitor wires. My biggest challenge was unhooking the stove and turning it so I could get to the back. Did a full clean while I had it moved and opened. I haven't tried it yet but might so today as it will be cool here today. My stove shop gave me a new one as mine was still under warranty. They did state this is a common problem for Harman's purchased in my time frame around two years ago.
WarmInNH said:
Good thing yours was under warranty; I think its a $90 part. Expensive enough without adding labor. Its not a hard job, so do it yourself if you can. I used the PDF instructions and replaced the one in my Advance back in June when I refurbished the stove.
WarmInNH said:
Good thing yours was under warranty; I think its a $90 part. Expensive enough without adding labor. I used the PDF instructions and replaced the one in my Advance back in June when I refurbished the stove. Its not a hard job, so do it yourself if you can. Still, I hope I don't have to do it often.
MountainStoveGuy said:
I dont have a problem with excessive cycling, except perhaps in the Fall and Spring where temps fluctuate more often but it still should not lead to premature wear of the ignitor.
I cant get a full year usage of one. Theres clearly a problem somewhere and despite my efforts all the dealer has done so far is to come to my place and replace it at no charge. I am tired of it.
I want the ignitor to last more than a year. I want to be confident that I set the stove @ 70F and the stove will do its thing to keep the house @ 70 and not having me get home with a stone cold house in the middle of a windstorm in December @ night like it happened to me two years ago.
When this ignitors goes and I know it will I am going to have to be alot more persistant that something needs to be done.
Amaralluis said:
Harman has had issues with a run of ignitors from about 2006-2009. Maybe you have a bad stove. But for alot of readers on this site, cycling is one of the major causes for any pellet stove to loose its ignitor. This advice might help someone else get a bit more life out of there ignitor. In the shoulder season the thermo range should be low. If yours is set to low, and it still constantly cycles, then if everything was perfect, you will still shorten the life of the ignitor. Ignitors have been good money makers since they came out about 10 years ago. They cant take the beating that they should be able to do. Manufactures have come up with all different designs, quad has there special loop one with a three year warranty (they originally shipped with two ingitors in bags because they would go out fast, and it was supposed to imply that its a replacement part) Lennox has there special hot air one, harman has there design. They all fail. I sell my fair share of ignitors every year from all makes and models. Your situation is excessive, so either you have had 5 bad ignitors in a row, something is wrong with the stove, or your cycling the stove hard enough to cause premature failure. A multimeter should tell a skilled service tech where the problem is. Have you had one out? If so, what did they check?
MountainStoveGuy said:
I hear mentioning this thermo range, can you explain what it is and how to apply to the stove (ie settings)?
As for the tech, they just replace the ignitor. They just tell me that there was a bad batch (going on for four years it seems) of ignitors and hope that the last one is the good one. No tests have been done despite me telling them that theres a problem somewhere, perhaps the control board that wear out the ignitor. I've read rumours that sometimes the stove keeps the ignitor on all the time (of course theres no way to test it that I know of) due to a faulty control and that could explain the quick wear of the ignitor if it is on all the time...
Anyway I will be more adamant next time, which shouldnt take long as the heating season approaches.
The thermo range i am talking about is on the knob on the upper left hand corner, you have a two ranges, each range has a setting, low and high. The top range is manual mode and the bottom range is thermostat mode. When you are in the shoulder season, and in the thermostat mode, just try to make sure you are on the low setting of the thermostat mode. Its better to run it in the shoulder season on the manual mode. This prevents the ignitor running and the stove cycling. This actually is a cool feature, because most stoves do not have any manual settings to help prevent them from excessive cycling.
Next time they are out, have them really check out the stove. Voltages in and out of the board, resistance of the ignitor, draft, etc.
Next time they are out, have them really check out the stove. Voltages in and out of the board, resistance of the ignitor, draft, etc.
Amaralluis said:
What about buying one of the devices that you plug your appliance into (Kill-A-Watt), and it tells how many watts are being used at the moment....should tell you if the ignitor shut off. Look at wattage when stove starts, and also later after proof of fire is supposed to shut it off.
Like this: www.amazon.com/dp/B00009MDBU/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=3320396845&ref=pd_sl_177pk9jliy_e
And not a total waste of $....you can test all sorts of things in the home for "wasting" energy.
I'm hesitant to correct anyone with 3600 posts. That being said. I'm very new to this... but on the XXV - I think the top left dial changes the mode of operation and the distribution blower speed. The top Right dial is the dial that allows you to adjust the stove temperature when in stove temp mode. I've put my stove on Stove Temp Mode (top left dial) and 55 degrees (top right dial). The stove seems to burn with a low flame and low heat output that is blown into the room with the setting for disbribution blower speed. I think.
clifford
clifford
Vermont, i am not always as clear as i should be! I was trying to say that the top left dial lets you choose the manual mode or the thermostat mode, and within each of those modes is a low and high setting. The right dial is where you dial in the room temp. The feed rate needs to be close (the lower left hand dial) to the setting on the thermostatic/stove speed dial. I get corrected all the time. This place is a great place to learn and we all make mistakes.
The "feed adjuster" knob should be ignored for the most part. Set it to 4ish and pretend it doesn't exist. the L-H on the selector (room temp/stove temp/off) is variable speed for the distribution blower. All other functions are from the one remaining knob (1-7/ degrees) and the ignitor switch (to prevent the stove from tunrning off in room temp mode, or for getting the stove to run in "esthetic mode").
The feed adjuster is a limiter for the maximum amount of time that the auger is allowed to run in a one minute cycle (each single digit represents 10 seconds), I like to describe it as analogous to a governer on a carbeurator. Your stove will NOT necessarily burn more pellets if you tunr the knob to 6 nor will it necessarily burn less pellets if you set it to 1(but it is likely to set the status light a blinking for low combustion temp). For many years I have found 4-4 1/2 on the feed adjuster to be most practical on almost every Harman, but by all mean turn it to 6 if you want to ensure that you get the highest output possible when you need it. Oddly sized pellets may require a bit of an adjstment to the "feed adjuster", slightly lower for very small pellets, slightly high for excessively large pellets, but don't go turning the knob to 1-2 thinking you will use less pellets. There may be applications out there where tweeking that knob does not interfere with "normal" operation, but more often than not, leaving that knob at 1 or 2 will lead to the 3 blink status light.
The feed adjuster is a limiter for the maximum amount of time that the auger is allowed to run in a one minute cycle (each single digit represents 10 seconds), I like to describe it as analogous to a governer on a carbeurator. Your stove will NOT necessarily burn more pellets if you tunr the knob to 6 nor will it necessarily burn less pellets if you set it to 1(but it is likely to set the status light a blinking for low combustion temp). For many years I have found 4-4 1/2 on the feed adjuster to be most practical on almost every Harman, but by all mean turn it to 6 if you want to ensure that you get the highest output possible when you need it. Oddly sized pellets may require a bit of an adjstment to the "feed adjuster", slightly lower for very small pellets, slightly high for excessively large pellets, but don't go turning the knob to 1-2 thinking you will use less pellets. There may be applications out there where tweeking that knob does not interfere with "normal" operation, but more often than not, leaving that knob at 1 or 2 will lead to the 3 blink status light.
Here is a cut and paste from the manual. There is so much varying information. When i got my stove installed, our harman tech went through the settings with me. He told me to adjust the feed rate based on the stove setting on the upper right hand knob. If the right hand knob is set to 6, he told me to put the feed rate at a hair above 5. If its set at 4, then the feed rate would be in the 3+ range etc.
Here is what the manual says:
"For most premium grade pellet fuels, the feed adjuster should be set at #4. If high-ash fuel is used, the setting may need to be adjusted to #5 or 6. Higher settings are also needed if you want to achieve the maximum capacity of the stove. Just be sure that when burning at maximum, Stove temperature mode with the feed adjuster on #6 and the temperature knob on "7" or "90°", the pellets are not falling off of the front of the burn pot before they have a chance to burn completely. You should try to keep about one inch of ash in front of the burning pellets"
Im still learning this stove, its new to me on the sales floor, and im a new owner as well. Our tech warned me about cycling the stove hard during the shoulder season, so i have been paying attention to that. If there is a better way to run these in the shoulder season, im all ears!
Here is what the manual says:
"For most premium grade pellet fuels, the feed adjuster should be set at #4. If high-ash fuel is used, the setting may need to be adjusted to #5 or 6. Higher settings are also needed if you want to achieve the maximum capacity of the stove. Just be sure that when burning at maximum, Stove temperature mode with the feed adjuster on #6 and the temperature knob on "7" or "90°", the pellets are not falling off of the front of the burn pot before they have a chance to burn completely. You should try to keep about one inch of ash in front of the burning pellets"
Im still learning this stove, its new to me on the sales floor, and im a new owner as well. Our tech warned me about cycling the stove hard during the shoulder season, so i have been paying attention to that. If there is a better way to run these in the shoulder season, im all ears!
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