Mt Vernon Insert Thermocouple
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Well you have already helped a great deal! I kept the output to med as it has been warmer past few days but set pellet to softwood. It seems to have burned longer before cleaning so you are so very correct about that!
Still wondering about the corn pellet? Or just corn food product to burn pot cleaner? I think that would help a lot if I could get that cleaned up. Then perhaps it would just be igniter. As far as why it relit itself a couple of times I can only assume that I had it burning so hot that the igniter itself got hot enough to restart as it hadn't cooled off yet?? Mystery as igniter is definitely not working. Still haven't shipped parts yet so this may continue awhile but I have learned a lot from you sir! Thank you very much! The other people I had talked to missy not have an auto clean system as she said hers ran until the hopper was empty, which the first time I tried manual start it did. As long as I don't have a real bad case of dementia before the parts come I should be ok!! Bless you!
IF you have a farm store or some such, they might sell shelled corn in bags for feeding squirrels or such. If you find some, remember to set fuel table to corn setting, so you don't over feed, and I would do a mix, since you are starting it manually. And once again, there is no way, the stove will relight by the pot being hot enough. Next time it is doing this, pull ashpan and see if igniter is hot. And if you downloaded a manual, read it front to back a few times, to get to know your stove. kap
Thank you again! I did get 15 lb bag of corn and am mixing bag with pellets. Just got home to start it up! Seems ok so far have all mixed in the hopper as well so hopefully that will do the trick to clean. I missed fedex delivery of stove parts today, maybe tomorrow. If there fire pot cleans up as well as you said it may, may send new fire pot back will try new igniter since I know I need that! Ok, I am running stove much lower temp than before but if I see that it does restart I will definitely check the old igniter for heat! Thank you so very much, again!
It has been burning straight for 5 hours now, I have been waiting for it to shutdown but so far it hasn't?! I am thinking that it must be that the fire pot is indeed getting cleaned! Haven't looked inside yet as I had to watch the Patriots lose! Can't beat those Ravens anyway! They are a formidable team!
I kept it at 3 output, -1 flame height, set on soft pellets as it was mixed with the corn. Been burning slow and steady! If I had the igniter I may be all set? Have to see what happens through the night. I was expecting it to shut down and I was going to do a rapid reset to keep the corn burning to clean it out. I am thing that perhaps the hopper is almost empty at this point! Will keep you posted!! I am impressed by your knowledge and grateful for your help!
Hey! Yes 10 mins after I wrote my reply it shut itself down. I kept it out for the night as I try to be around when it does the auto clean as it mixes clinkers ash and fresh pellets together s it won't reignite.
I have to say that indeed the fire pot was much easier to get cleaned down to the metal again. Good to know as I may throw in a bag every note and then. I am back to my hard pellets so I will see what happens. Have it a thorough cleaning today before restarting. Kept hand by the igniter as it started, nothing. I really hope that getting the new style igniter will take care of it permanently! I am grateful for all your information and suggestions as it has allowed me to keep using it and understand more how it works! Maybe you could write a trouble shooting manual!!
oh sorry that was confusing. I had to manually start it but as it ran through the start up phase I kept my hand by the igniter to see if it got hot at all. I didn't think it would and it didn't.
Any last advice as I attempt to change out the fire pot, and igniter? Should I also do the tc as I have one just need to get at the back of stove to connect them in? The rain I ash as I will actually have the whole assembly out and it may be a good time to access everything! I hope on installing the igniter into the new housing safely before putting the whole put assembly back in so I can guide wires properly through clip area. Thinking that it may be the best time to install the new tc as everything else will be new as well???
Well thank you for that but stupid is what stupid does, thought I would change it out while I had it apart, problem is that I can't access the board very well and I can't seem to get it to clip on to the tiny little metal posts, spacing isn't quite right and I end up bending one of the prongs when I try to push it on. I may have to put the old one back on if I can't get it, hopefully I didn't already mess up both of them. So can you try me what to expect if it no longer does work out I can't get it on??
Well, the tc I had in the stove went through the side of the stove with a long thin wrapped wire the ran all the way in the back of stove to the left side of the stove and attached onto the control board. I was able to disconnect the old one and installed the new one but was not able to clip into the control board. After installing the fire pot and igniter, I decided to put the old one back in. However, I once again was unable to got it on the two small posts on the control board, I did figure out how to get the stove to move though, four screws , two in front on each side and two in back on each side the actress actually tightened to the floor, didn't help me very much to gain East access to the control board however.
...and a you can imagine at this point, one of the posts finally broke off the control board so now I am really stuck, have a new guy coming out tomorrow to take a look, when I started the stove it goes right to the error screen saying bad tc fire pot. Everything else went in very easily, faulty thinking that if I replaced it all the parts would be new. Lesson to learn was if it ain't broke don't fix it! .... groan.... most likely I will not like the price that I will not have to pay to fix it or replace it or just get rid of it and try a gas insert, because I live in a condo I have to have permission to run gas lines so that may not be doable either. Sigh, moving to warmer weather for winter is sounding better and better!
Thank you again for all your help but you can't fix stupid and that what this turned out to be a lesson in! My guess is that the control board will be very pricy. I also realized that the fire pot was a mess actually but I didn't know it wouldn't come with a new bottom plate, that was where most of the build up was. The corn did a great job getting that cleaned up, (great tip for anyone burning pellets) while I had it apart I used a scraper and wire brush to really clean it off.
The good news is.... well there isn't any for me but anyone else having these troubles take heed! Kap really knows what he is talking about, no ignite is not tc problem, I am not sure I will get to know whether the low voltage igniter is better or not but it certainly appeared to be more sturdy at the wing nut connection area of wires than the others I had.
KAP, thank you so very much for all your patience and assistance trying to help me get this solved. You certainly know your stoves! Wish the very best in 2020! Now to crank up the electric heat! Ugh!
The pins on the control board are covered by a black connector. You clip the wire harness from the tc onto that. I would say it sounds like when you pulled the old one, you pulled the connector off board, exposing the pins. Ya, a control board will probably run around 750.00 from a dealer. I would look online at places and shop around for one. And I would use paypal to protect yourself from scam sales. kap
Yes, in fact that is what happened! When I began to look online at control boards an got a chance to see them close up I realized that is exactly what happened. So learn that it is really important to realize that it is best to be able to readily access the control board and as they clip onto a base piece on the control board you have to carefully unclip the top part from the bottom part. This would have been awesome to have been able to see on video before I tried to do it but I couldn't find anything online that would show it.
I saw them as low as 557 online but without being able to see how it is done and without having direct overhead access to the control board area, it is not something that I would try to do myself.
considering that prior to my having decided to try to fix it myself as I had already spent $600 for the home visits not including parts each time (another at least $700) and he had already told me if he had to come back to fix the tc it would be another at least $400 and then it was actually the igniter that was gone at the time, it would have been another few weeks and more visits if I had used them again. I would not recommend them to anyone as I feel that I was taken advantage of as each time they came to fix it, it would last a week and then something else would need to be fixed. The last time he was here even though I told him for certain the auger motor was bad he spent. 45 mins testing the unit first, the auger jam error code was already on the screen and I had told him that I had cleaned it out completely and got it to work for one night and then it wouldn't work at all and the error code would not clear again no matter what I tried to do to clean out the hopper and clear the auger completely.
It has been quite the experience. I thought that I could trust them because the previous owner had bought the stove from them to begin with but never had it serviced from them the whole first 8 years. Perhaps they thought that they needed to make up for the lost time? They offer a yearly cleaning and inspection which I would have considered doing but after needing the repair visits in as many weeks made me think otherwise. Having been told when they cleaned it that it wasn't that dirty and when I requested that the springs be changed for the auto clean because I thought I'd was very sloppy in operation to be told it was fine until a week later when someone else came out to fix it.... kinda leaves you with a bad taste. Lesson learned. The problem now is that I have already spent half the price of a new insert trying to fix the old one. I now need a tc and new control board. Should I just buy a new one that will run another 10 years an consider it an investment for problem free running, or spend another 1000 +- to have those last two parts done and hope that nothing else like blower fans, etc will go bad for many years to come. Kind like robbing Peter to pay Paul at this point. Even though I own it as a condo, I am restricted in what freedom I have to just put in another system requiring gas etc. it may be best to sell it for parts with the rest of the pellets (ton) and be done with it. It will probably be a lose lose situation at this point anyway. A new stove would probably be the better way to go as it would be a better selling point but pulling it out would make my life easier in many ways!
Whatever I ultimately decide doesn't matter here. But I am grateful for all your help and knowledge, you were spot on!It would have been extra helpful to have been able to see someone on video doing a demonstration of all these things but then no one would use their service department? ? As they could and would do it themselves! Good advice about using pay pal for extra protection, will consider it! All the best! And hope this feed will help someone else in the future! KL