Missed Ignition

A couple of nights now I’ve come home from work, found the pellet stove off, and the house cold.

Last week when I got home from night climbing at midnight, I found a “missed ignition,” then spent an hour and a half getting it lit again.

Sunday morning when I left to climb before anyone else was up, it had missed again.

So what’s going on?

My theory and quick resolution which may have proved it Sunday morning is this:

The stove has what’s called a burn pot. It’s a metal cup about the size of a coffee cup. When it lights, it drops fresh pellets into the burn pot, then heats up an electrode under the pot to the point the pellets in the pot catch fire. Periodically throughout the day the stove will automatically kill the fire, clean the ash from the pot (it has a retractable bottom), drop fresh pellets then relight.

On these really cold days when the stove is burning super hot and running constantly, the pellet ash is clinkering and sticking to the sides of the fire pot. When the stove stops to clean itself, then drops in new pellets, the new pellets get caught on top of the clinkers, which did not fall into the ash pan. When the igniter heats up to heat the bottom of the fire pot, the pellets are too high up and don’t ignite.

The quick fix I’ve learned is to reach into the fire pot and manually clean out all that’s  in it, so that the pellets can fall to the bottom. The stove lights and continues to heat the house in a matter of minutes.

Googling around it sounds like it’s time to remove my fire pot and clean the carbon off the insides of it. Years ago I used to remove the bottom and do it. Guess I’ve been a bit lazy these last couple of years.

– b