had stove on room manual all night as usual... left for work and dropped switch back into auto since exspected some sun later... got home and stove was off... no lights... was hoping it was just the fuse which it was.... replaced the fuse and started the stove in room auto. watched the pellets almost overfill with no ignite so know now ignitor is toast. have to gel start till i get another ignitor.. electric components are working fine since last night.. question is why the 6amp fuse blew.......... [1] I am assuming as it was trying to light and wouldn't it was a too much of a amperage draw ?? [2] ignitor flakes out and takes fuse with it?? any other thoughts on why fuse blew with the ignitor?? BTW:should mention that when i tried to start it when i got home, i watched the red indicator lights and the ignitor light would only come on for a flash then go off, i guess indicating it was not working ot taking any voltage.
Hello Typically the Harman igniter draws approx 2.3 amps during startup. When an igniter dies, sometimes it just opens up and no fuse blows. However sometimes it shorts out drawing excessive current and takes the board fuse out with it. I like to install an inline fuse holder onto the yellow igniter wire with a 4 amp AGC or 5 amp AGC fast blow fuse. This way the board fuse will not blow and the circuit board will not get a power surge.
What Don said. If you need to use stove, starting it manually, do not flip ignitor switch to "auto". Harman (and other) control boards can only handle so many times of an overload/short.
Here is Dons write up on installing a fuse----- Fusing your Harman pellet stove ignitor - save the board fuse and power?
LOL! Yes, things change.The "number of fins" thing has been going on for quite a while. I have seen it go up and down. If you want the "best", perhaps purchase the Harman item, but, all of them are made in china, the quality of the items from china has vastly improved, over the years. the igniter I put in my BIL's stove is aftermarket, but bought from Mountainview. If you have any doubts, call Mountainview, and ask for their opinion, and number of parts sold. They are super honest and very knowledgeable.
my money is on the fire resistant insulation on the igniter wire fraying and grounding out inside the burnpot. And if the burnpot was recently replaced, possibly a pinched wire is also pretty common.....but.....I stick by the frayed wire issue
Funny you should mention frayed wire. I haven't opened up and looked at my ignitor yet as I'll wait till my new one comes tomorrow and replace it. But a couple years ago I have The Frayed wire in the igniter box probably from the hundreds of times I figured out the ash and probably rubbed against it not realizing it. Anyways I was cleaning out the igniter box must have pushed the wire up against the bare metal got a shock and the stove fuse blew. Duh. Good example of what you just posted about from Ground Zero. LOL
Just got more info on why the fuse might have blown! Have a friend in a trailer park where like RV parks the electrical outlet voltage seems to vary and sometimes the lights will even dim! This is a symptom of too low voltage but not often, however just the other day the low voltage happened when the stove was starting up and because E=IR the igniter which operated properly at 120 VAC could not get the 120 VAC because the outlet voltage was low and pulled excessive current that overloaded the igniter causing it to short out and blow the board fuse!!! So the fix is to install an AC line conditioner like many new RVs have to regulate the voltage!!! A very good analogy is plugging a 15 AMP electric circular saw into a 20 Guage light Guage long extension cord! The big drop in the 120 VAC causes the saw to drawn excessive current and Fry the saw’s motor! See video This could be the fix! Please let us know? My friend is getting one of these next week along with a new igniter!
