The only decent pellets I have seen at HD are the Blazers that I have and some AWF a couple of years ago. My local HD last year got a chit load of Blazers, hundreds of tons of them. I bought 3 tons after I already had my supply for the year, thus my large inventory.
Sub, I think I *may* have fixed the slow startup issue. I will report back in the next few days either way. Last night startup: 21 mins and 45 seconds from startup to distribution blower kicking on. The stove does an initial feed of 4 minutes, then stops for 5 minutes, then does 8 bursts of 15 seconds on, 15 seconds off, then stops for a few more minutes, then does more bursts of 15 seconds on, 15 seconds off. It was about half way through the first 8 bursts of 15 on / 15 off before I saw flame, then it just smoldered for a good while and it had to get well into the second burst of 15 on / 15 off before it really heated up (you know, you can hear the metal doing a consistent TICK TICK TICK) and then the blower finally came on. After purging the hopper and spending a little time working on it this afternoon, I lit it up a few minutes ago. 4 mins to see flame, 5 mins 15 secs the distribution blower came on. I was like, "SWEET!" Promising, but too soon to tell because as I was working on it, I put it in test mode for a few mins and so a small quantity of pellets ended up getting pre-fed into the burn pot before I lit it up, and that sort of skewed the results a little. It does answer the question from before thought; if I put a handful of pellets in the burn pot before lighting it, will it light faster? Definitely.
20 minutes is way too long. Time for a new igniter. I havnt timed mine, but approx 5 minutes is where its at.
Have you emptied the hopper looked into the bottom with a flashlight? And removed cover to the dust cleanout on the auger and cleaned it out? If you have something partially obstructing the plate at the bottom of the hopper it won't drop as many pellets into the auger each full rotation and will take a long time to deliver enough pellets to start the fire. There is a plate at the bottom that slides sideways when the auger makes a full rotation. It drops pellets into the auger. If there is something stuck in that hole pellets might still get through, just not the correct amount. That would also explain why it lights faster after running the Test cycle - it pre-loaded the auger. If you can run the hopper empty (make SURE you unplug it first), you can stick a finger into the gap at the bottom to feel for any obstruction.
Scot, you just described *exactly* what I did yesterday. There was no obstruction. I was hoping to find something in there, but that would be too easy. If there is anything in there it is not reachable via the hopper...I pulled the slide plate completely out. Learned something new, never did that before. I then cleaned and vacuumed as much as I could from the hopper hole and fines box area, and then re-installed the slide plate. My feeling is maybe part of the slide plate assembly wasn't seated properly, so it wasn't getting its full range of motion or was sticking in some way. I considered lubricating the bottom of the slide plate with a little 3-in-1 oil to make it move more easily, but I did not do that yet. If the issue persists, I will try that next unless someone here tells me that would be a bad move.
Maybe re-seating that slide plate was just what was needed. I know that with my PB105, if it feeds for that long and doesn't light I get pellets overflowing out of the burnpot. That's why it sounded like a feed restriction to me.
A few years back, my Englander started doing the slow (7-8 min) startup. Installed a new ignitor, and had fire in about 2 minutes.
OK, problem not solved. It took the stove > 23 minutes from start to distribution blower tonight. It wasn't until the very end of the first burst of 8 15 secs on / 15 secs off feeds that I saw flame, which was like 14+ minutes in, and even then the pellets were barely breaching the first row of holes - so they just smoldered for a while because there isn't sufficient air flow at that point to really get them going. So, pellet starvation it is. I have a pretty good idea what's wrong, but I don't yet know how to fix it. I spent some time behind the stove watching the auger turn, and the actuator arm pushed by the wheel on the auger. The actuator arm is what moves the slide plate back and forth. When the wheel pushes the actuator arm in the direction that pushes pellets into the auger chute, it seems to be pushing it all the way. However, when it pushes the other end of the arm, which should pull the slide plate all the way back, the wheel isn't pushing the arm enough to push the slide plate all the way back. So basically, I'm only getting a fraction of the full slide plate movement that I should be. It's only closing half way, let's say. After the wheel loses contact with the arm, I can push on the other end of the arm and get it to move a decent amount, and when I do that, the next time the wheel pushes the arm to slide pellets into the auder, I can audibly hear a LOT more tinkling of pellets dropping. I compared the actuator arm movement range against the P43 and it's a pretty decent difference. So...now, what to do about it? When I pulled the slide plate out and back in over the weekend, there was no notable resistance or obstructions, it moved quite freely. Not like it was on slippery ice freely, but seemed easy enough to me. There were no unusual sounds, etc. It just seems like the actuator arm and the wheel that moves it are not in contact with each other sufficiently to provide full movement of the slide plate. Anyone ever heard of something like this? I'm hoping there's a method to adjust it? Not that it matters, but there is no deflector plate in my fines box. The Harman man did a once over on the stove and took it out when he was here a few years back.
Believe me, I'm no Harman expert at all, but this doesn't sound right. Why isn't there enough air flow? Does the exhaust blower on a Harman run slower during start-up?? If not, why would it make a difference later on in the ignition cycle? From what I know about pellet stoves, the blower has to run fast enough to get good burn air through the pellets to get them lit. Are you sure your ignitor is getting hot enough?
I know what you are saying, but it does not seem to be the igniter, and air flow seems fine. The stove simply isn't feeding enough pellets. It's also worth stating that this is not a new issue. It's been like this for some time. Exactly how long, I don't remember but the super slow startup has been going on for a while. It's like Scot said, as long as the pellets feed before it starts up, there should probably be pellets dropping off the edge of the burn pot, it should be so full, but it barely makes it to the first row of burnpot holes. It's as if the stove is feeding half the quantity of pellets it should be. I'm also having to use a higher feed rate these days (say 4 or even sometimes 5) to get the same flame that I used to on 3 or 3.5 which again points back to the stove not getting enough fuel. Can't wait until this is solved.
