Pellet stove 'ignitor problem'
Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2025 9:10 pm
Just posting this here in case someone, somewhere might find this useful in the future.
Had an issue with the Liliana Idro pellet stove a few days ago. Failed to ignite, and ended up with an ashtray full of pellets until eventually the trap door jammed open due to pellets obstructing. Appeared that it failed to ignite on multiple attempts. Cleaned it all up and it was ok for a day or two then the same thing happened. I assumed it was a dodgy ignitor, but after stripping it down and testing, it appeared absolutely fine. I then thought it must be a faulty microswitch on the trapdoor mechanism, or a faulty trapdoor motor. Just in case the ignitor was failing intermittently (I can't imagine it would do that, but was grasping at straws), I replaced it with a brand new one that I keep as a spare. It would not ignite at all. Checked it during the ignition phase, and it was glowing orange - so that definitely not the cause.
Turns out that the hole where the hot air enters the pellet chamber had narrowed down until it had blocked completely - with very hard vitrified ash I think. Spent an hour or so reaming it out with a variety of tools starting with a small allen key and progressing up to a large cross point screwdriver. Seems to have sorted the problem, and it's been running fine every since.
Had an issue with the Liliana Idro pellet stove a few days ago. Failed to ignite, and ended up with an ashtray full of pellets until eventually the trap door jammed open due to pellets obstructing. Appeared that it failed to ignite on multiple attempts. Cleaned it all up and it was ok for a day or two then the same thing happened. I assumed it was a dodgy ignitor, but after stripping it down and testing, it appeared absolutely fine. I then thought it must be a faulty microswitch on the trapdoor mechanism, or a faulty trapdoor motor. Just in case the ignitor was failing intermittently (I can't imagine it would do that, but was grasping at straws), I replaced it with a brand new one that I keep as a spare. It would not ignite at all. Checked it during the ignition phase, and it was glowing orange - so that definitely not the cause.
Turns out that the hole where the hot air enters the pellet chamber had narrowed down until it had blocked completely - with very hard vitrified ash I think. Spent an hour or so reaming it out with a variety of tools starting with a small allen key and progressing up to a large cross point screwdriver. Seems to have sorted the problem, and it's been running fine every since.
