I think with corn and heat, it comes down to the moisture of the corn.

I grew my own last year, and field dried it, I dont have a moisture tester, but did the microwave test, and I'm sure it was higher than it would be if I bought from an elevator.

I'm burning pellets this year as I wanted to give my field some rest, and I must say these pellets burn hot, I rearely go past level 4 on the coldest of days, whereas last year I was always on 8 with the corn.

I'm going off memory here (which is probably a bad thing), but I think the issue was the middle trace going to the triac was coming in contact (i.e. shorting) with those resistors.

If you trace the triac and trace the resistor you will see what I am talking about.

The idea was to raise the resistor away from the trace of the triac thus removing the possible short.

I know for a fact, that was my issue, I had the failed ignitor, and when I raised them, the problem was gone, I may have even replaced the triacs..

Also, a good idea is to put a heat sink on the triacs, keeps them cooler.

So thats what the sound of th ebreaking of pellets is coming from? I always thought it was them getting smashed as they were traveling up to the drop tube.

This is my first year on pellets, and I'll tell you one thing, I can sure tell when the wheel needs cleaning, as there is barely a flame, clean under the wheel and huge flame.

I will try this the next time I clean under there, which should be very soon.
I'm thinking about taking a plastic lid of a small tub of butter then heating it in the middle to form around the bolt, then cutting to size, then taping the edges.

If this works I will make something more permanent.

Great idea Capri!

Finally got around to trying dbcrosby's program. Works as advertised.
I am running windows xp and had no issues at all.
It is so cool how it will change the setting based on inside or outside temps.

dbcrosby, would be willing to share the source code? I am interested in
learning how you read the data from another window, I have a project that I think I could possibly get to work after seeing how it was implemented, plus it would be cool to add some mods your program.

Yes if you have bixcheck just go in and look at what values change. You can kind of figure out from there what the setting is trying to accomplish.

Yes 2.71 the shutdown time was extended to ensure no fire or smoke on shutdown. I believe you can change this, but I don't see a good reason to.

I think he sells them on Ebay

I have mine at a slight pitch. My thinking was that if rain or condensation ever occur that it would flow out as to opposed sitting there or flowing back at the bixby or wall thimble.

Well , it's october 1 2011 , 40 degrees outside with rain.
I decided to replace a dead ignitor from last year and fire it up, this will be the first season burning wood pellets.

After replacing the ignitor, I figured I would disect the old one to see if I can see why these things burn out. For those that dont know, there is a spiral spring like wire that twists the length of the ignitor. At the end near the burn pot it was separated, thus the cause as to why it wss not working anymore.

I beleive the cause to these breaking here are because of cheap spring like wire or the ignitor flexing too much during start/stop/dumps, or corn getting in and blocking part of the ignitor end.

This may be why the metal ones last longer, less flexing. If I blow another one, I will try to repair it. I figure I can cut the ceramic one, solder a small piece of wire to reattach, then epoxy the ignitor back together.

So far , so good with the pellets.

Mary put it on eBay. It will sell

I'd be interested in seeing that, do you mind sharing?

I think the easiest way to achive remote control is to have something like vnc running on the laptop that is plugged into the stove. Then you could remotely open bixcheck

Also good idea to by a ups or battery.

Rob,

Glad you got it working again.
You did all the work in figuring it out.

Just scoop them out, put in a bowl, and add milk.

I hear you.
But, of everything works, buttons, etc, but the lights, I think you got it.

I would have to agree with you.

Yes I do, but thanks for the reminder, when my next one goes, I'll be sure to order a metal one from Blume.

Blume you are such a great resource to have. Thanks again!

hahahaha. Sorry all!!!

Ok, I've had an ignitor out for about 2 months. I have the spare in hand, but have been running 24/7.

Here is the weird part...ignitor went out after a cleaning.

Always seems to happen that way with me, they fail after a cleaning. And I'm not
being rough in the lower burn pot, all i do is put the shop vac in from above, then I clean the holes from below.

So my new strategy this year has been to clean monthly instead of weekly.
Has been working so far.

I would suggest 3 things.

1) take off your end cap and really clean out the exhaust , use a shop vac.
2) remove heat exchange covers and really clean behind the exchanger on the right side, get in there with a wire and get it good.
3) remove panel on right side, find the exhaust fan box cover and remove the screws, they may break, so read, read, read on how to replace those, but remove the cover and clean out the box very good.

If that fails, then you may need to replace the pipe.

Also clean out your window wash area.