An ignitor element is very similar to a light bulb in that it turns on when you put power to it. Ignitors get red hot when they are working, so a visual check is the first thing you want to do. A working ignitor will glow red in under 2 minutes.
If you have a volt meter you can check to see that the ignitor is getting the proper voltage of 110-120 volts ac. If you are not getting power then you have an issue with the circuit board and not the ignitor . Check all the fuses on the circuit board. Usually the ignitor has a fuse that can fail. If all fuses are good you may have a bad circuit board. This is very rare but it is possible.
If yo don’t have a volt meter to test the voltage coming out of the board you can bench test the ignitor by connecting directly to 120 volts coming out of a light socket. It should glow red in under 2 minutes if it’s working.
Ignitors can work partially when the coil inside the ignitor breaks. When this happens only part of the igniter will glow red or even get a little hot. Normally ignitors will glow red except for maybe 1/4 inch on the ends.
If your ignitor lights but your pellets won’t then you have the possibility of the stove being to dirty to operate. This happens when an excess of ash builds up in the stove and restricts the air from moving out the chimney. It happens in every pellet stove and needs to be cleaned out at least once a year. See my other blog post for more info on cleaning pellet stoves.
“Is This an Original Part or a Knock Off?”
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