My Harman 52i was installed last February. Ran like a champ the last few months of winter. This heating season, which began in October for me, began where we left off last year. The stove worked great. I am almost through my first ton. Here's where the problem begins. My flame was very lazy. I assumed it needed a cleaning and did a standard weekly cleaning. No luck. Eventually, the flame started going out and I was getting status light flashes. First five flashes, then six. Called my dealer and he made me aware of a few problems. He suggested I clean out the exhaust with a brush. I did. Stove started up, but quickly fizzled out. Called for a service, and have had the stove turned off since then. Tonight I decided to start it up one more try.
Now mind you, I was so perplexed that I actually pulled the unit out of the wall (its an insert) and cleaned out the auger (real groan to get to by the way). I also took out every last pellet in the hopper to see if there was something in the hopper bin restricting the feeding of pellets. Nothing. I refilled the hopper with a few pellets and what do you know, it's working like a champ. So here is my theory and I'm asking for all of your expert opinions. Might I have unknowingly left the hopper door open during all of this and caused an issue with the vacuum that is created by having the door closed. There's not much in the operation manual about this, only a vague warning not to burn with it open b/c of exhaust issues. Would this have caused my unit to shut down so quickly even if it was now in working order.
Two: Can you overfill the hopper, leading to issues? I generally like to pack the hopper as much as I can so that I don't run out of pellets on a cold night. Should I not be pushing pellets to the back of the hopper in an attempt to get more into it?
I'm convinced that the stove needed the deep cleaning that I gave it and would have run perfectly if I had not left the hopper lid open (which I'm not really sure if I did or not). Anyone have this issue before or know enough about how these things operate to square me away. Thanks in advance for any feedback.
Now mind you, I was so perplexed that I actually pulled the unit out of the wall (its an insert) and cleaned out the auger (real groan to get to by the way). I also took out every last pellet in the hopper to see if there was something in the hopper bin restricting the feeding of pellets. Nothing. I refilled the hopper with a few pellets and what do you know, it's working like a champ. So here is my theory and I'm asking for all of your expert opinions. Might I have unknowingly left the hopper door open during all of this and caused an issue with the vacuum that is created by having the door closed. There's not much in the operation manual about this, only a vague warning not to burn with it open b/c of exhaust issues. Would this have caused my unit to shut down so quickly even if it was now in working order.
Two: Can you overfill the hopper, leading to issues? I generally like to pack the hopper as much as I can so that I don't run out of pellets on a cold night. Should I not be pushing pellets to the back of the hopper in an attempt to get more into it?
I'm convinced that the stove needed the deep cleaning that I gave it and would have run perfectly if I had not left the hopper lid open (which I'm not really sure if I did or not). Anyone have this issue before or know enough about how these things operate to square me away. Thanks in advance for any feedback.