Harman P-38 and P-43 stoves may be succeptable to pellet bridging......

I've been burning pellets for over 15 years now and owned six pellet stoves; four Harmans and two Whitfields. I've probably burned at least ten different brands of pellets, if not more.

I just had my new P-43 installed and on burning the very first bag of American Wood Fiber pellets, the stove quit running in the middle of the night. Sure enough, the pellets in the hopper bridged as when I stuck my hand down in the hopper to stir the pellets, I heard several of them fall.

I had the same bridging problem with my Harman P-38 stove using Kentucky Kernal pellets. Many of these pellets were over the 1.75 inch max specification so I attributed that to the bridging problem.

With the American Wood Fiber pellets, there are some longer pellets but overall, they seem to be within the length specification.

I've never had a bridging problem with either of my Harman Accenta inserts or my two Whitfields.

I'm concluding that the bridging of pellets is common with the P-38 and P-43 Harman stoves. It does seem like one way to minimize the bridging is to only fill the hopper half full of pellets.

I would like to hear comments from other P-38 and P-43 owners that have had bridging problems.

The two other Harmans, both Accentra inserts, burned all the pellet brands well. I've had no bridging problems with them. It's only with the P-38 and P-43 stoves which are essentially the same stove design.

Another point is with both the American Wood Fiber and Kentucky Kernal pellets, we purchased two 24 ton truckloads. None of the other folks who used these have had any bridging problems. However, they all have different brands of pellet stoves.

Ok, so nearly everyone who has a Harman P series stove has stated that they have not had bridging problems so it must be the pellets.

My followup question is then why am I having bridging problems with both the P-38 and P-43 when many others who use the same pellets from the same lots/truckloads with different brand stoves have no problems. I store all my pellets inside.