Harman paint flaking - true cause found

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MikeNH

MikeNH

Burning Hunk
Nov 27, 2012
233
Temple, NH
We bought our P61a Dec 2012. This past fall, we noticed more paint flaking off the front. It's now to the point where most of the black paint from the heat exchanger output down to the door has flaked off. Now some paint around the sides of the door is flaking. I've only seen this happen to a stove twice this badly. Once was on an overfired wood stove (not me) and the other was on a stove where someone (also not me) used paint that wasn't high temp rated. I've been working with my dealer on this, who has been working with Harman. Today I got the call that confirmed true cause. For a period of time, some stoves were coming out of the factory with paint that was not high temp rated, and thus the flakes. So if anyone else out there runs into this issue, check with your dealer. My stove was manufactured July 2012.

Kudos to my dealer - Heartline Stove Shop in Jaffrey, NH - and to Harman - for making it right. At the end of the heating season (my choice - they would do it now if I wanted) they are going to pick up the stove, have it sanded and completely repainted with the correct paint, then bring it back to my home and reinstall it. That's great customer service.

EDIT: attaching pic per request. badpaint.JPG
 
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great job finding out what happened do you have any pictures of the flaking paint? I have a Harman insert and there is a few paint spots flaking off but its only like 2 or 3 spots nothing to bad. My stove was manufactured earlier and think its not the same thing but checking into it. It was never overfired or repainted I think something just hit it and chipped the paint but just wanted to check thanks
 
That makes me glad I bought a Harman. Thanks for sharing your story.
 
Glad it's gonna get straightened out. The folks at Heartline are great. I've had nothing but 100% satisfaction from them.
 
Mine was bought in 2010 and I have the same problem, except mine is flaking off the top of the heat exchanger and the hopper lid.
 
Glad they are taking care of you. Not glad that an expensive stove would be painted with the wrong paint at the factory. How does this happen I wonder?????
 
PJPellet said:
Glad they are taking care of you. Not glad that an expensive stove would be painted with the wrong paint at the factory. How does this happen I wonder?????
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I agree. BIG TIME duh move. My shipping box and manual both had a "New Paint 258H"(or something like that) sticker on them. Now I know why.
 
P38X2 said:
I agree. BIG TIME duh move. My shipping box and manual both had a "New Paint 258H"(or something like that) sticker on them. Now I know why.
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our new P43 has that same sticker, mfg'd 11-11-2013

sam
 
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uh oh, my new P35i had the paint sticker too. But having confidence that Harman is making yours right I know they will do the same for others. Another reason why a Harman is worth the money!
 
fmsm said:
uh oh, my new P35i had the paint sticker too. But having confidence that Harman is making yours right I know they will do the same for others. Another reason why a Harman is worth the money!
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"New paint......" sticker is a good thing. I'm assuming this indicates the proper paint was used.
 
PJPellet said:
Glad they are taking care of you. Not glad that an expensive stove would be painted with the wrong paint at the factory. How does this happen I wonder?????
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We need to get these units out the door by Friday.

But sir, the high temp paint won't be in until next Tuesday.

Here kid, take this petty cash and run down to Dinkelman's Harware. Grab a few cans of Krylon high temp paint. It will be fine, the stoves don't get that hot anyway! No one will know
 
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Or the new paint was tested and appeared to handle the high temp but not for a long enough period of time (ie real life use over years). The problem only shows up a couple of years down the road.... The R&D to find a new (read cheaper) paint likely was too short. It's like the drug companies trials - they only find problems once a bigger group uses them for longer periods of time... DES, thalidomide, Celebrex to name a few.
 
Does anyone know how long a typical stove will go before you need to repaint? My stove is a Feb 2011 and the paint is flaking. Not nearly as bad as the OP but enough that it is noticeable.
 
PJPellet said:
Does anyone know how long a typical stove will go before you need to repaint? My stove is a Feb 2011 and the paint is flaking. Not nearly as bad as the OP but enough that it is noticeable.
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They gave me no indication of how long it was an issue for or how many stoves were affected. You may want to call your dealer and inquire.
 
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Look at build dates on the stoves, not when they were purchased. That will home you in on when the bad paint was in use. Harman had a huge number of stoves in stock when they stumbled and got bought out by Hearth and Home back in 2007. So they would have been in the dealer pipeline for a long time.
 
BrotherBart said:
Look at build dates on the stoves, not when they were purchased. That will home you in on when the bad paint was in use. Harman had a huge number of stoves in stock when they stumbled and got bought out by Hearth and Home back in 2007. So they would have been in the dealer pipeline for a long time.
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My build date was July 2012
 
Good info. I'll be checking the build date of my new P61A tomorrow. At the moment, I do not know how long it has been on the floor at the dealer.
 
Countryboymo said:
I would go ahead and get it painted before someone forgets the agreement if any way is possible.
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I thought about it, but we'd have to live on HHO for awhile, and they would have to pry the stove out of my wife's cold, dead hands. My dealer is very reputable, and they also have it in writing from Harman, so I'm not too concerned.
 
PJPellet said:
Does anyone know how long a typical stove will go before you need to repaint? My stove is a Feb 2011 and the paint is flaking. Not nearly as bad as the OP but enough that it is noticeable.
Click to expand...

My stove is over 13 yrs old and the paint is as good as new.
 
when I was at the dealer I asked about any details regarding which stoves may be affected. Harman narrowed it down by a range of serial numbers, so you would need to give the dealer that information to find out if your stove was affected. Also, they thought it was a supplier problem (as in the supplier of the paint delivering the wrong stuff).
 
Just an update on this - Harman and my dealer (Heart Line In Jaffrey, NH) are in the process of making good on their promise to remove, repaint, reinstall our stove at no cost to us. Good customer service - which is becoming increasingly more rare these days.
 
Great customer service would have been THEM CALLING YOU and asking whether or not your stove was flaking paint as they found an error in the production run according to your warranty registration card. Seem they can find the answer when you complain, but what about all the folks that think its normal? Why on earth would there even be paint in the shop that isn't high temp? I don't know, sound fishy to me. I can understand a supplier error. There is a chance this will happen every single time inventory is depleted.

Hats off to the dealer for doing the right thing....though I can assure you, it's not like they're going to ship the stove back to PA and bake an enamel on the stove. You're going to get a scuff with some sandpaper and a hit of stove bright satin black. I imagine the dealer isn't so thrilled about it either.

In all seriousness though, I've seen this on so many stoves I wouldn't hold out faith that it won't come back again. It happens. Just my 2 cents.
 
Bought our P61A lat November and so far so good.
our only problem is the Hopper area..
someone[not me] has long nails that scratch that area when opening the hopper lid Latch.
. have to investigate further...
 
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