Our PF100 is about 3 years old and has worked great until about 3 weeks ago. We have had a cold snap with temps below zero for a few days. Can't get the house about 66 in the day, drops as low as 55 at night with stat set at 75. We have never had an issue before now even with below zero temps. Same pellets, cleaned top to bottom, tried softwood pellets vs normal hard wood. No luck. Noticed today our upper baffle has corroded significantly with a large horseshoe shaped 'hole' in the top. Could this effect the heat output? Is it safe to burn while waiting for a replacement? Thanks for any help!
Harman PF100 Upper Baffle
- Thread starter WarmVTer
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Ejectr
Minister of Fire
It's got to be the reason. It's the only thing that is showing. I'd say it's safe to run it, but obviously it will make a difference in the unit's efficiency.
Former Farmer
Minister of Fire
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/pf100-upper-baffle.77432/#post-1013300
Do a search on pf100 and baffle. You will find some info from the past.
Do a search on pf100 and baffle. You will find some info from the past.
exoilburner
Feeling the Heat
Well, the information you have given us is you have a bad baffle plate in a PF100 that is not heating properly. Not much to go on there.
I don't think a bad upper baffle could cause it to heat that poorly unless the baffle is causing a blockage of the heat exchanger. Have you pulled out the upper & lower baffle plates to see if there is open air flow between the baffles and the heat exchanger. Especially on the floor of the fire box.
My PF100 is 5 years old and there is very little corrosion on the baffle plates. I wonder why such bad corrosion. Is there any corrosion on the heat exchanger behind the baffle plates?
Has anything been disturbed or been changed in the PF100 between the time it was working until the time it stopped heating well?
What is your furnace cleaning routine? Do you use your shaker chains frequently, scrape the heat exchangers regularly and clean the vent pipe?
What kind of hot & cold air ducting, dampers do you have and do you have another furnace connected in the system?
Does it have a lazy flame or low flame?
Is it igniting okay?
Does it have an Outside Air Kit installed?
Is the air flow out of your floor registers as strong as before?
I don't think a bad upper baffle could cause it to heat that poorly unless the baffle is causing a blockage of the heat exchanger. Have you pulled out the upper & lower baffle plates to see if there is open air flow between the baffles and the heat exchanger. Especially on the floor of the fire box.
My PF100 is 5 years old and there is very little corrosion on the baffle plates. I wonder why such bad corrosion. Is there any corrosion on the heat exchanger behind the baffle plates?
Has anything been disturbed or been changed in the PF100 between the time it was working until the time it stopped heating well?
What is your furnace cleaning routine? Do you use your shaker chains frequently, scrape the heat exchangers regularly and clean the vent pipe?
What kind of hot & cold air ducting, dampers do you have and do you have another furnace connected in the system?
Does it have a lazy flame or low flame?
Is it igniting okay?
Does it have an Outside Air Kit installed?
Is the air flow out of your floor registers as strong as before?
Thanks Former Farmer. I did see that thread and a couple others on the corroded upper baffle. Didn't see much about it causing heat loss.
Thanks Exoilburner. Please check out some of the other threads you commented on regarding the corroded upper baffle. It's not a unique issue!
If you haven't already found a fix for this. Anything that changes the pressure in the hopper can cause a pressure switch to stop working. Actually the pf100 is built to pretty tight vacuum tollerances. I just fought a battle like yours this week. I haven't figured out exactly how to fix it "correctly" yet, but i have rigged mine to work. In my case the combustion blower is running to fast, and i cant adjust it low enough to make the pressure switch allow the feeder to run. The pressure switch is tied back into the esp, and is what makes the machine add pellets at slower and faster rates.
Anyways, you can test this pretty easily. Take the cover where your air intake is located off. Then with the system running, put your hand over the air intake, if the machine begins working properly, then it seems like either your problem is in the combustion fan running to fast, or its in the main circuit board that is supposed to allow you to controll the combustion blower. I took a peice of aluminum tape and put it over the air intake untill the machine ran properly. just added a little more tape at a time till it worked... Yes i know thats probably not the safest thing to do, but i really hate cold wheather. If anyone has anything to add to help fix that any imput would be helpfull.
Anyways, you can test this pretty easily. Take the cover where your air intake is located off. Then with the system running, put your hand over the air intake, if the machine begins working properly, then it seems like either your problem is in the combustion fan running to fast, or its in the main circuit board that is supposed to allow you to controll the combustion blower. I took a peice of aluminum tape and put it over the air intake untill the machine ran properly. just added a little more tape at a time till it worked... Yes i know thats probably not the safest thing to do, but i really hate cold wheather. If anyone has anything to add to help fix that any imput would be helpfull.
Ejectr
Minister of Fire
The circuit board is running just fine. I did just explain what my problem was, and how i fixed it. And actually I just fixed it permently and made a thread about it. You can look up "pf100 not heating well..... fix".. It explains my problem in detail, and all the steps i took before fixing it. I just thought since its such an easy test, it may help "warmVTer out a little. thanks
Thanks for the suggestions. Doesn't sound like quite the same issue, but great ideas if I had not already fixed it.
Thanks for the replies all. Last night was the test with a new upper baffle as the temp dipped below zero once again. House stayed nice and toasty! The dealer assured us this could not possible be the issue and had us change a bunch of settings including the fan control settings. Now it's just a matter of finding the right ones again, the house is almost too warm at times. I'll take 72 over 64! Boy do I wish I had snapped a photo before changing anything!
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