Lots of Ash Buildup on Harman P61A

Tonyray said:

Anyone know why the ash builds up so quick in Pictures below?
scrape burn pot daily so bottom of all that ash is clear of any carbon obstruction..
Stove Chow Pellets which are very Hot but also very Ashy so I exspect the ash but at 229.00 ton, not complaining about amount.. it's just that
ash seems to stop at the edge of the pot and will not take the dive off of the burn pot... just kinda builds a barrier....
Feed rate #3/ Room temp Auto. Fan speed about half way..stove cleaned every week.
should I raise feed rate? lower ? seem to have to push all the ash in the ash pan every few hours or so..
or is this just nature of burning very ashy pellets?

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This in part is why I say I don't care for the hard soft wood blends. And why I like advertised .5 ash or less. But other than that thought, I've had pretty good luck in room temp manual and a good temp for the house. I run at room temp manual and 75 deg a lot. Feed rate 4ish. I get worse results with a feed rate three in cold weather actually. More feed rate create a hotter fire and better burn cycles. In real comd weather the stove runs at that constant lower feed and won't cycle off because the room probe never gets satisfied. I have a better burn and Warner house with quicker cycles with feed at about 4-1/4. I've even run 5.

the other thing, check your doors for air leaks. The stove is a bit tollerent of a lower door leak but in my case with a leak the ash was worse. Just try these things, you can always crank it back down but a leak has to be fixed.

Tonyray said:

THink I'll try Stove temp and see what happens..

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Try stove temp between 4 and 5 and feed up nearer 4. The stove will only take the feed it needs anyway, so too low a feed doesn't really accomplish much and may hinder your situation. If the house gets too hot adjust then.

Tonyray said:

THink I'll try Stove temp and see what happens..

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Also and I will look in my manual when I get home, pretty sure I read if you get too much ash to increase feed rate. Unburned pellets is a different matter. You are saying ash, so I assume its not unburned pellets bothering you situation.

Looks about right for an ashy pellet. Let it go for 3 days without pulling the ash into the pot. It will take care of itself. Grab some beers and watch it burn!

Tonyray said:

ok... but, I'm one of those compulsives that has to pull the ash off 10x's a day... only reason it's this high was to snap a picture..

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I'll be real curious to see how this goes. I know my stove on ashy pellets won't make it for three days, lucky to go overnight without the fire getting crowded in, especially if it's nearing cleaning time. On the super deluxe pellets that's another matter. Stove Chow I'm sure are not super deluxe, a lot of people think they are Energex, which is 1% ash. Not a bad pellet but ashy.

I didn't like how my stove was burning this morning before work so I have it in shutdown now. I'm going to clean some things. I'm real curious what is under the burn pot this time, I ran some really dusty pellets recently. Good brand too, disappointing.

Right now my hopper is full of LG Premium Softs. They haven't reached the burn pot yet though.

I don't think you'll have a problem just letting it go. As long as it doesn't snuff the fire.

Hoot23 said:

I don't think you'll have a problem just letting it go. As long as it doesn't snuff the fire.

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Tonyray said:

I put it on stove temp thinking it may burn more consistant, and few hours later, noticed it felt chilly.. stove was not feeding pellets and Status light was blinking 3x I think.
put it back on room temp and was back to normal after 10 minutes.[ I did put my hand all the way down to the bottom of the feed bin and jiggled the pellets around and heard some of them drop]
wonder if my auger was stuck... Stove chows have some long pellets now and then... sorry bout making this 2 different incidents]....

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Nah, you stuck your hand down there and it was time for a drop I bet. Well I guess, I put a weight on the hopper switch when I tend my hopper so the stove runs fairly normal during that process.

That's ok, I found another gasket leak, small but there and in the top door. I did my little cleaning, it was cleaner inside than last time, the ESP is shiny etc. But I got to clean the heat exchangers. Have you checked your gaskets yet ?

Hoot23 said:

I don't think you'll have a problem just letting it go. As long as it doesn't snuff the fire.

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Hoot 23, I let my P61 run the night with LG Premium Softwoods after a cleaning ( decent pellet with .39% ash, and hot burning). It ran fine but had the ash build up in front of the fire this morning. That same kind of pile you say to let it run for three days at a time ? Well the flame was so so lively and leaning forward toward the glass slightly. In fact one finger would reach out to the glass now and then. I opened the door and raked the ash off ( no big chore took 15 seconds), scraped under the burning pellets with my handy tool and closed the door. In a couple of minutes the flame reestablished to a nice hot straight up fire. Now how the heck am I supposed to just walk away and leave a flame that licks the glass alone for three days? Is that what you do ?
Bottom line for me and I suspect the OP as well. If I don't scrape that ash off the burn pot the flame gets all screwed up, except with DF's or Pointe with a few DF mixed in and I suspect with LG and some DF mixed in. The burn pot holes get covered, they don't carbon up but the piles of ash is blocking them.

It's the nature of the beast, boys. Barring a mechanical fault with your stoves, this is to be expected. Harman gives you the cool tool. Use it as often as you'd like. I believe the manual suggests daily scraping.

I'm kinda baffled at all the posts with these concerns. I mean, when you dry a load of clothes, do you find it odd that you need to clean the lint screen before drying the next load?

Option B is to do what alternativeheat does, and burn extremely clean burning pellets.

Be happy that your stove will choke any pellet down, and do it without any Rube Goldberg engineering whatsoever.

My dealer keeps a P61 going 24/7. They use NEWP. Almost every time I've gone in there the stove is a complete mess. Door glass filthy, ash on the side ledges looking like black diamond ski slopes, and a burn pot filled with gravity defying ash. I believe they leave it this way intentionally to show their customers that, like the Terminator, the stove will not stop. Sure enough, you put your hand in front of the exchanger for more than a couple seconds and you better be wearing an Ove' Glove.

I have found this is a double edged sword. The heavy ash fills the burn pot quickly needing cleared more often.
The light ash that floats around and gets sucked thru, clogs the heat exchanger faster.
My choice is the heavy ash because I can go 2 weeks between cleanings with no heat loss. The light ash, I have to clean weekly because it coats the heat exchangers, and heat output goes down.
This is my findings on my stove YMMV.

ironpony said:

I have found this is a double edged sword. The heavy ash fills the burn pot quickly needing cleared more often.
The light ash that floats around and gets sucked thru, clogs the heat exchanger faster.
My choice is the heavy ash because I can go 2 weeks between cleanings with no heat loss. The light ash, I have to clean weekly because it coats the heat exchangers, and heat output goes down.
This is my findings on my stove YMMV.

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Makes sense to me. Generally speaking my wife is home for a good part of the day. She doesn't mind doing a quick scrape. For overnight I think I will just do my mix trick. A few DF mixed into a decent quality pellet works well. So my least ashy pellets.

DF
Spruce Point
LG Soft premiums
La crete

More ashy and a bit less heat too

Fireside Ultra
Okanagan Premium, dusty too.

Tonight I'm burning Energex blend.

I expect ash but just marvel when people tell me their Harman will run for days with no pot scraping in between. . DF's maybe but my stove wouldn't do this on anything less. Not that I've run into yet anyway.

mine will usually run all nite and I scrape it first thing in the morning. If I burn Somersets I could probably go a couple days no scraping, but I don't. Have to fill it might as well scrape it.

ironpony said:

mine will usually run all nite and I scrape it first thing in the morning. If I burn Somersets I could probably go a couple days no scraping, but I don't. Have to fill it might as well scrape it.

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Mine runs all night on any pellet. My goal is an affordable pellet and not have a goofy flame in the morning. Not that its hurting anything, it just seems inefficient. My top two catagories generally make it with a normal flame. All of them are fine after the morni g pot scrape.

Ya, the kinda lazy flame.

ironpony said:

Ya, the kinda lazy flame.

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Yes, scrape the pot it comes right back. Then I do have he morning routine, the coffee etc. Last thing, fill the hopper and off to work within an hour of that.

Tonyray said:

a mistake I think I am making is after scraping the pot, I take a brush and sweep all the ash from lower burn pot up over the holes and into the ash pan.. why? just to have a clean burnpot assuming the pellets will ignite quicker with less ash around them...compulsive disorder I know..lol
Pellets did not ignite this morning and I got a 5 blink status code which happens 36 seconds after ignitions starts and nothing ignites..

anyone think this is what caused the ignitor not to ignite? did full clean 6 days ago including cleaning out ignitor compartment and I am burning Stove chows which give awsome heat but Ashy as hell but I may be clogging the ignitor box?.I assume the sparks from the ingnitor come thru the burn pot holes or am I wrong about where sparks fire up the pellets..

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I don't burn in room temp auto, just on initial light up after cleaning. He I switch it over to manual.

Not to say what is right or wrong g but I was instructed to give a good scrape right under the burning pellets. In fact the guy showing me even scraped the ash into the fire. I don't do the second part of that. However I'm not too fussy about defining a cleaning line between ash and burning pellets.. I just kind of reach in and scrape the loose ash off into the pot below, then scrape the pot and sides of the pot. The fire never goes out.

I had a P61A for years, swapped it out for a wood burner and regret the decision. In looking at the photos, there is nothing wrong here. The stove is burning pellets and you have ash which is highly dependent on the brand of pellets you burn. I burned pellets which produced a storm of ash, some produced little ash but mega clinkers, some made no clinkers but instead produced bizarre ash "snakes" which protruded over the edge of the burn pot and crept down into the ash bin. With a daily scraping, the only thing that mattered was if the stove was making heat, and it did. Miss that P61A.

Why did I swap out the P61A? The logical side of me is still befuddled, but the chronological course of things was that my house originally only had electric baseboard heat when I bought it. I installed a Quad 1200 and then a P61A to cope with frightening electric bills. Fast forward a few years....I convinced myself that a central heating system was needed, even though there are no gas lines where I live....it's either oil, propane, electric or wood. A $19,000 Buderus GB142-45 propane system was installed and proved to be about as economical as using $100.00 bills as fuel in a fireplace. I added a Quad woodburner and it's been about as much fun as pulling your own teeth. The moral of the story is, don't sell your Harman, unless you like buying high and selling low like me