P43, accentra, P61a-

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AZ23

AZ23

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Feb 19, 2014
151
canada
So I spent weeks looking at pellet stoves. Different brands and 1 or 2 were self cleaning, but I decided to stick with Harman as I only hear good things.

Ended up with the p43 yesterday and it does heat the room up nice. I put it on ROOM TEMP last night before we went to bed and I don't think I would do that again, I think best to leave it on STOVE TEMP and let it run that way........however, I am now debating if I should have gone with the p61a. I asked myself that for a month before I purchased this- so I may see if it's possible to swap it out. The only other option was the accentra but the accentra and the p61a are the same price ......

Before I jump the gun, I might raise the setting today on the p43 to 5 and let it run all day and see how much heat gets disbursed.
 
If you had put the stove into room temp and the igniter on manual the stove would not have cycled off. Cold weather tip for Harman stoves as home will loose enough heat to use the 8k of heat it will produce when idling and very quick ramp up to produce heat when called for.
 
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Is that what you usually do, run it on room temp or stove temp?

Last night was the first night we had it so I thought I'd try room - it used a lot of pellets but that room and level were so cold this morning!!
 
Room temp manual works for me also, set it at your desired temp and let it go for a few days and see if it gets the house up to temp. I've tried stove temp and I couldn't find a comfortable setting.
 
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AZ23 said:
Is that what you usually do, run it on room temp or stove temp?

Last night was the first night we had it so I thought I'd try room - it used a lot of pellets but that room and level were so cold this morning!!
Click to expand...
Yes, Room temp and manual igniter as house will loose about 8,000 btus if below freezing so will not have the swings in temp but a nice even temp. Will save on igniter as well. I found that it saved on pellets too as the stove would not try and catchup shoving in piles of pellets. Running pellet stove is not like a regular dino fuel appliance. Now when we get into spring will change to auto mode when temps get above freezing as the home heat loss will allow longer off periods.
 
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AZ23 said:
Is that what you usually do, run it on room temp or stove temp?

Last night was the first night we had it so I thought I'd try room - it used a lot of pellets but that room and level were so cold this morning!!
Click to expand...
Stove temp 4.5 with my P61 is comfortable for sleeping but maybe not so great for house warmth during the waking up time and hanging out in the evening when it's really cold out. Try Stove temp around 5 or even 5.25 and the fan on high and see what you get from that. If the house warms up then cut the temp back a little at a time. My house is way warmer with the fan set to high at any given Stove Temp setting ( in other words for that given setting).. I rarely run over 5.5 stove temp or under 4.5. Maybe i the shoulder season, we shall see then though.

In room temp mode lately I have used considerably more pellets and I still am not sure why since it was not doing this back in Jan. But none the less, in room temp mode you really have to get to know your probe position and understand the correlation of that compared with the house thermostat. Again, turn it up because the probe is probably shutting the stove down prematurely. Turn it up till you are warm, if it takes setting it to 80 deg, do it at least for now till you know more about the stove and probe positioning. And yes, I too run in Room Temp Manual.

Feed rate, for the time being set it at feed rate 4 or even 4.25 till you know more about the stove.

Don't confront your dealer just yet about trading it back in, it was just the first night with the stove and who knows how it was set. Give it a few more days of experimentation. Anyway, try those settings next and see what you get from them.
 
Thanks for the advice. so you're advising put it on room temp as high as we have to and then switch to manual ignitor? What's the advantage of switching to manual?

Also, the installer said not to leave it on too much right now as it's new because of paint fumes? I don't know if that's a huge issue ?
 
AZ23 said:
Thanks for the advice. so you're advising put it on room temp as high as we have to and then switch to manual ignitor? What's the advantage of switching to manual?

Also, the installer said not to leave it on too much right now as it's new because of paint fumes? I don't know if that's a huge issue ?
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In the manual it tells you to do a few low burns initially to cure the paint. I did one low burn, then a little hooter burn. You should have smelled it through out the house on fire up ! I did but was ready to have windows open and a fan to blow the fumes out of the house The smoke detectors went off anyway. But still, later that evening I did what you did and burned fairly low overnight. You will notice on a hot burn a slight odor for a few days, nothing really strong. I don't know of a good reason to not have a hot burn today. i did my feed rate check about a week into it though ( really hot burn).

Switching to manual igniter: Doing this, then when the room reaches temp the stove goes into a maintenance burn instead of shutting down fully. The house tends to stay a bit more even temperature in colder weather. However, my house is loose enough that it doesn't matter much unless it's fairly warm out. I just don't have to think about it. It also saves on igniter wear.
 
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[, then a little hooter burn.

Your wife might not like that
 
But seriously, we can tell you to burn on auto or maunual, stove or room temp. It comes down to what's good for you and your home. Try all settings for a few days at a time, you'll figure it out. Have fun.
 
I experimented today and put it on 5. Room temp manual.

The upstairs did warm up burned a whole bag in about 9 hours almost !
 
AZ23 said:
I experimented today and put it on 5. Room temp manual.

The upstairs did warm up burned a whole bag in about 9 hours almost !
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Did the flame not cycle down to a low burn during the day ? How cold was it outside ?
 
We weren't home today. It wasn't too bad outside. Maybe 2 above


I just filled the hopper again. I still question if I has the p61 would I burn less on low or more with this on 5. Still learning
 
A bag of pellets in 9 hours is nothing outrageous (especially, given that you're in Canada). On the coldest days in the Boston area, my P68 will chew through three bags of pellets, and do so easily. I've never been a fan of the stove temp mode, as I never felt like the stove got hot enough. I always run it in room temp mode (manual ignition to keep the maintenance burn going when not calling for heat), and between 70 and 75 degrees during the day (when we're home). It seems to work great. The one piece of advice that I would give anyone who has a stove with a room temperature probe is to get that probe up off the surface the stove is sitting on. Most installers simply drop the room temp probe onto the tile hearth and that tile is SUPERB at heat transfer. This causes the room temp probe to get very hot, and give your stove a false reading of the actual temperature in the room, which obviously causes the stove not to call for heat when it should be calling for it. I wrapped mine around a hook about three feet off of the hearth pad (in back of my stove), and it seems to regulate the temperature MUCH more efficiently.
 
Thanks. I am still tinkering with it but I think we will stick to the 43. The room is too small and any bigger would probably force us out of here

A little noisy but getting used to it
 

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AZ23 said:
We weren't home today. It wasn't too bad outside. Maybe 2 above


I just filled the hopper again. I still question if I has the p61 would I burn less on low or more with this on 5. Still learning
Click to expand...

My p61 on 0 deg days also used about 3 bags to heat a not so tight `1800 sq ft cape.

First, just to clarify, if you are in Room temp mode ( blower dial in the up position from off) you don't have the stove on 5. The inner ring of numbers is for Stove temp mode ( dial in the down position from off). You have the dial set to about 76-77 deg, the outside set of numbers on that same dial. Second, 2 deg is not nice , LOL ! You gotta crank some heat to heat up 2600 sq ft at 2 deg. Cranking heat burns pellets, and that sounds as though you would burn about 2.5 bags or maybe 3 in 24 hours at that setting and the probe at where ever it is at.. Where is your room probe at in the room ? my floors are cold around here, I can't have my probe near the floor and the manual says to place it about 5 ft off the floor if I remember correctly. But I too have mine about 3 ft off the floor and off to the side of the stove about at the hopper location looking from front to rear. It's about 3 ft away from the side of the hopper sticking out in mid air.
 
I posted a video too because I just want to confirm I am hearing the right sound. I don't mind the fan but that buzzing sound is taking a well to ignore

 
AZ23 said:
I posted a video too because I just want to confirm I am hearing the right sound. I don't mind the fan but that buzzing sound is taking a well to ignore

Click to expand...

Hard to tell from the video, it almost sounds like motor noise, my cars blower fan does that on low . In the store before I bought my P61 they ran a P43 for me, the fan on high made a vibrating sound that the girl said shouldn't be there. It sounded like an out of balance fan on that stove. The XXV was way quieter but that little P43 pushed out some heat and radiated heat too.. Now and then I hear a little whine out of my P61, it's when some motor slows to a stop, it sounds almost like transmission gears, very light though. Otherwise it's rushing air sound on high and pellets dropping into the auger chamber.
 
Ya I'm not sure what that vibrating sound is. Should I only hear a fan sound or vibration


The heat is nice. Keep smacking my head if the 61 would just kill the room or send more heat upstairs
 
when your running in room temp your not looking at the numbers 1-2-3- etc..look at the outside of the dial 65 degrees 70 degrees etc..that's what you go by
then in stove temp you use the inside numbers 1 2 3 etc...i run mine in room temp 70 degrees switch to manual feed rate 3 3-1/2 and it maintains temp to 1 degree..
now that it warmed up with the sun etc i run it in auto 70 degrees so it shuts down.. at night back to manual...yes that fan doesn't sound right....
 
AZ23 said:
I know I've asked this q but why do you not run in stove temp?
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i get better control of the heat in room temp...better consistency ....
 
I might try that. We are going out for the day. Unless it is better to shut it and run it again when we return
 
AZ23 said:
I know I've asked this q but why do you not run in stove temp?
Click to expand...
All you can do is try it !

I run mine in Stove temp for a couple of reasons, otherwise Room temp. I run in Stove temp manual turned down to 4.5 or so and low fan when I mostly want to heat the room the stove is in and have people gathered around in the room and the house really doesn't need the extra heat.. That's the main use, I also use it just because that's what I feel like doing !!!! Stove temp will give long slower burns or I should say moderate burns without the huge ramp up in flame or super low flame. It's just steady output that doesn't care about the rooms temp. Sometimes it's nice , sometimes it doesn't get the job done where room temp will.
 
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