How long can my Harman go without

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F4jock

F4jock

Minister of Fire
Nov 12, 2014
1,603
Red Rock, PA
A "necessary cleaning?"

Been wanting to try this for some time so . . . . .

I've essily run three weeks w/o doing the supposedly semi-mandatory weekly cleaning on my Harman Accentra insert and wondered how far I can extend this so here's my plan. I run my stove in Room Temp mode. I have it set up and the room temp sensor located such that it controls well and shuts down maybe once every two or three days for half an hour to an hour. During that time I dump the ash pan, check the burn pot for adhesive clinkers and knock the ash off the heat exchanger plates.

I've been burning Lignetics with great success: Low ash, good heat. When I've done the cleaning routine there has been very little ash behind the plates. I'm going to see just how long I can run before performance deteriorates to the point that I have to clean.

I'll keep you posted.
 
I don't know how daring I would be on an insert.
 
The consequences being? Thing is in a solid stone wall fireplace with a lined flue and a SS pipe.
 
I clean my stove whenever it gets too ugly. Ive never taken it to the point where it "needs" to be cleaned.
 
Just want to lay to rest some of those comments about how much work it is, how "sensitive" they are and how often stoves need attending vs what one gets out of them.
 
Id be more concerned about the long term effects of not keeping your stove clean.

Reduced heat transfer due to ash build up on the exchanger tubes and increasing wear and tear on stove components. Things like that.
 
TimfromMA said:
Id be more concerned about the long term effects of not keeping your stove clean.

Reduced heat transfer due to ash build up on the exchanger tubes and increasing wear and tear on stove components. Things like that.
Click to expand...
Shouldn't affect moving parts but I am going to monitor heat transfer. Never had any buildup in the fines box or fan issues in 6.4 heating seasons. No auger or pellet door problems. Thing just keeps working.
 
F4jock said:
The consequences being? Thing is in a solid stone wall fireplace with a lined flue and a SS pipe.
Click to expand...
Can be a total PIA to have to unchugg a lengthy piece of venting but do not know how much the stove has produced between normal cleanings. Once past shoulder season and stove going nearly 100% of the time may be negligible. I know our main stoves are only cleaned and not the venting past the shoulder season but not running any length over 10 foot and mostly inside.
 
Bioburner said:
Can be a total PIA to have to unchugg a lengthy piece of venting but do not know how much the stove has produced between normal cleanings. Once past shoulder season and stove going nearly 100% of the time may be negligible. I know our main stoves are only cleaned and not the venting past the shoulder season but not running any length over 10 foot and mostly inside.
Click to expand...
Clean the stack every year at season's end. Never really needed it.
 
Bioburner said:
Can be a total PIA to have to unchugg a lengthy piece of venting but do not know how much the stove has produced between normal cleanings. Once past shoulder season and stove going nearly 100% of the time may be negligible. I know our main stoves are only cleaned and not the venting past the shoulder season but not running any length over 10 foot and mostly inside.
Click to expand...
Clean the stack every year at season's end. Never really needed it.
 
I think this is another question of pellet "quality". I've burned 1.5 ton this year (FSUs) and cleaned my combustion fan once, and that one time it wasn't nearly as dirty as 10 days burning the pellets I had last 2 years. Flue & ESP were clean as a whistle too. So I think this year, with evidently "better" (i.e. cleaner-burning) pellets, I could probably get away with just shutting down every other week to scrape burn pot and get the ash out of the combustion chamber, maybe cleaning combustion fan very other cleaning, but I'd rather just pop it out and make sure it's spic & span. Probably more of a pain with an inser though?
 
Since I run Room/Auto, my concern is the Igniter compartment since I pull ash down to the ash pan few times a day which invertently drops more ash thru the burnpot holes into the compartment than needed.. aside from scraping the burnpot here/there, when the flame get's pretty low and pellets are glowing, simmerin is what I call it, I do a quick plate removal if it;s not too hot and use my finger to pull out the dried sandy ash in there. Empty the ash pan once a month. oh, almost forgot, I have a stainless steel scrubbie and I Reach in and do a quick clean of the heat exchanger right after the igniter compartment.
Fines box and exhaust tunnel when I do shut down clean once a month.
Not burning HD Stove Chows anymore so lot less ash than last year.
 
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I have had creosote build up before when I let my stove get exceptionally dirty. If I remember correctly, I didn't clean around the exhaust blower for a month or two-I only emptied the ash. I was probably burning crappy pellets, too.

It actually caused a small vent fire. I am no neat freak, but since then, I always clean the whole thing when I dump the ashes.
 
loss of heat output as ash builds on heat exchanger, there are no parts that will be damaged by a test like this. Hair/dust covering motors will burn those up and cause premature failure but the internal stuff wont hurt to let it go for weeks, the one exception is if you are turning the stove on and off as the igniter can get unnecessary faster reduction in life expectancy when trying to light while surrounded by ash.
 
TimfromMA said:
Id be more concerned about the long term effects of not keeping your stove clean.

Reduced heat transfer due to ash build up on the exchanger tubes and increasing wear and tear on stove components. Things like that.
Click to expand...
What may the long term effects be?
 
With a sense of dread, I pulled the insert out the first time last weekend. I can tell you for me, the first inch out and the last inch back were the hardest. The upper corner of the cast frame pulled out (put back and retightened thread post) and the probe wire pulled out from its solder less terminal (I reattached taped the heck out of it and will remember next time to watch for it plus the green one that also came out). Anyway, after just 2 tons, things were pretty clean. My surprise was the fines box - pretty full.

image.jpg
 
NHcpa said:
With a sense of dread, I pulled the insert out the first time last weekend. I can tell you for me, the first inch out and the last inch back were the hardest. The upper corner of the cast frame pulled out (put back and retightened thread post) and the probe wire pulled out from its solder less terminal (I reattached taped the heck out of it and will remember next time to watch for it plus the green one that also came out). Anyway, after just 2 tons, things were pretty clean. My surprise was the fines box - pretty full.

View attachment 147512
Click to expand...
Never had anything to speak of in the fines box. Gotta empty the ash pan today. Do the finger pull ash outta the igniter compartment drill. Only one igniter replacement after six full seasons running in room temp mode. Not bad in comparison to most I guess.
 
Yup, do the finger pull here. At some point, I'll put a small tube on the end of the vac hose. I did use such an attachment when cleaning the fines box as my finger wasn't 12" long nor double jointed.
 
NHcpa said:
Yup, do the finger pull here. At some point, I'll put a small tube on the end of the vac hose. I did use such an attachment when cleaning the fines box as my finger wasn't 12" long nor double jointed.
Click to expand...
I use a Lint Lizzard for all that but only when doing a cold-shutown cleaning.
 
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