Checked out the new Harman Absolute

At my Harman stove dealers today I got and eyeball view of Harman's latest new pellet stove.
Not to be a Debbie Downer here, but I found 2 Very valid reasons I would not purchase this one,

#1...Picture a square box without a top...
This is the Burnpot... it has a metal gate like rectangular piece that slides down In Front of the burnpot..'
Yes. In front of the burnpot causing a 4 sided enclosure...
This "Gate' has holes in it but not round burnpot type but more wavey type I assume for air flow..

My 1st question was," how does the ASH get out?'
he showed me that the " Gate" does not go all the way down but sits approx Half inch above the front of the burnpot so Ash can fall under the gate and out.....WHAT??
OK....I'm not buying one so doesn't really matter why it's there in the 1st place...
Regardless for the reason for this "Gate" which I never found out why it's there,
I soon visualized problems with ash in a boxed in area getting ash dams.
Specially if one was to purchase cheap pellets or any real BBS ashy pellets that form ash cakes or clinkers,
all trying to escape "under" this gate.... it's really less than an inch gap for ash to escape..
#2.
If you are like most who give the burnpot a scrape or two each day, or actually anytime,
there is NO POSSIBLE way to scrape the Hot burnpot Without taking a pair of heat resistant gloves and removing the Gate and hopefully not forget and lay the Super hot metal onto a carpet or bare floor.
The dealer had not read up on this new stove, just got it 2 days ago so he really didn't understand the reason for the "Gate" but it has to be a valid one... but this doesn't change the 2 flaws? that I mentioned that will not change.
I;m sure many will buy it just for the semi--ipad to play with...
just doesn't look right where it is mounted.. dealer thought the same.
I think there is also a light Inside the stove that you can turn off/on..
[that is something I would like just for cleaning and not have to use a flashlight or some external light.]
3rd,
The Absolute is over 4,000.00 for a 43,000 BTU Stove..
This could be a sticky point with people like myself who want more BTU's for our Buck..
My 61K BTU Harman is 3700.00.
It Does have the fancy Digital screen with all the option of setting feed rate, fan speed, temp settings, stock market, weather reports , email and whatever..[Actually the next Generation WIFI stoves will have that I;m sure.
The Harman tried/true technology is the insides of this stove so am sure it will perform as exspected Heatwise but
just cannot go for a boxed-in burnpot for whatever reason. It just screams of agravation and smothered flames from some heavy Ash pellet brands,,:
Note:
Have not read any user manuals but just "might" recommend using pellets with less ash for better performance..?...

zrtmatos said:

From what I see in the manual it doesn't look like they think you need to much maintencae on it?

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ok.. I see now that you pull down[not remove] the burn grate thing...
so if it normally stays in the "up" position, it is still working un-intentionally as also a dam for ash unless I'm missing something here.

as far as maint, still has a fines box and exhaust flu needing to be cleaned which they prob mention in the manual.

bags said:

Tony,
The prices on everything go up and I imagine they will come out with a larger BTU unit also. Of course those prices will climb as well accordingly. I will agree that that gate will likely create somewhat of a dam but if scraped daily it will likely not be a problem.

I do see it caking up more like my P68 does when doing a maintenance or low burn. Even if I burn the 68 that way it still just chugs along without any problems but when I clean the pot I do pull some clumps of built up ash out. No big deal there either but it does tend to build up.

I like this new stove from the videos I just watched. That being said, I do prefer simple operational items. I guess where I am hesitant is with the technology although the I Pad thingamabob is cool and allows you to basically have a built in programable thermostat which is great among the other things it can do.

Where the hesitation lies is wonder how that changed the control board and how much does this high tech stuff cost to replace if one needs to do so? All of the technology is a double edged sword on my newer truck. It's a love hate relationship.

I don't think I would jump on the first model roll outs either. Let someone else be that risk taker. Although that too would depend on warranties and such. It is a neat stove with gadgets included but for some reason the Mount Vernon AE comes to mind with the issues they had for a bit. When I was going to buy a used AE (deal fell thru and seller flaked out and quit answering questions once I knew what to ask thanks to Kap here) if the stove had not had the glitches worked out and upgraded board and stat it was going to cost a bunch of cash to do so. If I recall it was in the tune of $1,200. That being the case it would have been better buying another new stove. This is where my small hesitation lies. Technology costs upfront money and when it heads south it costs big bucks too.

Knowing how Harmans are though I am not very concerned. Anotherwords I would likely buy one if the reviews are good and the stove has had some real life field testing. I hope someone here gets one and gives us the dirt on it.

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My stovedealers son was showing me the stove which they only got 2 days ago.
said u had to Lift out the gate to scrape the burnpot.. he didn't know the gate drops down so he passed that gem onto me..
Interesting note about cleaning was putting the exhaust blower on so dust goes out the pipe and not into your living room.
lot of us have been doing that for long time but never saw it in a video...
small ash pan but can't have everything.....I'm sure this model will sell like the others prior..
I'm thinking I would run it with the gate down so as not to have ash jams while I'm gone but that would defeat the purpose of it which I understand helps with air flow to the flame.
ahh.. such an exspert on my own stove I get jaded..lol

bags said:

Look at the videos attached above. It isn't really all that enclosed and closely resembles the good pots Harmans already have. I don't see it being a pain nor much of an issue to scrape. I put gloves on and hit mine whenever I put a bag of pellets in while is is full blast and high flames. Welders gloves like the blue ones in the video are great to have. You can find cheap ones at HF that work well.

There is no shut down anything for the daily scrape here. Not a requirement on Harmans and I am sure you wouldn't have to do so on this new one. They are promoting ease of use and safety for any user.

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I was mis-informed about the gate and told u had to remove it to clean the burnpot.. The dealer didn't know it dropped down...like I said he just got it 2 days ago. still, there is not lot of room under the gate to deal with clinkers and heavy ash cakes when your not home to remedy it.
.just looks like a potential ash dam with Big ash pellet brands but we will see in time.
hey.. I voted for Obama so I don't know everything in advance..
also,

if this stove turns out to be sucessfull which being a Harman it prob will,, I'm sure there will be a Bums rush to outfit future stoves quickly with digital control Pads to jump on a rising market which will include many of the cheap stoves coming out of China.... oh the horror maybe..?

alternativeheat said:

My P61 doesn't woof, though our cats meow. Maybe it's my ears, they aren't so great as I get older but I never heard a woof from my Harman lol. I do get the pulsing flame in certain conditions but hear no sound from that.

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I sometimes[ after ignition and the dist blower comes on] hear a sound similar to that and it goes away after few minutes.
I always attributed it air being pulled into my OAK....not a concern either way...