Harman XXV pellet stove temperature question

Your distribution air temps should be related to how clean the heat exchangers are and what the flue/exhaust temps are (which is basically how hard your stove is running to meet the call for heat). On my XXV, this varies noticeably, but probably never more than 200 degrees. I can always stick my hand in front of the blower without burning myself, but when it's really on full blast it is definitely a "good hot stove".

As for the 5-blink status, that sounds like a separate issue. Are you cleaning out the inside of the burn pot regularly? Compared to my P61A, the XXV burn pot is way too cramped, especially with the igniter(or) in there, so it needs a little more attention. I only run in Manual mode, so I just flat out removed my ignitor for just that reason - made my cleaning regimen much easier.

Hope this helps.

Welcome to the forum! For one, I am at a loss as to why you would set the stat below 60 degrees if you are trying to even out the temp in your house. However, I am unsure why that would cause more errors. 5 blinks is for failure to start within a set time (~36 minutes) Is the stove actually not starting, or is it starting and you still getting the error so it shuts down? Has it done this since the stove was installed, or later? Is it a brand new stove or did you get a used one?

NEWP's are okay for pellets, although I have heard some people complain that this year's offering is much below what they had before (not that they were top notch before . . .). It is possible, although not probably, that bad pellets won't light. There might be an issue with the positioning of the igniter, a defective igniter or some other issue. Hard to tell until some of the questions I posed are answered (and I'm sure others will chime in with still more questions).

I brush my heat exchanger down every week. If you have burned 3/4 ton of NEWP then your heat exchanger is covered in ash.

The cleaner you keep the stove, the more efficient it will run.

Check the fines box, and the igniter plate, make sure they are sealed tight. While there vacuum the igniter area it's probably pretty dirty.

Also, when you scrape the burn pot, tap it pretty good a few times, this clears the ash from the igniter.

How close do you have the thermometer to the stove's convection air outlet? 200 is pretty low.

I have found a more accurate way of judging heat output of your fuel, is to use a woodstove magnetic thermometer on the side of the stove. Place it about 3-4" below the stove top surface. Keep an eye on where the needle is based on your stove setting. When switching pellets, compare to what you have documented for temperatures for each batch/brand of pellets you burn. Trying to monitor the distribution air isn't accurate, because there's large swings every few minutes when pellets start/stop feeding. This also works great to determine the stove output after a good 2-3 week deep cleaning/scraping/vacuuming etc. I just did my 2nd deep clean of the season, and the stove temperature increased by about 35-40*F.

msjks said:

I have been brushing down the heat exchanges every time I clean the stove - and vacuum it out complete - you can pretty much eat in there. I put the magnetic stove t-stat right on the XXV in the front of the stove.

On another note --- I am seeing a lot of fly ash that settles on the left and right of the ash pan - not even hitting in it - is this normal for the XXV?

thanks, again for all your inputs...

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Yeah, the ash on the sides of ash pan is normal.

msjks said:

Hi All, New to this site and pellet stoving. We have been burning a Winterwarm insert for 30 years and decided to get a pellet stove for the other end of our house to see if we can even out heating with anew sunroom.

So... question. as I am still tweeking on working with this stove.

What should the average temperature of the hot air blowing from the blower be..... I have put a thermometer on the blower area and it doesn't go over 200 degrees on either low or high. However the stove does ramp up and seems to be burning fine.

We are burning New England Pellets... I don't think we get alot of ash. I do seem to get alot of 5 blink errors if i set the t-stat below 60 degrees - the stove seems to like it better a little dirtier than right after i clean it.

thanks!

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I am burning an XXV that was installed this season. I usually get 200, maybe 220 degrees. I vacuum and brush down the heat exchanger and clean the burn pot every week regardless of how much ash. Mine gets a lot of ash on both sides of the ash pan as well. Your XXV sounds pretty normal to me.

Cory S said:

I have found a more accurate way of judging heat output of your fuel, is to use a woodstove magnetic thermometer on the side of the stove. Place it about 3-4" below the stove top surface. Keep an eye on where the needle is based on your stove setting. When switching pellets, compare to what you have documented for temperatures for each batch/brand of pellets you burn. Trying to monitor the distribution air isn't accurate, because there's large swings every few minutes when pellets start/stop feeding. This also works great to determine the stove output after a good 2-3 week deep cleaning/scraping/vacuuming etc. I just did my 2nd deep clean of the season, and the stove temperature increased by about 35-40*F.

Click to expand...

I guess every stove is different. I like to monitor both the convection air temp and the surface temp (above the door) and found they have about the same comparable temp swings. Anyway, assuming that temp guage is accurate, and 200 degrees is the highest convection air temp the OP can get from a 50,000 BTU stove than it's time to try other pellets or change the operating settings, if that's even possible with the XXV.