New Harmam XXV Installed last week - Newby asking questions, please help

davzog · Dec 31, 2007

We had our new Harman XXV installed on Friday. IT seems to work fine, and we are, of course, still learning how to make adjustments to gauge the fire/feed/etc.

THe guys that did the install are nice folks, but I am not sure that the results are as they should be.

The stove was installed in the basement with a pipe going up the back and out the wall above the stove. Looke like they used 3" or 4" pipe for the venting.

!st Question - the pipe is only 1.5 inched from the drywall behind the stove...the owner's manual says 3" are needed. We did have the stove running for several hours and it got pretty hot but the wall behind the stove pipe did not get hot...only warm to the touch.

Is this an Issue? This is our very first pellet stove and have no clue....obviously we are relying on the installer.

2nd question - the owners manual says on a cold start we need to fill the fire box with pellets....there is a footnote indicator but no footnote. If I put the system in TEST, it will fill the fire box with pellets. Alternatively, I tried putting a handfull of pellets in the firebox by hand.....what is best?

Sorry if these are dumb questions, but I don't want to goof up the stove or burn down the house....thanks in advance for any advice.

tinkabranc · Dec 31, 2007

davzog said:
!st Question - the pipe is only 1.5 inched from the drywall behind the stove...the owner's manual says 3" are needed. We did have the stove running for several hours and it got pretty hot but the wall behind the stove pipe did not get hot...only warm to the touch.

Is this an Issue? This is our very first pellet stove and have no clue....obviously we are relying on the installer.

2nd question - the owners manual says on a cold start we need to fill the fire box with pellets....there is a footnote indicator but no footnote. If I put the system in TEST, it will fill the fire box with pellets. Alternatively, I tried putting a handfull of pellets in the firebox by hand.....what is best?

Sorry if these are dumb questions, but I don't want to goof up the stove or burn down the house....thanks in advance for any advice.

#1-
The stove pipe should be fine as the pipe does not get very hot. The 3" minimum clearance you
see in the manual is from the stove to the wall.

#2-
Are you using the stove in auto or manual mode? You only need to fill the hopper with pellets, not the burnpot.
In auto mode, the stove purges pellets into the burnpot itself before igniting.

edit: the picture you see on pg16 is the burnpot.

Hope this helps

Kenny1 · Dec 31, 2007

davzog said:
We had our new Harman XXV installed on Friday. IT seems to work fine, and we are, of course, still learning how to make adjustments to gauge the fire/feed/etc.

THe guys that did the install are nice folks, but I am not sure that the results are as they should be.

The stove was installed in the basement with a pipe going up the back and out the wall above the stove. Looke like they used 3" or 4" pipe for the venting.

!st Question - the pipe is only 1.5 inched from the drywall behind the stove...the owner's manual says 3" are needed. We did have the stove running for several hours and it got pretty hot but the wall behind the stove pipe did not get hot...only warm to the touch.

Is this an Issue? This is our very first pellet stove and have no clue....obviously we are relying on the installer.

2nd question - the owners manual says on a cold start we need to fill the fire box with pellets....there is a footnote indicator but no footnote. If I put the system in TEST, it will fill the fire box with pellets. Alternatively, I tried putting a handfull of pellets in the firebox by hand.....what is best?

Sorry if these are dumb questions, but I don't want to goof up the stove or burn down the house....thanks in advance for any advice.

You may want to check the data sheet/manual for the vent pipe. My stove was installed with Simpson Dura-Vent, and the installer left a manual for it. On the front page, it states that The minimum clearance from Pellet Vent to combustibles is 3". So, you may want to check for your particular vent manufactures instrucitons. The dry wall would be considered a combustible.

As to filling the burn pot, I have not heard about that (my P61A automatically starts and fills the pot by itself). Maybe someone with a XXV can comment.

BTW, nice choice of stove, how about posting a pic? And welcome to the forum.

Cheers

Kenny

stovemanken · Dec 31, 2007

Simpson DV has a new premium pipe called Pellet Vent Pro. Check out their website. It has a 1" clearance to combustibles. I have been told "off the record" by more than one of my dealers that they simplly had the testing labs retest the pipe for the tighter clearance and there is really no difference between the pipe other than the price.
SMK

stovemanken · Dec 31, 2007

"Filling the burn pot": As was said, this really applies to manual starts. Many experianced users have found that there are times when a short use of the TEST mode (all motors run) will pre-charge the burn pot: 1) a brand new stove and 2) when the stove runs out of pellets. It's really optional, the 2 minute charge cycle is usually long enough to fill the burn pot even if the stove were completely empty.

Kenny1 · Jan 2, 2008

SMK - that is interesting about the pipe. I would never had thought they would re-test and then re-name the product.

Davzog, what type of pipe do you have installed?

Cheers

Kenny

davzog · Jan 2, 2008

I am not really sure . It is composed of an inner and outer pipe with an air space in the middle. The owner said that thes pipes are good up to only ONE inch from a combustable (drywall) and with 1.5 inches I am in great shape....

The pipe is either 3 or 4 inches in diameter...I think it is 4 inches but I am not at home to measure it...thanks for the reply

dlcampbe · Jan 3, 2008

I installed my XXV last week and it came with some shavings in the burn pot. I put the controls on room temp, ignitor on automatic, feed control at 4, set the temp at 70º and away she went. The shavings lit and the pellets fed. I've been warm ever since.

My one concern was with the draft, I measured according to the manual on page 20 and the draft was not below .8" whether on lo or hi blower speed. I adjusted the lo draft adjustment screw to the minimum setting and I still have .8" is that too much?

Another issue is the noise when the pellets feed, I think it is the gearbox that drives the auger chain, because when it runs is the only time the noise is noticeable.

duncan

cantman · Jan 3, 2008

dlcampbe said:
I installed my XXV last week and it came with some shavings in the burn pot. I put the controls on room temp, ignitor on automatic, feed control at 4, set the temp at 70º and away she went. The shavings lit and the pellets fed. I've been warm ever since.

My one concern was with the draft, I measured according to the manual on page 20 and the draft was not below .8" whether on lo or hi blower speed. I adjusted the lo draft adjustment screw to the minimum setting and I still have .8" is that too much?

Another issue is the noise when the pellets feed, I think it is the gearbox that drives the auger chain, because when it runs is the only time the noise is noticeable.

duncan

I have had my XXV installed since november and my initial high draft was about the same as yours. I was able to lower the low draft slightly with
the low draft pot @ the control board. Mine is turned all the way counter clockwise. I decided to add a "Iris" damper onto the air intake side and
brought my high draft down to .60" wc. Mine seems to burn fine with this setup and "pop corns" to a minimum. I still get a few "pop corns", but the
increased air action clears some of the excess ash away.

davzog · Jan 4, 2008

Golly I wish I understood what you guys are talking about...can you explain the high and low air you are referring to??? I hate being ignorant of all this...thanks

dlcampbe · Jan 4, 2008

The draft, as it relates to these pellet stoves, is a measurement of negative pressure inside the firebox. It is measured in inches of water as opposed to pounds per square inch. One inch of water is equal to 0.0361 lbs. per square inch, as you can see inches of water are more suited to measuring very small pressures.

The Harman stoves require a slight negative pressure in the firebox to operate correctly.
You wouldn’t want any of the combustion products leaking to your home, thus you need to maintain some negative pressure inside the stove.

On page 20 of the Harman XXV manual there is a description of the process used to measure and adjust the draft. I use a Magnehelic draft meter with a length of plastic tubing inserted into the bolt hole described in the manual. My draft is about -.80” and I wondered if that was too much. The stove seems to work alright however.

If you don’t have a manual for your stove, it can be downloaded from the Harman website.

duncan

davzog · Jan 5, 2008

THanks for the great response...Now I understand...wonderful!!

dlcampbe · Jan 5, 2008

Here's the new draft gage that I got on eBay for $15.00.

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New Harmam XXV Installed last week - Newby asking questions, please help

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