Harman TL 300 Users

I have the insert version of the harman which preforms the same way as your TL 300.Since im very new also with my wood stove!(bought in the early spring and used 4 times then)i am also looking for input from others out there.Seems to be many users of VTs everburn stoves but not too many with the harman!which is also a downdraft type stove.The four times i did use mine i had the same experiences as you had.I belieave that when you see the flame roaring in the back chamber via the looking glass the afterburn is operating.You can confirm this by looking outside for smoke!there should be verry little or none.A few others on this forum have our type of stoves and you may hear from them,just search on TL 300.I am planning on starting to burn mine veery soon!possibly later today!its starting to get a bit cool around here.Keep us informed on how its working for you!I will also from time to time adding my comments on how mine is doing.Im going to try to get a pic of the afterburn in action but might be abit hard since i am not the best at taking pics. Stan the burning man.

murry said:

This is the fourth time firing up the stove and have a couple of questions?

The gasket around the stove door, does this harden?

Putting the stove into after burn definetlly does needs coals as some mentioned.. With that said when it does kick into after burn I see little flame with flames going into the back of the after burn chamber. I also notice flames appear and they roll around the inside of the fire dome and disappear. Looking through the class it is crystal clear with all the above mentiooned. Also no smoke coming out the chimney.

Is that what it is looks like when it is in afterburn???

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Just about to start my second season w/ tl300. What you are descibing is normal operation. And the gasket may harden after a while, but if it becomes brittle or starts to fall off, replace it.

After only using my TL 300 ten times or so, this is what I know/learned to answer your questions. First, it does seam that the door gasket does get "hard". I dont remember this happening on my old Englander but I have done the dollar bill test and it seam to be fine. Have not noticed any other issues with the gasket. As far as the secondary burn goes, I am still in the process of messing with it to find what works best. The one thing that I have noticed is the deeper your coal bed is the less finicky it seams to be. I also learned that in a hurry or a pinch (cause its still a little warm out to be dumping a pile of wood in it) that if you push the coals back around and pile them up in front of the throat of the after-burn chamber it works ok too. I believe that I have successfully had the after-burn in and operating for an extended period of time on several occasions. However, I do not get this woosh or jet engine sound that some talk about. Most of the time I try and set the wood so that a small portion of the throat of the after-burn chamber is visible. I can see flames going up into the chamber and also observe flames around the small air inductor holes located in this area. The reasons I believe I have been successful with the after-burn, first off is there is no visible smoke coming from the chimney. Second, I am able to maintain 500 degree stove top temps for an extended period of time with little to no visible flame in the fire box. This thing has my interest and I am curious to find out what it takes to get this elusive jet engine sound. I am thinking that colder outdoor temps will aid in its discovery. Hope I could help you some murry.

Edit: also one other thing to mention. I have noticed that once the after-burn is engaged, (assuming you do this with the air wide open) that by turning down the air to one half to one quarter seams to increase the health of the after-burn. Not exactly sure yet why this is, but it is not always effective.

I have not seen the TL 300 in action and have only burned my Lopi Leyden twice with little break in fires. I was a bit over eager to shut the bypass last time but I did get it to rumble for about 2 or 3 min. I had to shut the blower off and get behind it to identify the noise. Then, after knowing what to listen for I could hear it from the front rather faintly before it stalled out.

I did see flames getting sucked into the back slot and I seen something glowing back in there, similar to Tradergordo's videos of his VC Dutch West.

I'm excited, and a tad bit concerned, to see how this experiment goes. I is good to get feed back from other down draft stove folks to get a heads up on this thing.

Just started burning wood to heat my home this year and I purchased a tl-300 this spring but did not install until this summer. I have burned about 10 fires and I am getting the deep humming and wooshing noise but it dosn't last long. You will definately know it when you hear it but mine only does it for about a minute. I am getting fairly long hot burns (450 stove temp with my $11 thermometer) but it has only been below freezing a couple times so I am not fully loading the stove.

Mike

New TL300 owner trying to get the thing to burn correctly. I've fired it up 6 times now and I just don't seem to be able to get the heat out of it. I get the top load door up to about 500 degrees (that's about as high as I can get it with a roaring fire), throw in a few more logs, let it burn for a few more minutes, kick in the bypass and the load door temp usually drops to around 350-400.

maybe I'm not getting a large enough coal bed in the bottom.

Any thoughts from someone who's burning one of these with success?

thanks,
Jim

virvis said:

New TL300 owner trying to get the thing to burn correctly. I've fired it up 6 times now and I just don't seem to be able to get the heat out of it. I get the top load door up to about 500 degrees (that's about as high as I can get it with a roaring fire), throw in a few more logs, let it burn for a few more minutes, kick in the bypass and the load door temp usually drops to around 350-400.

maybe I'm not getting a large enough coal bed in the bottom.

Any thoughts from someone who's burning one of these with success?

thanks,
Jim

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With the warm temps outside, I am finding that I have the best luck with stove top temps closer to 600. I burn hot and fast a min of an hour before I even try to kick it into after-burn. And even at this, I am still learning. I have luck 50% of the time. Then with a little rearrangement of wood and coals it works. I will have it down to a science before long.

Do you find that you have to have your firebox loaded up pretty high to get up to 600? I haven't had it past 550 yet.

Not at all. The first hour or so I use mostly small stuff. Keep adding and let it burn. I think a big key is with this stove, is that the stove itself needs to be hot. The air thats inducted into the re-burn chamber is super heated by going through channels around the fire box before being released around the throat of the re-burn chamber and in the re-burn chamber itself. If the stove is not hot enough to heat this air it would make it difficult to obtain a good healthy re-burn. It takes me some time to get the stove hot. Like I said a min of an hour. To be honest about it I bet an hour and a half easy. I look at the coal bed thickness and the stove top temp as a guide of when to kick in the re-burn.

Virvis, check out this series of videos made by tradergordo. The videos are excellent. He is burning a different stove than what we have but his stove is also a down draft type stove, the same as our stoves. Both stoves operate on the same principle. Watch them all, because I do almost the same as he does to operate my stove. This should help you some.



https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/14536/

Thanks for the info. I'll check them out.

I have the Harman exception which is the insert version of the TL 300.I have burned it the last two night with good results.From a cold start i the first load of wood i burn to mostly coals with damper and air control fully open,then put some big splits in wait a few min then close the damper.The afterburner in the back starts up and runs.Temp at this point not verry hot!maybe 450 to 550.Close down the air flow to around one third open and afterburn keeps going most of the time till the coals burn down.I have a few pics if interested in another thread https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/24776/

virvis said:

New TL300 owner trying to get the thing to burn correctly. I've fired it up 6 times now and I just don't seem to be able to get the heat out of it. I get the top load door up to about 500 degrees (that's about as high as I can get it with a roaring fire), throw in a few more logs, let it burn for a few more minutes, kick in the bypass and the load door temp usually drops to around 350-400.

maybe I'm not getting a large enough coal bed in the bottom.

Any thoughts from someone who's burning one of these with success?

thanks,
Jim

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How seasoned is your wood?
Do a search on this forum with TL300, TL-300, TL 300 I have posted some infomation on how I burn the TL300.
The key to getting extened burn times is seasoned wood and a good coal bed 3-4" at the least. I have been getting between 12-17 hour burn times (temps above 400) with wood seasoned over a year and a well extablished coal bed.

Thanks MishMouse,

The wood I'm using now is oak from a large tree that was cut down last year, I cut it into logs and split it this summer so it's actually been split for about 3 months. I guess it may not be dry enough because it does sizzle a little when I throw it in.

I haven't burnt wood for very long and have a question you might be able to shed some light on. I have standing dead oaks that have been dead for about 4 years. How long will they stay good or should I cut them down and burn them this year. The bark is coming off of them now.

thanks

virvis said:

Thanks MishMouse,

The wood I'm using now is oak from a large tree that was cut down last year, I cut it into logs and split it this summer so it's actually been split for about 3 months. I guess it may not be dry enough because it does sizzle a little when I throw it in.

I haven't burnt wood for very long and have a question you might be able to shed some light on. I have standing dead oaks that have been dead for about 4 years. How long will they stay good or should I cut them down and burn them this year. The bark is coming off of them now.

thanks

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I would cut them split them and cover them, you might be able to use them later in the year depending on its moisture level. One question about the issue with your stove not getting up to temp, does your stove have a blower?
If it does do not turn it on until the stove is burning properly, a blower can cool off a stove in a hurry.

yes, it has a blower. I'll try burning it without using the blower at all.

thanks for the info.

Iv used the TL-300 about 3 times so far and have good draft but sometimes i get a lot of creosote buildup inside the stove ,on the glass, in the flue pipe,in the chimney.
does anyone know how to tell if the afterburner is working , iv called the dealer but it is amazing how little they know about what they sell

trump said:

Iv used the TL-300 about 3 times so far and have good draft but sometimes i get a lot of creosote buildup inside the stove ,on the glass, in the flue pipe,in the chimney.
does anyone know how to tell if the afterburner is working , iv called the dealer but it is amazing how little they know about what they sell

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Sometimes you can hear it. Sounds like a jet engine. Its not very loud though. You can also see it. If you look at the opening to the re-burn chamber in the back of the fire box you can see flame going into this area. Also I have noticed that area surrounding the opening will glow red. (the brick) You can simply tell by if your stove holds a stove top temp above 400 degrees for a period of time 20 min or so. Likewise with the connector pipe thermometer. Or you can just simply look at the opening of your chimney outside to check for visible smoke. If its working there will be little to no smoke at all.

Thanks Firefighter29
ITs pretty hard to see the After Burner opening ,as there is usually wood in front of it.
Does the afterburner stay lit(once it starts) even when you turn the air down to the lowest setting for overnight burns?
Im wondering if this stove is better than the cat stoves or are they better,perhaps they burn smoke at lower temps.
I got this stove cuz my old (cheap) stove likes to tar up my chimney and flue pipe and i could not burn it overnight.
Any thoughts on burning very dry softwood as i have loads of it and i need to get rid of it. I get it from houses i remodel ,so i guess some of it is 100 years old, so no need to season it.

Burn the softwood. It will be no issue. As a matter of fact I got about a cord and a half of pine myself. At first I tried to position the wood so that I could see the re-burn chamber opening. Thats how I could tell whats it was doing. I have only used my TL 300 about 20 times so far. And every time I do I learn more about the stove. The re-burn will go out after the wood burns down so far. But at this point there is not much really left to worry about creosote. I was able to start my stove real early today as the outside temp permitted it. Was able to watch the stove go through its entire burn cycle. The longer I have this stove the more I like it. When you first try it out, it seams so hard to get a good healthy re-burn but trust me, after you kinda figure it out you will find its real easy.


Edit: sorry, and yes it is able to keep the re-burn going on the lowest air setting. Sometimes I have found it actually works better that way.

trump said:

Any thoughts on burning very dry softwood as i have loads of it and i need to get rid of it. I get it from houses i remodel ,so i guess some of it is 100 years old, so no need to season it.

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Yes, burn it, but mix with cordwood - stove temps might get a bit high on a straight diet of antique pine!

Thanks guys ,
Im really glad i stumbled on this site as my dealer is no help at all so i emailed harman directly but they keep refering me to the dealer who is just about clueless as i had about 5 or 6 questions and so far they answered none. I keep getting soot on the glass but i suspect its from not getting the chimney and the stove hot enough for a strong draft, or the wood is too close to the glass,also do you guys have the optional blower and how are you applying it, i suspect im turning it on too soon and up too high and preventing my stove from reaching proper burning temp, thus the creosote problem and the after burner not working.
Im going to try a magnetic temp gauge to determine burn temps. Where is the best place to place it? I got the fireplace screen and the cooking grill too but i did not try it yet. Best regards Randy

My glass still gets some tinting from burning but seems to be getting less and less in time,It could be that im burning better and hotter.Im thinking when it gets colder the downdraft will be even stronger than it is now helping to keep my glass cleaner.

When wood gets to close to the door it can build up the black stuff when it burns down, but it normally burns off when you fire it back up. Yes a blower can really cool down the afterburn chamber especially if you do not have seasoned wood.

Myself I didn't opt for the blower and instead went with a 3 blade eco-fan.
My Reasons:
It doesn't cool the stove down
No Electricity
Wide disbursement of heat
End of season sale at home depot < $85 delivered
Similar cfpm as the blower

As for overly dry wood softwood, I would mix both hard and softwoods together.
With overly dry wood if you do get a good draft and not pay very good intention to the stove when you are bringing the stove temps up you could very easily overfire it as with any more modern stove that has secondary air.