HARMAN ADVANCE Help

amos said:

Bought the Harman in the spring and this is our first winter. I live in northern Nevada. So far its been working well,until this evening I noticed the flame was quite large so I checked it and found that it had been pourning pellets into the waste bin and the pellets in there were burning!! Any ideas what would cause this?? Any suggestions would be great. We are burning Golden fire pellets thats all we have been burning this year.
Thanks

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How do you have it set up to run? Are you in Room temp/Stove temp/ What are your feed and temp settings? Do you have the toggle switch on auto or manual.

Burn pot should be swiped manually with cleaning tool when ash builds up in front of the burn pot and covers the air holes. When was the last time you scraped and cleaned your burn pot?

Also, make sure your exhaust chamber and ESP sensor are clean. Remove the ash pan, remove the bracket to the combustion blower. You will be able to see the ESP probe toward the back of the exhaust chamber. If the ESP is filthy or bent, it will read incorrectly. I removed the probe when I did my thorough cleaning. I used a paint brush to gently clean the probe. With the probe removed, run a 3" brush in the chamber to clean the chamber, then vacuum it out. Then reinsert the probe.

Amos: I am not sure how many bags you may have burned since you started in the fall, but if you have burned anywhere from 30 bags or more, you probably need to clean the stove. It sounds as though all you may have cleaned so far is the burn pot area. If you comfortable with doing this yourself, you may want to clean the stove before the dealer comes out. Many problems are caused by dirty stoves and vents. If your dealer comes out, the first thing they will probably do is clean it and charge you for it. Of course maybe that was your plan of action.

The advance is really not that hard to clean. Just follow the instructions in the manual. They are fairly straight forward with many images. The area that I was suggesting you check and/or clean is behind the ash pan. The online manual that I am looking at shows this on page 23. Take a look in the flue (exhaust chamber) you should be able to see the ESP probe toward the back of the chamber. Close to where your vent pipe adapts to the stove collar.

Let us know how it turns out and how your burn is once you have it clean. I have a feeling that you will see a big difference. Don't forget to get the ash that accumulates on the small ledge that runs across the upper part of the stove where the heat exchanger baffles are. That ledge seems to hold the ash.

amos said:

Well we have burned more than 30 bags thats for sure, the stove runs 24/7 to keep the house at 70. I will do a complete cleaning tonight and see if it works after that.
Thanks

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Make sure you pull the plate in front of the burn pot and get all of the ash out from under it. Your ignitor won't light the pellets when that area is full of ash. make sure your airholes are not plugged...especially the last five holes starting on the left side of pot that go half way across near the bottom. A metal paper clip can be used to clean them out. They're hard to see,,you might have to feel around for them. The ESP can be cleaned with a paper towel with a little Windex on it...clean it till it's a silver color again. Be gentle ....don't bend it. If your hand isn't small enough to reach it, you can use a toothbrush with a duct taped extender to it...like a small dowel, or length of metal clothes hanger. Use the brush itself or wrap some windexed paper towel around it and rub away till clean. I've got a few "home made" pellet cleaning tools that I use regularly as time savers.

Yeah it's amazing how much ash is hidden behind the ash pan on the advance isn't it.......
The only one that can't be removed to dump ashes without going through a cleaning......
I used to do as many here and clean between 25- 40 bags, and would wait till I saw the 7 day forcast and picked the warmest day...
Tap the burnpot a couple of times after you clean under it and even more ash will fall in there......
Guess I was late on the cleaning PDF.......

Amos:

Congratulations on your cleaning. I didn't see where you mentioned if it cured your problem. How is everything burning?

amos said:

Sure cured the problem. The flame looks real strong now kind of forgot how it should look. The flame was looking very lazy boy now its intense. Started fast and putting out more heat. This is our first winter with a pellet stove, still learning..
Thanks

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The following will probably sound insane, but other than a visual check, this is how I absolutely know I need to clean my stove.

I call it the "butt test". If I can lean against the front of my stove (after it has been burning on high at least an hour) for more than 30 seconds, I know it's time for a cleaning. After a cleaning, I can tolerate only 10 to 15 seconds . I always have jeans on when I do this....anything thinner will leave a "grill mark". I must add that I have a high tolerance to pain...so your own test may vary. ;-)