Harman TL300

Removed harmon tl300 and installed blazeking king ultra. What a difference.

KF, what size house are you attempting to heat?

As far as recommendations go, There are many factors. Are you going for the biggest bang for your buck, the longest burns, the absolute highest heat output, looks?


edit: that Harman has that oh-so-sweet cooking grill option, which is by FAR my favorite feature on any wood stove.

This is my first year burning and I have the tl-300. I love the stove. I heated a total of 4 days this past winter with electric (I was gone 2 weekends) all the rest of the heat was all wood, never even bought fuel oil for the boiler. It takes a while to learn to use the AB, but once you catch on its easy. I am still burning but so far I have burned a little under 11 face cords (cherry, beach and maple). The coldest its been in my house was 68 on a really cold morning, and the house is usually between 72-74 during the day. The temp's got down to the -30's a couple days last winter and the stove had no problems keeping the house warm. The stove is in the basement and it does get pretty hot down there at times but the heat rises up the open stairway to heat the whole house. I load the stove twice a day, on all but the coldest days on those days I will throw a couple splits in when I get home from work. You don't even have to try to get overnight burns, and have lots of coals left in the morning. Harman says you can get 17 hour burns, and thats true, but I found 10-12 to be more realistic to still be pulling enough heat on cold days. I love the top load feature and I get no smoke when loading through the top. I have the cooking grill but have only used it once, I'm not much of a cook and I thought it was a pain to use it. The ash pan is large, I believe Harman says you can go a week with out emptying it, its really about 4 or 5 days in the dead of winter, but I was still pretty happy with that. I stacked enough wood in my garage to heat the whole season and the stuff that was near the bottom of the stack seemed to be a little wet, the stove really did not like that, wood has to be dry to get the heat.

If I was going to buy another stove, there would be no question I would buy another tl-300.

Mike

standsby said:

Removed harmon tl300 and installed blazeking king ultra. What a difference.

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Please elaborate. Both of these stoves are on my short list.

The blazeking burns much longer and with the thermostat much more consistantly. Blazeking ashes are white and very light indicating hot complete combustion. Blazeking comes with stainless converter and light weight insulating firebrick. Harmon still uses the old heavy brick. Harmon ashes are darker and have greater content of charcoal. Blazeking can be turned down low to just smolder while the cat burnes the smoke, harmon would not go near as low. Best indicator is exhaust temp while cruising along with just enough heat output to maintain comfortable tempature. Harmon exhaust tempature with probe thermometer at cruise 500-800 degrees. Blazeking exhaust tempature with same probe thermometer at same location in same stove pipe with same wood and outside tempature 250-350 degrees. A lot of heat going up the stack. I now have a like new tl300 sitting in the corner of the room thats for sale with the grill and blower. Paid 2400 and might sell for around 1500. Check with autorain in spokane washington. New blazeking king ultra for around 2100 or princess for around 1700. The harmon is well made with heavy material but the afterburn must be run hot to work and then is somewhat unpredictable. The blazeking with auto thermostat maintains even heat output until wood is consumed and no charcoal left over to contend with. Hope this helps.

I bought the insert version of the TL300c last year and love the long burns it provides!The down side is that my glass has a hard time keeping clean and it takes sometimes up to a hour from a cold start to get the afterburner to get going.Burning it tonight with temps droping to low 30s and its in the upper 70s here in my computer room on the second floor of a 1600 sq ft colonial while the first floor is just over 80!even in the deepest of winter when its near zero it keeps the house very toasty.

I'm very interested in a Blaze King but, if I've understood properly it requires an 8" chimney. That's a deal breaker if true.

most big blaze kings are 8" flue.

botemout said:

I'm very interested in a Blaze King but, if I've understood properly it requires an 8" chimney. That's a deal breaker if true.

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The BK Princess takes a 6" flue and the larger King takes an 8".

We had the TL300 installed last December and Love it! After you learn how to use the Afterburn it is very easy to use and only fill it about twice a day. I like the way it looks and it has a nice big viewing area. We also have the grill for the top and cooked several beef briskets on there last year, they were awesome. Can't wait to fire it up again this fall.

I have an Oakwood, which is Harman's cast iron version and has the same downdraft burn system. On the plus side: the stove cranks out the heat, the grill option is awesome, and top loading makes filling the firebox a breeze. Takes a little learning to get the stove to temp; needs a good coal bed to engage secondary burn. Right now I have a load of dry pine in, burning smoke free!

The downside: the afterburner throws heat from the back of the stove, not the front (may not be a problem for all, but my stove is in a fireplace). A lot of praise here is coming from second-year owners (of which I am one) but it seems to me that the afterburner unit itself (a $300 part) will need cleaning every other year, and perhaps replacing in under 5 years, for the stove to perform well down the road. The jury is still out on this, and maybe not a deal breaker. For me, the pleasure of having the grill (which I use a lot) makes up for it.

The Harman likes to be burned long and hot, so you may have less control over room temps. For me it's not an issue; if it's real cold out and I have the stove cruising, the room with the stove gets hot, but we all like that here. I think a BK is going to let you have a little more ability to bring your room temp down if you want. So a cat stove may be better in cool (rather than cold) climates. My stove is in a big brick hearth that will radiate heat hours after the fire dies, so I need to plan my fires based on outdoor temps. If I'm not careful, a fire to take the morning chill off can end up overheating the house. I imagine a cat could help that situation.

There are little things that may lead you to prefer one type of stove over the other, but for quality and performance I don't think you can go wrong either way.

Has anyone experienced the outside portion of their chimney getting too hot? On a few occasions this season, we can see a glow at the top of our chimney and at the rain cap. When we see this, we shut the by-pass and the glow will go away after a few minutes. I have examined the chimney and cleaned it, there has been very little creosote built up inside. I know it depends on the wood placement as to whether flames shoot straight up the chimney, but just curious if anybody has had the same experience.

I too have a Harman (and a BK), but I've never seen flames or even a glow from my chimney.

standsby said:

The blazeking burns much longer and with the thermostat much more consistantly. Blazeking ashes are white and very light indicating hot complete combustion. Blazeking comes with stainless converter and light weight insulating firebrick. Harmon still uses the old heavy brick. Harmon ashes are darker and have greater content of charcoal. Blazeking can be turned down low to just smolder while the cat burnes the smoke, harmon would not go near as low. Best indicator is exhaust temp while cruising along with just enough heat output to maintain comfortable tempature. Harmon exhaust tempature with probe thermometer at cruise 500-800 degrees. Blazeking exhaust tempature with same probe thermometer at same location in same stove pipe with same wood and outside tempature 250-350 degrees. A lot of heat going up the stack. I now have a like new tl300 sitting in the corner of the room thats for sale with the grill and blower. Paid 2400 and might sell for around 1500. Check with autorain in spokane washington. New blazeking king ultra for around 2100 or princess for around 1700. The harmon is well made with heavy material but the afterburn must be run hot to work and then is somewhat unpredictable. The blazeking with auto thermostat maintains even heat output until wood is consumed and no charcoal left over to contend with. Hope this helps.

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THe Tl-300 has the longest burn times i ever saw on a stove ,perhaps there was something wrong with your stove.

Had a TL 300 installed a few months ago. Couldn't be more satisfied! Top load and huge ashpan are really convenient features. Love the looks, grill and long burn. Burning nice dry 2 yr old splits- Oak, cherry, ash, hickory, walnut. Glass hardly ever gets dirty, and then just a bit. Hadn't filled the firebox completely until last week. This thing will toss some major heat. Operating the stove has been simple, and learning curve was real short thanks to helpful posts from others.

I checked out the blazeking website and i have to say it is not a very attractive stove, but the specs are fantastic,and if it can upstage a Tl-300 harman it must be something special. Id consider it for a future purchase.

This is me second year I am burning with the Tl 300. My first year was an experience to say. The problem I had were that it was my first year burning wood and did not really know alot until I got on this site and people steered me in the right direction. Second my wood was only seasoned for six/seven months. I have all good hardwood that needs that year or better.

Now my second season I love the stove. Easy to burn 24/7 and heats my whole home. I live in a rancher and have my stove in the finished basement/wreck room. I also believed I had a depressurization problem due to the location of the stove. However i intalled an O.A.K and seems to work well. I have not had any problems this year getting the stove engaged into after burn. However I noticed this stove does burn differently than some other down draft stoves. when engaged and burning as should you do not have any flames throughout the firebox. You get secondary swirls of flames occasionally, but most is going through the back into the afterburn system. I noticed more secondary burns about midway through the burn cycle. Importotantly to see if the stove is operatimg as should I check the chimney. No smoke = afterburn engaged. At times though when I check right at shutdown little somke is coming from chimney after everything settles in no smoke.

Keys to burning this stove..

1. DRY WOOD DRY WOOD>

2. Its a big stove need to bring it up to temp on initial start at least 550 600 degrees before shutdown.

3. Good bed of coals

Now I have been averaging 10 -12 hour burn time.......

murry said:

This is me second year I am burning with the Tl 300. My first year was an experience to say. The problem I had were that it was my first year burning wood and did not really know alot until I got on this site and people steered me in the right direction. Second my wood was only seasoned for six/seven months. I have all good hardwood that needs that year or better.

Now my second season I love the stove. Easy to burn 24/7 and heats my whole home. I live in a rancher and have my stove in the finished basement/wreck room. I also believed I had a depressurization problem due to the location of the stove. However i intalled an O.A.K and seems to work well. I have not had any problems this year getting the stove engaged into after burn. However I noticed this stove does burn differently than some other down draft stoves. when engaged and burning as should you do not have any flames throughout the firebox. You get secondary swirls of flames occasionally, but most is going through the back into the afterburn system. I noticed more secondary burns about midway through the burn cycle. Importotantly to see if the stove is operatimg as should I check the chimney. No smoke = afterburn engaged. At times though when I check right at shutdown little somke is coming from chimney after everything settles in no smoke.

Keys to burning this stove..

1. DRY WOOD DRY WOOD>

2. Its a big stove need to bring it up to temp on initial start at least 550 600 degrees before shutdown.

3. Good bed of coals

Now I have been averaging 10 -12 hour burn time.......

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Don,t mistake steam for smoke,right after i engage the AB i still get some steam from a fresh load of wood(white wisp the dissapears quickly)
THere is always some moisture in wood and just after you put it in the stove you will get some steam out the chimney top till the moisture burns off , after a while you will be able to tell if your AB is working without going outside. Back of the shroud just below the flue exit gets too hot to touch ,ting,ting,ting, sound of metal expanding,faint jet engine sound ect.

Your sometimes it is steam and yes you hear that ting..ting.. sounf lrts you know it is kiked. Lat year my first year with the syove I did not let the stove do it's job and at time filled it up with alot of red coal and some unburnt woob. I would let the temp climb and shut it down it was an incredible roar from the back. At times it scared me to hear the rumbling and jet sound at that level. Now I have more control and understanding of the stove.

One other thing I di and mention about heating the large stove up is when i get my desired temp 550-600 I leave the notch on the highest setting for a minute or two then bring it down to the middle setting for two minutes and then to the third for minutes and lastly to the second or first setting. Speaking of the air control when damper is closed. Have good success with this.

Also when i have a really good bed of red hot coal I shut down at 450 degrees.

I burn a lot of Waste wood that i get from remodeling old houses 2x4s floor joists,lath boards ect. Some of the wood is 100 years old and those laths smoke like crazy from the dried pine sap in them, WHen i kick in the AB the chimney top goes from heavy black smoke to nothing as the smoke turns to usable BTUs and not chimney creosote. Thats why i chose a downdraft stove with an AB as opposed to a CAT stove as i don,t know how some of this wood might damage the CAT.