Little Harman help needed...

Bigjim13 · Nov 9, 2009

First let me start with my stove, a Harman P61A that was installed last September. We are getting into our second burning season and so far have been very happy. I did a search of the forum and a google search on this topic and came up empty. I also looked in my owner's manual but frankly, the Harman owner's manual is vague and had nothing that I was looking for.

How do I get at my auger to clean it out? I gave my stove a pretty good cleaning today, breaking it down and vaccumming out just about every part I could think of. I like to give it a very thorough cleaning like this at least once if not twice a month during the burning season and give a decent cleaning every week.

I'm not really having to many issues with the Auger but want to get it cleaned out, at least I think it should be cleaned of dust etc, as I have heard that "80% of all stove issues are caused by dirty stoves."

So, how do I get to my Auger? Do I have to pull the hopper off?

Thanks in advance for your responses !!!

krooser · Nov 9, 2009

Bigjim13 said:
First let me start with my stove, a Harman P61A that was installed last September. We are getting into our second burning season and so far have been very happy. I did a search of the forum and a google search on this topic and came up empty. I also looked in my owner's manual but frankly, the Harman owner's manual is vague and had nothing that I was looking for.

How do I get at my auger to clean it out? I gave my stove a pretty good cleaning today, breaking it down and vaccumming out just about every part I could think of. I like to give it a very thorough cleaning like this at least once if not twice a month during the burning season and give a decent cleaning every week.

I'm not really having to many issues with the Auger but want to get it cleaned out, at least I think it should be cleaned of dust etc, as I have heard that "80% of all stove issues are caused by dirty stoves."

So, how do I get to my Auger? Do I have to pull the hopper off?

Thanks in advance for your responses

Man... you'll get in trouble quoting THAT guy....hahaha

Bigjim13 · Nov 9, 2009

krooser said:
Bigjim13 said:

First let me start with my stove, a Harman P61A that was installed last September. We are getting into our second burning season and so far have been very happy. I did a search of the forum and a google search on this topic and came up empty. I also looked in my owner's manual but frankly, the Harman owner's manual is vague and had nothing that I was looking for.

How do I get at my auger to clean it out? I gave my stove a pretty good cleaning today, breaking it down and vaccumming out just about every part I could think of. I like to give it a very thorough cleaning like this at least once if not twice a month during the burning season and give a decent cleaning every week.

I'm not really having to many issues with the Auger but want to get it cleaned out, at least I think it should be cleaned of dust etc, as I have heard that "80% of all stove issues are caused by dirty stoves."

So, how do I get to my Auger? Do I have to pull the hopper off?

Thanks in advance for your responses

Click to expand...

Man... you'll get in trouble quoting THAT guy....hahaha

LOL, I couldn't remember which member I saw that had that quote in the sig! Valid point though!!

HEMI · Nov 9, 2009

Bigjim13 said:
krooser said:

Bigjim13 said:

First let me start with my stove, a Harman P61A that was installed last September. We are getting into our second burning season and so far have been very happy. I did a search of the forum and a google search on this topic and came up empty. I also looked in my owner's manual but frankly, the Harman owner's manual is vague and had nothing that I was looking for.

How do I get at my auger to clean it out? I gave my stove a pretty good cleaning today, breaking it down and vaccumming out just about every part I could think of. I like to give it a very thorough cleaning like this at least once if not twice a month during the burning season and give a decent cleaning every week.

I'm not really having to many issues with the Auger but want to get it cleaned out, at least I think it should be cleaned of dust etc, as I have heard that "80% of all stove issues are caused by dirty stoves."

So, how do I get to my Auger? Do I have to pull the hopper off?

Thanks in advance for your responses

Click to expand...

Man... you'll get in trouble quoting THAT guy....hahaha

Click to expand...

LOL, I couldn't remember which member I saw that had that quote in the sig! Valid point though!!

member name krooser

Lousyweather · Nov 10, 2009

Bigjim13 said:
First let me start with my stove, a Harman P61A that was installed last September. We are getting into our second burning season and so far have been very happy. I did a search of the forum and a google search on this topic and came up empty. I also looked in my owner's manual but frankly, the Harman owner's manual is vague and had nothing that I was looking for.

How do I get at my auger to clean it out? I gave my stove a pretty good cleaning today, breaking it down and vaccumming out just about every part I could think of. I like to give it a very thorough cleaning like this at least once if not twice a month during the burning season and give a decent cleaning every week.

I'm not really having to many issues with the Auger but want to get it cleaned out, at least I think it should be cleaned of dust etc, as I have heard that "80% of all stove issues are caused by dirty stoves."

So, how do I get to my Auger? Do I have to pull the hopper off?

Thanks in advance for your responses

First of all, dont remove the auger unless you NEED TO (foreign object in auger, seized auger, gummy stove).....its removed from the rear...pull off the gearmotor, unbolt the auger retainer ring, and push the auger out the back from the front)....again, dont do this unless you HAVE to....and yes, i was purposefully brief.

Vermont-XXV · Nov 10, 2009

Bigjim,

I have an xxv and I think we have the same auger hardware. I have 2 observations.

1 When I vacuumed out the fine/feeder assembly, in the back, (under the fines deflector) I noticed that it pulled partially burned pellets from the area at the auger opening in the burn pot. I think it's not really sealed per se. So if you think there's stuff in there you might try vacuuming it out from the back. However if it's feeding ok then why mess with it?

2 I've struggled to learn to leave well enough alone on lots of complicated stuff. The idea of pulling out the auger falls into that catagory for me. Have you checked with your dealer?

just a couple of ideas.

Your dealer is Stove and Flag? How do you like them?

Good Luck - whatever you do.

Clifford

hossthehermit · Nov 10, 2009

Bigjim13 said:
First let me start with my stove, a Harman P61A that was installed last September. We are getting into our second burning season and so far have been very happy. I did a search of the forum and a google search on this topic and came up empty. I also looked in my owner's manual but frankly, the Harman owner's manual is vague and had nothing that I was looking for.

How do I get at my auger to clean it out? I gave my stove a pretty good cleaning today, breaking it down and vaccumming out just about every part I could think of. I like to give it a very thorough cleaning like this at least once if not twice a month during the burning season and give a decent cleaning every week.

I'm not really having to many issues with the Auger but want to get it cleaned out, at least I think it should be cleaned of dust etc, as I have heard that "80% of all stove issues are caused by dirty stoves."

So, how do I get to my Auger? Do I have to pull the hopper off?

Thanks in advance for your responses

Jim, you need to realize that 80% of dealers prefer to tell you that your problem is a dirty stove, then, they;
A. Send out a guy to clean it (at minimum wage), and bill you for a "Skilled Technician" @ $75/hr., plus $20/mile travel
B. then
C. Inform you that, "Since your stove was SOOOOOOOO dirty, the frammerstan warped, this is one of those situations that falls under the "USER NEGLECT VOIDS WARRANTY" clause, and, since you're such a nice guy they won't report you to your insurance company, the local code enforcement officer, fire dept., and (if you have a pet) the ASPCA.

Of course, if your dealer is one of the other 20%, "NO PROBLEMO"

MountainStoveGuy · Nov 10, 2009

hossthehermit said:
Bigjim13 said:

First let me start with my stove, a Harman P61A that was installed last September. We are getting into our second burning season and so far have been very happy. I did a search of the forum and a google search on this topic and came up empty. I also looked in my owner's manual but frankly, the Harman owner's manual is vague and had nothing that I was looking for.

How do I get at my auger to clean it out? I gave my stove a pretty good cleaning today, breaking it down and vaccumming out just about every part I could think of. I like to give it a very thorough cleaning like this at least once if not twice a month during the burning season and give a decent cleaning every week.

I'm not really having to many issues with the Auger but want to get it cleaned out, at least I think it should be cleaned of dust etc, as I have heard that "80% of all stove issues are caused by dirty stoves."

So, how do I get to my Auger? Do I have to pull the hopper off?

Thanks in advance for your responses

Click to expand...

Jim, you need to realize that 80% of dealers prefer to tell you that your problem is a dirty stove, then, they;
A. Send out a guy to clean it (at minimum wage), and bill you for a "Skilled Technician" @ $75/hr., plus $20/mile travel
B. then
C. Inform you that, "Since your stove was SOOOOOOOO dirty, the frammerstan warped, this is one of those situations that falls under the "USER NEGLECT VOIDS WARRANTY" clause, and, since you're such a nice guy they won't report you to your insurance company, the local code enforcement officer, fire dept., and (if you have a pet) the ASPCA.

Of course, if your dealer is one of the other 20%, "NO PROBLEMO"

You need to realize that 80 % of the stoves we go out to service are just dirty. Once they are clean they work and the dirty customer gets a $85 bill.
point A is close, but they are usally NFI pellet certified. Closer to $85 a hour, and no travel. Vehicles and tools take maintenance. Your not just paying for the tech, your paying for the rent, the electric bill, the van, the tools, and the techs time.
point C is just silly.

Bigjim13 · Nov 10, 2009

Ok, so after reading some replies I may have jumped the gun on pulling out the auger. I vacummed out the back today where the motors are and found a silver plate with a wingnut on it. Bear with me as I am fairly new at this. Is the the fine deflector that another post mentioned above? I assume this needs to be cleaned as well, am I correct in this assumption? What exactly is it? and is it as simple as un screwing the wing nut and pulling off the plate to vacum?

The auger seems to feed fine although on 2 separate occasion, in the last week actually, the stove has tried to start back up and it was not being fed pellets. I shut it down and restarted it after sifting my hand through the pellets and it seemed fine afterwards.

I just want to make sure I am keeping up the maintenance on my stove. Thanks All!

***just went and checked out the stove manual, again very vague. I think the plate I mentioned is referred to as the feeder plate in the manual. Nowhere does it say in the manual though that it needs to be taken off and vaccumed out. So now I wonder if I should just leave it alone. I wish the manual was a little more helpful. Thankfully though I found this site last season!!***

rona · Nov 10, 2009

It would be a good idea if you could get the tech manual for your stove. Then you would know what to clean and what to leave alone.
There is a gravy train for the dealers by making the owners manual very brief and vague.

Bigjim13 · Nov 10, 2009

rona said:
It would be a good idea if you could get the tech manual for your stove. Then you would know what to clean and what to leave alone.
There is a gravy train for the dealers by making the owners manual very brief and vague.

Any idea how to get that? I can't imagine Harman would just give it to me if I called them, might be worth a shot though.

rona · Nov 10, 2009

You should be able to get one from a dealer. You will have to pay for it but it sounds like it will be a good investment.
I don't know how much different it is compared to a PC45 but I got some pages for it that might be usefull. Send me a e-mail so I get your address and I can send some to you.

Vermont-XXV · Nov 10, 2009

Big Jim,

The new manual is fairly specific and has the parts list, description and pictures of the entire stove.

Page 26 has the section "Maintenance - Cleaning the Feeder Body" and it describes what you should be doing and how. It has pictures. The pictures are even in color. I have found the manual describes the stove extremely accurately and very descriptively. You might have to read it a number of times and cross reference almost everything to understand how all the dials interact with each other. It isn't intuitive at all. Logic won't help to understand very much here. That wing nut you're asking about is gold colored.

This is the link to the PDF that has all the info on your stove (it's the new one) - The updated manual really has improved since your stove came out.

http://www.hearthnhome.com/downloads/installManuals/P61A.pdf

clifford

Bigjim13 · Nov 10, 2009

Vermont-XXV said:
Big Jim,

The new manual is fairly specific and has the parts list, description and pictures of the entire stove.

Page 26 has the section "Maintenance - Cleaning the Feeder Body" and it describes what you should be doing and how. It has pictures. The pictures are even in color. I have found the manual describes the stove extremely accurately and very descriptively. You might have to read it a number of times and cross reference almost everything to understand how all the dials interact with each other. It isn't intuitive at all. Logic won't help to understand very much here. That wing nut you're asking about is gold colored.

This is the link to the PDF that has all the info on your stove (it's the new one) - The updated manual really has improved since your stove came out.

http://www.hearthnhome.com/downloads/installManuals/P61A.pdf

clifford

Hey thanks, hadn't thought of checking the newest manual as I didn't think they would update it any more than the one I got. I must say I am a little disappointed in the owners manual I got with my P61. They go over cleaning the burn pot, igniter and emptying the ash pan and cleaning the combustion blower fan behind the ash pan. That's it.

That's exactly what I was looking for, Thanks for all the help everybody. I just saved the new manual to my desktop and will adhere to the previous advice give to leave the auger alone!

Lousyweather · Nov 10, 2009

rona said:
It would be a good idea if you could get the tech manual for your stove. Then you would know what to clean and what to leave alone.
There is a gravy train for the dealers by making the owners manual very brief and vague.

NMo "tech manuals" I know of, but there are very explicit cleaning instructions online at www.homewarmth.com

MCPO · Nov 10, 2009

Bigjim13 said:
Ok, so after reading some replies I may have jumped the gun on pulling out the auger. I vacummed out the back today where the motors are and found a silver plate with a wingnut on it. Bear with me as I am fairly new at this. Is the the fine deflector that another post mentioned above? I assume this needs to be cleaned as well, am I correct in this assumption? What exactly is it? and is it as simple as un screwing the wing nut and pulling off the plate to vacum?

***

Yup! Unscrew the wingnut pull off cover and clean out the fines box. Replace cover and wingnut . It`s that simple.

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