Harman Accentra Issue

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Harman Lover 007

Harman Lover 007

Minister of Fire
Dec 31, 2010
1,803
Eastern Mass & Lakes Region of Maine
My brother has a Harman Accentra that is 4 years old. Since it is the end of the season he has been dealing with an intermittent issue without really trying to fix it and now of course the stove is really acting up and he is looking for help.

First off I will say that he thinks he cleans the stove regularly but when I asked him when the last time he pulled the stove away from the wall and cleaned the cleanout tee and the ESP he gave me that blank stare...... so it's probably a dirty stove issue but I want to put it out there for you to ponder.
In room temp mode, the stove self ignites and slowly feed pellets. The distribution fan never comes on. The stove doesn't shut off by itself unless it runs out of pellets. No blinking status lights at all.

I'm thinking ESP to circuit board issue due to poor maintenance. What do you guys think?
 
certainly could be ESP related, though, at some point, it should start blinking, might take an hour to get to that point though. Was the distribution blower workin ok before? Theres a chance that he has multiple things happening at the same time. Have him put it in test mode to see if everything comes on as it should. Definitely pull that sucker out and get in there head first before anything gets worse/harder to clean. Make the effort to tilt it or prop it up to get at the dist blower mounted on the bottom (animal hair and dust bunnies love to take naps in there). I will cross fingers for something simple. good luck

edit: disregard the tilting if its not the insert, just get at the blower from the back.
 
Does it do the same thing if he runs it in Stove Temp mode?
 
Appreciate the replies guys. He and I can't get together until late next week so I will report back after I show him how to properly do a complete cleaning.
 
So the summer has past by and he's back to the same problem. Stove has been completely cleaned, ESP brushed off and he did the external leaf blower trick. Same issue....Room temp set on 50 deg, combustion blower on, distribution blower never comes on, stove runs on low until it runs out of pellets. No status lights until it runs out of pellets.
 
Pardon me, but why is the stove set to 50 degrees?

I would expect the stove to only run on low and I don't know if that will normally get the convection fan going.

How does it operate in test mode?
 
SmokeyTheBear said:
Pardon me, but why is the stove set to 50 degrees?

I would expect the stove to only run on low and I don't know if that will normally get the convection fan going.

How does it operate in test mode?
Click to expand...

The point is the stove is in Room Temp mode, set at 50 and the room is 70. It shouldn't be running at all. It never shuts off as it should unless it runs out of pellets.
 
Then check the room probes connection and placement, if it is sitting on something that is not at the temperature where you have the 70 degree reading you aren't measuring the same thing the room probe is.

I am not doubting things just looking for a cause, folks have been known to have that probe lying on a cold floor or far away from the place they take the temperature reading at.
 
Let me get more specific. In room temp mode, the stove lights and the distribution fan does come on. Its when it gets to the desired temp that the stove throttles back, the distribution blower stops (this is normal, right?) and then just keeps running with a very low flame, feeding pellets in slowly, never shutting off until the hopper is empty. (not normal?)
 
Harman Lover 007 said:
Let me get more specific. In room temp mode, the stove lights and the distribution fan does come on. Its when it gets to the desired temp that the stove throttles back, the distribution blower stops (this is normal, right?) and then just keeps running with a very low flame, feeding pellets in slowly, never shutting off until the hopper is empty. (not normal?)
Click to expand...
That makes sense if the igniter switch is set to "Manual".
 
Pat_M that action would also be normal for a lot of stoves running in hi/lo mode and on a stat as well.

Now we get to see if that is the case here as well ;-) .
 
Hey Guys,

I've got more info for you diagnosticians. I went over to my bro's after work. When I opened the stove and saw the mess inside I figured...wow the dirty stove is the issue. It wasn't and here is the rest of the story.

I completely tore that bad boy down including pulling it from the wall. The air intake for the dist blower was completely blocked. The combustion blower was packed with dust both front and back. The fresh air intake was full of dust. The ESP was caked with soot...you get the picture. Stove is now completely cleaned to my standards...not his and we can begin to diagnose the above issue.

In either room temp or stove temp mode the stove will light in automatic mode. In room temp mode (set at 70 deg) the stove heats up and the dist blower comes on as normal. The stove will feed pellets and appears to operate normally. When the room reaches the set temp, the dist blower cuts back to low speed and the pellet feed cuts back. Here is where it gets interesting. As stated above in my OP the stove continues to feed pellets about once per minute for 7 seconds. Turn the room temp knob to 60 deg and no change. TURN THE KNOB TO OFF..NO CHANGE. The stove cannot be turned off unless it runs out of pellets or it is unplugged. Just for kicks I put a different room temp probe on it. Same issue, no change.

This is getting frustrating but it must be either the board or the ESP. What say the experts???

Thanks in advance!!!
 
Harman Lover 007 said:
This is getting frustrating but it must be either the board or the ESP. What say the experts???
Click to expand...


I think you are right about the board or ESP. Also thinking the "pot" for stove temp/ room temp/off might be bad. If that's the case there are a couple guys on Ebay that sell the "pots." Cheaper than a new board anyway. I say the "pot" because if it has developed a dead spot this is what the stove would do, act like it's not in the off position, because even though you turn the knob to off, the dead spot on the "pot" makes the stove think nothing was turned. Hope that makes sense.
 
Well it sounds like the controller is out to lunch. Perhaps one of the Harman techs will chime in. The normal thing would be to change the ESP first since it is the cheaper of the two and just be certain to match up the ESP you get with the proper dip switch settings on the controller (the probes have different colored wiring IIRC). Somewhere in the belly of hearth.com's pellet forum there is a post with some Harman dip switch information.
 
according to the harman manual ,when in room temp mode and ignitor switch is set for manual the distribution fan does not come on to high unless the room temp setting on the control is set above 70 degres or the # 4. if u keep increasing the temperature setting abouve 70 the distribution fan will come on automatically when the ESP temp.reaches 350 or 81% output.
This can only occur if the blower is clean and the esp probe is clean.
if it is set that low of 50 it is in the stand by mode and is basically feeding enough pellets to keep it lit
 
dingees said:
according to the harman manual ,when in room temp mode and ignitor switch is set for manual the distribution fan does not come on to high unless the room temp setting on the control is set above 70 degres or the # 4. if u keep increasing the temperature setting abouve 70 the distribution fan will come on automatically when the ESP temp.reaches 350 or 81% output.
This can only occur if the blower is clean and the esp probe is clean.
if it is set that low of 50 it is in the stand by mode and is basically feeding enough pellets to keep it lit
Click to expand...

The above described issue occurs in the automatic mode and manual mode.
 
mines doing the same thing. what year is his? 2004 here. wont shut off in auto room temp. keeping my eye on this.
 
This is his 5th year with the stove. The difference is that it doesn't shut off at all, even when the knob/pot is turned off.
 
it could be an ESP issue, or a CB issue....but, there is a chance everything is actually ok. The unit will run until the ESP reads below 90F. If the room is really warm, then it might not get to 90F even with the tiny pulses of the auger. It will then just keep pulsing until it runs out of pellets. The only way to really know is to plug in the DDM computer to the CB and see what temps the ESP is reading. If those temps are close to 90F then I'd suspect everything is ok, but its just too warm in the room. If the ESP reads some outlandish number, then you start looking at new probe or new CB. WHat is the timeframe from ignition to when the Distribution fan kicks on? If its about 5 minutes then I suspect everything is actually ok, just not getting quite to 90F when trying to shut down. I've seen units fired up in the summer continue to run the fans for hours after there is no fire just because the ESP is reading 91F.
 
First of all, I am not mechanic at all, but I think the stove maybe OK. Here's why, two weeks ago when me and a friend did my pre-winter cleaning on my 4 year old Accentra, we did a trial run with pellets to make sure it would run. Mind you it was in the mid 80s that weekend in New England. After an hour and half the blower was still running and I thought that was rather weird as it usually just shuts down with an hour or so after I turn it off, but on that Saturday it ran well over 3 hrs. I called my tech buddy and he said he thought the high temps of the day in the house probably were effecting the t-stat.
 
Delta-T said:
it could be an ESP issue, or a CB issue....but, there is a chance everything is actually ok. The unit will run until the ESP reads below 90F. If the room is really warm, then it might not get to 90F even with the tiny pulses of the auger. It will then just keep pulsing until it runs out of pellets. The only way to really know is to plug in the DDM computer to the CB and see what temps the ESP is reading. If those temps are close to 90F then I'd suspect everything is ok, but its just too warm in the room. If the ESP reads some outlandish number, then you start looking at new probe or new CB. WHat is the timeframe from ignition to when the Distribution fan kicks on? If its about 5 minutes then I suspect everything is actually ok, just not getting quite to 90F when trying to shut down. I've seen units fired up in the summer continue to run the fans for hours after there is no fire just because the ESP is reading 91F.
Click to expand...

If the auger never stops pulsing even with the CB knob in the off position, how will the stack temp ever get below 91? There has to be something wrong if you can't shut the stove off, no?
 
Bank said:
First of all, I am not mechanic at all, but I think the stove maybe OK. Here's why, two weeks ago when me and a friend did my pre-winter cleaning on my 4 year old Accentra, we did a trial run with pellets to make sure it would run. Mind you it was in the mid 80s that weekend in New England. After an hour and half the blower was still running and I thought that was rather weird as it usually just shuts down with an hour or so after I turn it off, but on that Saturday it ran well over 3 hrs. I called my tech buddy and he said he thought the high temps of the day in the house probably were effecting the t-stat.
Click to expand...

But your auger stopped feeding pellets and the fire went out, correct?
 
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