Hello, I am new to forum and to my two new woodstoves. I recently purchased a new home that came with a VT castings Aspen, and a Harman TL200. I live in the mountains of Vermont and it gets cold, so I am heating primarily with wood this winter. This is my first burn season with these stoves and I could use some advice. I have read up on the TL200 and have searched this forum for some answers. I feel I have a pretty good grasp on the burn process for the TL200.
My issue is this: the other day I noticed a piece of insulation board had fallen down out of the afterburner and was sticking halfway out of the the afterburner on top of the shoe brick(in the back of the stove where the secondary air holes are) and it was cracked in half. Now I noticed it while the stove was running so I couldn't remove it, however, I also noticed that I could not seem to keep the afterburner lit. With a fresh load that had caught, when the damper was closed the afterburner window would show it igniting and glow orange, then after a few minutes it would go dark.
I went to the Harman dealer and they called Harman and I was told that while this insulation board isn't a saftey issue, it will cause the stove to run less efficiently and may cause the gases to bypass the afterburner (which would make sense seeing as how I can't seem to keep the afterburner lit) I am waiting for them to tell me if they can order that piece of insulation board and to tell me if I can install it myself; one of the dealers seems to think the afterburner package is non-servicable while the other seems to think I can take it apart.
I spoke with the previous owners and they told me they installed a new combustion package (or afterburner I guess) last year prior to the burn season. It looks to me as if they may have over-fired the stove and caused damage to the afterburner.
Any advice on where to go from here or my options would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
My issue is this: the other day I noticed a piece of insulation board had fallen down out of the afterburner and was sticking halfway out of the the afterburner on top of the shoe brick(in the back of the stove where the secondary air holes are) and it was cracked in half. Now I noticed it while the stove was running so I couldn't remove it, however, I also noticed that I could not seem to keep the afterburner lit. With a fresh load that had caught, when the damper was closed the afterburner window would show it igniting and glow orange, then after a few minutes it would go dark.
I went to the Harman dealer and they called Harman and I was told that while this insulation board isn't a saftey issue, it will cause the stove to run less efficiently and may cause the gases to bypass the afterburner (which would make sense seeing as how I can't seem to keep the afterburner lit) I am waiting for them to tell me if they can order that piece of insulation board and to tell me if I can install it myself; one of the dealers seems to think the afterburner package is non-servicable while the other seems to think I can take it apart.
I spoke with the previous owners and they told me they installed a new combustion package (or afterburner I guess) last year prior to the burn season. It looks to me as if they may have over-fired the stove and caused damage to the afterburner.
Any advice on where to go from here or my options would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks