Fire behind burn pot on back wall??

[defilic]

I have a Harman P61A Pellet Stove and recently noticed that there is a fire in the back of the combustion chamber behind the burn pot and a little to each side. The same area is very shiny and black, almost looking like tar, where everywhere else is just the dull ash. Does anyone have any ideas what is going on here? My flame guide looks like its OK and seems to be all the way against the back wall. It is the original guide that came with the stove 4 years ago. Any help or advice would be great. Thanks!

 

[stoveguy2esw]

I have a Harman P61A Pellet Stove and recently noticed that there is a fire in the back of the combustion chamber behind the burn pot and a little to each side. The same area is very shiny and black, almost looking like tar, where everywhere else is just the dull ash. Does anyone have any ideas what is going on here? My flame guide looks like its OK and seems to be all the way against the back wall. It is the original guide that came with the stove 4 years ago. Any help or advice would be great. Thanks!

not certain (not my brand) but it sounds like escaping pellets are smoldering back there , thats likely whats shellacking the surface with essentially creosote. are the pellets being blown out of the pot? might be too much air. im just guessing but usually once a response hits the thread the answers start coming quickly. any harmon users out there got an idea on this?

 

[GVA]

I would say that the flame guide is not completely seated down on the burn pot.
When the stove is off make sure you clean out the slots on the flame guide and clean the top edges of the burnpot
as well as the throat over the auger tube where the curved bottom of the guide seats.
It's not a great seal so ANY carbon will create a gap behind the guide.

 

[HBW3]

I have a new p61a-2 and have had the same problem.
I have seated the flame guide against the rear of burn pot and still had it move.
The pellets have moved it while I was watching startup.
No real way to keep it in proper position with current design.
Heat expansion/retraction and pellet jam at startup seem to be the problem.
I have not decided how I want to solve this yet.
A threaded stop block in front of flame guide , attached to burn pot may work.

I have not read of anyone fixing this problem yet.
Hope someone else has some ideas or fixes?

 

[itworks]

I had this problem with my P68 last year. It turned out I had to replace the flame guard, reflector (I forget what they call it) a $15.00 part, and that was it.

 

[crausch]

I had a similar problem with my Advance on a few burns. I was concerned so I took out the heat guide and removed the brick panel to see what might be in danger back there. Behind the brick panel was simply a recessed area that angled back up into the burn area. After seeing this I figured there is nothing it can hurt. Also, I thought someone had reported on a previous thread that the fake brick panel is nothing more then esthetics and really does not serve any other purpose. I would do as the others suggest and just try to reseat your guide. Of course I am assuming your setup is similar to the Harman Advance model.