Harman Advance shutting down on Room Temp (Manual Ignite) with T-stat = I'm cold

[Lousyweather]

thanks for the reply lousyweather. i empty the fines every week as part of my routine cleaning. i have not figured out how to access the slide plate yet although i have a feeling that will be tomorrows project. ive never noticed anything in the hopper for residue although i must admit im kind of ocd about keeping the hopper full.

many of us suffer from the OCD "keep the bin full" malady! Is your unit a chain drive unit? How old is it?
To remove the slide plate, simply remove the fine chanber cover, rock back the feeder armature to where the slide plate disengages from the armature, and pull it out. Inspect it...is it clean, or does it have a black/brown/yellow residue on it? Sometimes they are so gummy, its a bear to even pull them out.....another way to check would be to pull the auger out and look up through the rear of the feeder weldment into the feeder body. Gummy stoves will generally have deposits in there which attatches pellets to the stove body restricting pellet flow to the auger. Be sure when you replace the slide plate that the step side is up and that you re-engage the feeder armature tongue to the slide plate. Also make sure that the fines chamber cover is secure and tight.....when it isnt, you chase ghosts for hours! This issue is more common with the UL feeders, since it has a tab at the top which needs to be engaged......if you dont, you get air leakage into the fines chamber, and erroneous issues abound!

And yea, like Smokey says, while youre in the back there, pull the ESP and clean it off.......gently...ever so gently.

 

[Andy P.]

Stove is an 04 and it is chain drive. I purchased it in November . It had been used to heat a summer cottage at the beginning and end of the season when the nights got a little chilly. As a result, it had been very lightly used. I did find the igniter to be bad so i replaced that. I installed it in December and had been humming along until i started to get the 6 blinks a few weeks ago. I had been running it on room temp/manual and when it started to happen i switched to room temp auto and that made it better for a bit but not long. I will do some disassembly and cleaning today and will scotchbrite the fines chamber cover and the burpot in that area to be sure im getting a good seal there. i will also remove the esp and clean that. should i just use warm soapy water and a paper towel for that? I will also pull the slide plate and have a look at that. Thanks again for the pointers lousyweather.

 

[Lousyweather]

Stove is an 04 and it is chain drive. I purchased it in November . It had been used to heat a summer cottage at the beginning and end of the season when the nights got a little chilly. As a result, it had been very lightly used. I did find the igniter to be bad so i replaced that. I installed it in December and had been humming along until i started to get the 6 blinks a few weeks ago. I had been running it on room temp/manual and when it started to happen i switched to room temp auto and that made it better for a bit but not long. I will do some disassembly and cleaning today and will scotchbrite the fines chamber cover and the burpot in that area to be sure im getting a good seal there. i will also remove the esp and clean that. should i just use warm soapy water and a paper towel for that? I will also pull the slide plate and have a look at that. Thanks again for the pointers lousyweather.

warm soapy water, or windex......just be careful and dont bend it......dont scotchbrite the cover, just ensure its properly closed. One other thing....check your intake damper, make sure its hanging and swinging freely and hasnt corroded/rusted to a closed or semiclosed position. Its to the right of the feeder, and hole about 2-3/'" in diameter....the damper hangs about 1" inside the hole.

 

[breklaw]

had the same problem w/ my 25 pdvc, had to turn up the low burn feed a notch- I want her to run as low as possible without going out on the lowest settings

 

[Andy P.]

picture of the bottom side of slide plate. there is some build up and it appears to be a potential problem area? intake flapper door is flapping, next ill scope out the esp

 

[Andy P.]

esp is pretty gunked up (hard to tell from picture) and here is a photo of the inside of the hopper too

 

[Lousyweather]

sad to say, Im afraid this is almost certianly the dreaded "gummy stove syndrome". Im betting the residue on the plate is water soluble (put it in a pot of water, leave it for 5 minutes.....I bet the water now has a brownish tinge?)....there is certainly the telltale residue in the hopper as well. Doing the bypass tube thing is fine, but it wont help you with the issue thats already there......you need to clean out all the residue too....means a complete teardown of the unit......4-6 hours if you know what youre doing......

 

[Andy P.]

Thanks for all your help lousyweather. Fines cover was in place. Im going to put it back together and deal with it for what, if any, heating needs we have left this season and then consult with the admiral. Im new to this pellet stove thing, and although ive been a phone company lineman for the past 15 years, i do have a manufacturing engineer backround as well as tinkering with more that a few 2 and 4 wheeled misadventures. I dont think its out of my ability to tackle the job. From what ive seen so far these things arent terribly dificult to work on. I may call the local Harman dealer at some point and ask them to give me some sort of a ballpark estimate on it. If this spring and summer turn out to be a good one for overtime then it may be easiest, and safest, to pay them to do it. Thanks again for everyones help and advice! If one of you experienced types wants to trade some killer bbq for a gummy stove fix let me know. :D

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Keep us in the loop Andy.

 

[abrucerd]

Just wanted to give an update to my original problem. I saw the detail Andy P went through to diagnose his problem, so I decided to get my hands a little dirtier as well.

When we last left off, I had taken my exhaust pipe apart to see if there was a pile of ash. The exhaust on my stove come straight out a short distance, then goes straight up through the ceiling. I had checked the elbow piece here, and didn't notice much build up.

This past weekend, I took a flashlight to the flue passageway (behind the ash pan) and noticed a HUGE buildup of ash here, engulfing the exhaust probe. Eureka! I cleaned that out, and it's been working fine since.

In my normal cleaning, I put my vacuum hose in this passageway, but I guess it doesn't go in far enough. How do others clean this area? Brush or vacuum extension?

Anyway, that's my update. Hope it helps someone else down the road.

 

[gbreda]

Just wanted to give an update to my original problem. I saw the detail Andy P went through to diagnose his problem, so I decided to get my hands a little dirtier as well.

When we last left off, I had taken my exhaust pipe apart to see if there was a pile of ash. The exhaust on my stove come straight out a short distance, then goes straight up through the ceiling. I had checked the elbow piece here, and didn't notice much build up.

This past weekend, I took a flashlight to the flue passageway (behind the ash pan) and noticed a HUGE buildup of ash here, engulfing the exhaust probe. Eureka! I cleaned that out, and it's been working fine since.

In my normal cleaning, I put my vacuum hose in this passageway, but I guess it doesn't go in far enough. How do others clean this area? Brush or vacuum extension?

Anyway, that's my update. Hope it helps someone else down the road.

Congrats on the find...blocked venting will do it all the time.

Dont know about the Accentra, but on the P68, I remove the ESP and then I am able to run a 3" vent brush from front all the way through the exhaust adapter.

 

[Andy P.]

Nice find man!