Harman Invincible RS Get dirty fast ??? Any ideas?

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Youppi99

Member
Jan 29, 2011
16
Sherbrooke, Qc
Hello,

just found the site so thanks! I have bought my house in 2000 and the pellet stove was already installed in the basement! The only change I made was to install a sleeve in the chimney to stay 4inch until the top of the house!

But I have to clean it every 15 to 20 bags of pellets because the flame is not vivid as like when I just clean it. When I clean it behind the vertical baffle in came full of ash and the divider baffle also get full so I removed them both and use the vacuum and clean with the flexible brush the two vertical heat exchanger tubes and start it back.

But to be honest after two or three days only the flame start to be less vivid and sometime I have to adjust the feed adjuster since it start to continue feeding the fire and the pellet are not fully burned when they fall in the ash pot!

I notice that the circuit board seem to start to be old because I have sometime to old the mode selector button so the fan is at the max!

Could it be because the chimney have to climb 4 feet then curve to went outside and climb another 25 feet to the top of the roof so the fan is not pushing enough?

If you have any idea or you had this issue let me know what I should I do to correct the situation. I just film the flame because I just clean up and I will film again to show the difference in a couple of day so if someone want to see please feel free to ask.

Best regards and thanks in advance!
 
how many turns on the feed do your start at? what heat setting do you have it on? have you cleaned your esp probe? also check your air intakes, one in the back of the stove and 2 one on each side of the stove behind the side panels air compressor works good to clear those 2 but make sure the stove is OFF. the one in the rear you should be able to see in with a flashlight. this area can get filled with ash if so you can get to it by removing the access door on the burnpot if you have one. or remove the burnpot - 4 1/2" bolts if thats the case the burnpot is probly full too.
 
Besides what xNOCx said, could you give us a part by part description of your venting? and a picture of the outside would help a lot.

Have you also cleaned the venting you have five possible choke points for ash to settle, the T at the back of the the stove, where it bends to go towards the wall, outside where it bends to go up, the short piece between those bends, and the termination cap at the top.
 
Welcome to the forum.

In addition to the cleaning mentioned above, I suggest that you also remove the combustion blower too....it may be caked with ash too, and not sending as much air through the stove as possible......that could account for the build-up of pellets after a while....there simply isn't enough air to burn them completely.

My suggestion is to take the stove apart as far as possible, and scrape, brush, vacuum anything & everything you possibly can.
 
Hello All,

thanks for your answers and tips! Every automn, i almost remove all parts of my Harman and clean and change gaskets and pass the vacuum everywhere possible. I use a small toilet brush puchased at the dollar store to clean my chimney so this part is clean.

I haven't thought about pushing air compressed air to the air intake so this I will try when I stop it next saturday and will try it.

Habitually when I start it I put my feeder to 2.5 - 3 and always use the room temp who is setup at 82 and I have extend the temp probe at the opposite of where my stove is located in the basement! But like I mentioned it work well for two or three days and then I have to drop the feeder to 1.5 because the pellet do not fully burn.

I will takes pictures of how my chimney is installed but for those who have the Harman stove book if you look at the installation 7 it is almost my setup except that my stove is in the basement so another 4 to 5 feets before going outside.

So next Saturday I will try the air compress and come back with pictures of my chimney installation. I have also installed a new door seal last year. It really look like after two or three days where the divider baffle is located get too much ash and the air is struggling to pass.

Regards Youppi99
 
Hi Again All,

like I said yesterday I clean it and already today the flames are not as vivid so I just open the door and scrape under the fire and try to compress the pellet so more air is coming from the back (Screw) and the flame get back vivid so my question is have ever remove the screw and clean the hole? Could it be that place where there is not enough air pass? Since I stay here I never uninstall the screw so could be baked?

Thanks again for your posts and tips!

Youppi99
 
Youppi99 said:
Hi Again All,

like I said yesterday I clean it and already today the flames are not as vivid so I just open the door and scrape under the fire and try to compress the pellet so more air is coming from the back (Screw) and the flame get back vivid so my question is have ever remove the screw and clean the hole? Could it be that place where there is not enough air pass? Since I stay here I never uninstall the screw so could be baked?

Thanks again for your posts and tips!

Youppi99

Have you cleaned the vent, all of the vent including the termination cap?
 
A couple of things I found on mine were

the ESP probe looked clean but had a gummy residue on it
which wiped off and ran better

the pots which control the settings get dead spots when run on the same number all the time
mine runs poorly on stove temp 7 but if I move it to 6 3/4 it runs great
same with the feed I move it a little higher or lower
smooths right out
 
Hi,

Thanks again!

Smokey the Bear - what is you call the termination cap?

Like I mentioned so far when I open the door and just make some room like pushing on the top of burning pellet it seems to help the fire get more vivid since air seems to pass by the screw who bring the pellets in! Probably too much cake ash around the screw and no more place for air!

Thanks
 
The termination cap is the last piece in your vent system outside, in your case it is at the top of your outside vertical rise.

You do understand that you have to clean that entire vent and not just the area around your stove don't you?
 
Thanks Smokey the Bear! Yes this is done every year! But could it be possible that the flame guide is not proper for this stove what I mean is that it goes too deep and have the effect to stall coming pellets and stop fresh air to pass easily?

Just an idea so let me know if it could or not?

Best regards

Youppi99
 
Youppi99 said:
Thanks Smokey the Bear! Yes this is done every year! But could it be possible that the flame guide is not proper for this stove what I mean is that it goes too deep and have the effect to stall coming pellets and stop fresh air to pass easily?

Just an idea so let me know if it could or not?

Best regards

Youppi99

Youppi99 some air will come through the "screw" as i understand as your auger. The flame guide is designed to keep the pellets moving forward so they should push the burning pellets forward when calling for heat. your pellets should primarily burn at the middle to end of the burnpot your primary air comes through the holes in the burnpot and the secondary air comes from slits by your side windows and holes on the inside door frame on the stove. these "wash" the glass and provide more air to the fire. if your stove is clean and your venting is clean maybe something is loose or you may have a bad gasket somewhere. common ones that get neglected are the hopper lid gasket and the gasket around the plate to clean the pusher block area.
 
Thanks Burning Chunk! But could you please explain me where is locate : the plate to clean the pusher block area. ?

When my fire is burning it is more I would say just before the air holes in the burn pot so I have a little more then 1inch of ashes in front of the fire! So is ot alright or should be more in front of this?

Regards Youppi99
 
In the back of the stove the feeder body (where the auger goes into the stove) has a plate with a wing nut this can be loose or sometimes misaligned. if you have the manual check the top of pg 18. harman calls it the "cast cover assy." looking through the manual can really help you check all of the hidden wonders of the stove to assist in cleaning and diagnostics

Pg 18 is in the second part of the manual

http://hearthnhome.com/downloads/installManuals/Invincible_RS.pdf
http://hearthnhome.com/downloads/installManuals/Invincible_RS_Part2.pdf
 
It seems to me that you are overfeeding the stove. Turn your feed rate way down and then slowly bring it back up over a few days. I run my insert at a feedrate of under 2. Sounds as though you really need to do a complete cleanout of your stove not just the fluff areas that you can easily see. When you say you don,t know what the slider assembly is it just tells me that maybe you would be better off getting a tech in to show you how to properly do a cleaning.
 
Thanks xNOCx! Yes I clean that part also with the vacuum cleaner and can hardly misaligned it since their is a groove in it to align it before screw it!
Thank Bkins but the only part I haven`t clean and undo is where the auger assy is and I will do it at the end of the season since I am sure that their is too much cake ashes! By the way I am doing what you mentioned with the feeder and slow it down when it tend to feed too much pellets. But like i mentioned the flames are not as vivid after a couple of days but as soon I make some place behind the burning pellets the flames are vivid so mean that more air is passing so this is why I was afraid that fire guide was blocking the pellets who then block the air coming!

Thanks all

Youppi99
 
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