Harman P38, decent stove?

[goathead]

I'm looking at a Harman P38 that needs an auger motor, is there anything else that the stoves are prone to that I should check for or be wary about?

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

The P-38 is one of the most reliable Harman stoves as it does not have many of the features of the higher priced stoves meaninng less things can go wrong with it.

 

[ironpony]

I have an old Harman Invincible RS
if its half as good it will last forever
if you are handy you can match up the motor
from other suppliers much cheaper than buying from Harman
Grainger is one supplier hopefully others will respond with other suppliers

 

[Bank]

Got a friend with a P-38 and it is quite reliable as a previous poster mentioned. No bells and whistles to worry about and burns hot as a muther too! They're going on 12 years with it as well.

 

[silverfox103]

I have a P-38, it is a great stove. I have it hooked to a thermostat. When it "calls" it kicks into Turbo and heats up in no time. I am looking for one for my cellar now. You can find them used and reasonable, as they are no frills.

Tom C.

 

[tony58]

I've been running my P38 since 2006.I've had no problems at all so far.Plus I didn't even hardly clean it until I stumbled on this site a year or so ago.Its been very forgiving...

 

[Outerlimits]

I had one for 8 years. It was a great stove. I only got rid of mine because I upgraded to a p61a. I wanted more BTU's.

 

[mjbrown]

bought mine as a trade in from a dealer 5 yrs ago...LOVE IT!

as with silverfox, i put a t-stat on mine and it keeps my house at a constant 70 *.

the only problems i have had is that i lost the room air blower last winter and had to replace, also had to pull the burn pot and fill the 5 holes at the very bottom of the burn pot as they were causing pellets to burn inside the auger tube,causing the crack, or separation in the feed tube assembly. i am a welder/favricator by trade, so the fix was no problem for me.

my stove is beyond warranty, so i fixed it myself. if your stove has a warranty...please dont mess with it, let the service guys do it.

 

[aaronnoel]

I had my old 5 hole burnpot replaced well after my factory warranty had expired, I think thats something Harman will replace at any time seeing that it was a fault on design

 

[Lineman30]

I had my old 5 hole burnpot replaced well after my factory warranty had expired, I think thats something Harman will replace at any time seeing that it was a fault on design

I was wondering what are the signs that the burn pot is bad? I have the old design and was wondering why is it a bad design? What makes the new pot better?

 

[aaronnoel]

I had my old 5 hole burnpot replaced well after my factory warranty had expired, I think thats something Harman will replace at any time seeing that it was a fault on design

I was wondering what are the signs that the burn pot is bad? I have the old design and was wondering why is it a bad design? What makes the new pot better?

I whish I had a clear answer for you, but i don't. I can tell you that I was having the auger squeak and the dealer switched out burnpot to solve that. He told me at the time that Harman had a bad design and that the 5 holes were to close to the auger tube. All this could be true, however it did not solve my squeak as that did show back up some weeks later. I should also note that at the time they also gave me a new auger free of charge even though I was not on warranty, that was nice of Harman to do. As for my squeak that only shows up for late burn season, so I have not herd it yet, hoping that a better pellet (cubex) will do the trick.

 

[ducker]

my p38 had this issue.. with the additional holes. It caused the fire to burn very low in the pot - and as a result, a hole/gap appeared between the auger tube and the burn pot.

It was still under warranty - the shop I bought the stove from came out and replaced the pot on their own.

My stove burned a lot better after this.

I had a squeaking auger motor that the company replaced, when they reviewed my stove for the above failing burn pot.
I originally didn't know if it was the auger motor squeaking or some fine's build up in the auger tube.

So happy that auger motor was replaced!

 

[a5t1]

I also have a P38, plain model. Love it. I feel like there is less to go wrong, it burns inferior pellets just fine (windows almost never gets dirty). Go for it. The worst thing about these is lighting the pellets manually. I coat the pellets in hand sanitizer, put them in the burn pot and use a torch to light them. Never any problems.

 

[Lineman30]

my p38 had this issue.. with the additional holes. It caused the fire to burn very low in the pot - and as a result, a hole/gap appeared between the auger tube and the burn pot.

It was still under warranty - the shop I bought the stove from came out and replaced the pot on their own.

My stove burned a lot better after this.

I had a squeaking auger motor that the company replaced, when they reviewed my stove for the above failing burn pot.
I originally didn't know if it was the auger motor squeaking or some fine's build up in the auger tube.

So happy that auger motor was replaced!

I've noticed mine burns really low in the pot. Not sure how its suppose to look since I bought it used. What do you exactly mean hole/gap?

 

[ducker]

you know how there are a lot of holes in the burn pot. Those continue down the burn pot towards the auger tube. There was a set of 3 or 5 holes that were really close to that auger - in my explanation I would say my fire was getting more air then necessary and as a result, burning a quick, hot flame close to the auger tube. When the stove was on low, I would often see the fire nearly burning out of the auger tube. not really into the tube, but the pellets that would be sitting/just pushed out of the auger.