Harman P61A feed issue!

[souhater]

Hey guys. I have been looking around the board for months deciding what to get for a stove. We decided to get a Harman P61A.
It's been about 1 month since installation, and I am happy so far. However, I have run into a snag!

Problem:
Yesterday, we started getting that dredded squeal sound. No problem. I cleaned out any carbon in the burn pot. This didn't help. I ran the thing through a cycle quickly and figured
out that the noise was actually coming from the motor area. I popped the back open while it was running and it was coming from the wheel bearing that hits the feed door lever. It was rubbing past the metal from the metal bushing that the auger drive shaft goes through as it was moving around. I put a little grease on it, seems to be fine.

Fast forward to today. I put in a bag of Oakies this morning. Noticed quite a lot of saw dust and a few swollen pellets from moisture. I tried to pick out what I could.
My wife calls me and tells me the stove is off. She tries to start it up. Nothing will feed and the auger wont move.

I came home tonight and cleaned the whole thing out. I emptied the feed bin, vacuumed it out. Cleaned out the burn pot again. Slid the feed door open a bit and vacuum all of the pellets that were in the auger.
I also opened up the back to get to the side plate. There was quite a bit of saw dust and fines all packed in there so I vacuumed those out as well. AFter putting everything back together, I put it in stove mode and had the feed rate at 4. Nothing. All fans and blowers come on, no problem. The auger does nothing.

Ok, lets try test mode. The feed motor light came on, along with all the other lights. I dont believe I saw the combustion light go on.

What does this sound like guys?? Could I have blown an auger motor already!!?? because of a bunch of swollen pellets and some saw dust packed in there?? Some help would be much appreciated. My wife is second-guessing our purchase! Help!

jarred

 

[lessoil]

We are on year 2 with the P61.
3 days ago we also had a loud squeal coming from the auger/motor.
Did the same steps as you clean/clean and put some 3-in-1 oil on the
round bearing which opens/closes the trap door I assume. Book calls it ulfeeder cam block.
I thought it was rubbing on the feeder weldment. This did not fix the squeal.
Next I was able to squirt some oil onto the shaft where it goes into the pellet feeder bearing retainer.
So far that has done the trick! The sound of the pellets falling is now louder than the auger motor!

Hope this helps.
Also, I called the dealer and the Tech said that he has had to do the same thing to some stoves.
Normal?? No lubrication mentioned in the book.
Hope your motor is OK. Is the motor fused??

 

[rickwa]

NEVER USE SWOLLEN PELLETS! if you see signs of moisture get rid of the whole bag. Your auger is packed full of dust and not letting it turn. The auger motor needs taken off and auger needs pulled out the back. have shop vac going when pulling auger to catch all the fines as they fall. the motor may be shot and it may not. clean it all up and try it. these stoves will not feed broken down pellets and large amount of fines. The P61A is a great stove, it is no different than putting bad gas or a bunch of water in your gas tank and wondering why you car wont run?

 

[lessoil]

NEVER USE SWOLLEN PELLETS! if you see signs of moisture get rid of the whole bag. Your auger is packed full of dust and not letting it turn. The auger motor needs taken off and auger needs pulled out the back. have shop vac going when pulling auger to catch all the fines as they fall. the motor may be shot and it may not. clean it all up and try it. these stoves will not feed broken down pellets and large amount of fines. The P61A is a great stove, it is no different than putting bad gas or a bunch of water in your gas tank and wondering why you car wont run?

Yea wet pellets will turn to mush in the stove.
We have had ZERO feed problems using DRY pellets.
And yes, the P61 is a great stove!

 

[souhater]

Ok. So I guess the question is, how complicated is it to take the entire auger assembly out? Is there any step by step process links?

Right now My stove is hooked up to the pipe, so I had to take all the back panels off to get to the feeder and motor. I looked last night as to how I could possibly take the motor off and the auger out and I couldn't figure out how to do it! Looked too tight to get tools in there. Any easy way to do it? I don't know how much someone would charge to do it, but I don't have any money anyway. I am pretty handy with tools, so any instructions would be helpful.

In the future, these swollen pellet bags will be discarded!

Thanks

Jarred

 

[summit]

also check the feeder box side (a rectangular panel w/ a wingnut on the bottom) next to the auger motor... if you dumped a bunch of wet pellets into it, most can end up in this mechanism that actuates the feed plate, jamming the plate and your auger...
as far as removing the auger:
1. remove aforementioned cover plate.... slide the slider plate out towards you untill it comes off the steel vertical plate, then move the vertical plate out of the way (towrds the opening) and push the silder plate back into the feeder box.
2. loosen the 7/16 head screw from the bearing wheel... then pull the auger motor off the auger.
3. remove the two nuts holding the eye shaped auger retainer on
4. grab the auger and pull it out

 

[souhater]

Do you happen to have any pics of the screws you are talking about?

I took the side plate off last night and vacuumed out the pile of sawdust that was in there. Looks squeaky clean.


Jarred

 

[newf lover]

Check out this site. Even though they seem to be talking mostly about the PC-45, they talk about the P68 and P61 in their training presentations. Can download as a powerpoint or a pdf file. It might help, some pictures are included.
http://oatstoves.com/training.html

 

[souhater]

I get a much better idea of how to do this now. The other question I have is, do I need to scrape the old silicone and replace it like these instructions say?

 

[rickwa]

no silicone on the newer stoves. even if there is you dont have to resilicone auger back in. In the feeder replacement they say not to silicone auger bearing. Just clean the old silicone off.

 

[souhater]

Thank you for all your help guys.

Update: Took the motor off and the auger out. Very straight forward. Got the pellets out that were in there. Didn't really seem to be any saw dust in there. Just a few pellets in the middle of the tube I think. I vaccumed everything out. Put everything back together and did a "test" mode run. Still nothing for auger movement even though it indicates the feed motor is on. All other lights are on as well. Distribution and combustion fan are crankin out well. This leads me to believe that the motor has crapped the bed. Correct? Can I get another motor sent directly to me from Harman or do I need to go through the dealer I bought the stove from and have them come and inspect it first? If so, what would I need to pay and what does Harman cover with the warranty?


Jarred

 

[newf lover]

You should go through the dealer. Maybe they'll take your word for it and order a motor, or they'll come out and take a look. Either way, it shouldn't cost you anything, unless they charge for travel time. Mine doesn't.

 

[Dougsey]

You can apply 110 to it directly to test.

I made up a test cable out of a cheesey extension cord by cutting off one end and cripming on spade connectors.

That would rule out everything else and isolate the problem to the auger moter if it still doesn't turn.

 

[souhater]

VOILA! Thanks for all the help guys.

Took the stove apart and narrowed it down to the motor. STopped by the dealer and they happen to have a P61 motor sitting on the shelf....amazing! They gave it to me and I took it home that night and threw it in. Wouldn't ya know it, the ol' pellet stove is throwin out the heat again. Also, I lithium greased the wheel bearing as well as the gasket on the auger shaft and zero squeaking noises! Doesn't get any better.


Jarred