Harman XXV not burning right

[tdzimmer]

Hi Everyone,

This is a great forum. I hope someone can help me. I have a Harman XXV that is 3 years old. I also have a Harman p-38. I'm having problems with the xxv. It is burning a lot of pellets and not throwing very much heat. In fact, I am already through 3 tons this year alone. I complained to the dealer the first year, he said it was the pellets. I have tried 5 different brands now with no change. Last year he came out and said it was dirty. After a $70 cleaning, it still did not burn any better. I replaced the esp last year, no change. I have tried the feed rate at any setting from 1-6, no change. I played with the draft, tried room temp and stove temp, nothing. Does anyone know a good service person in SE wisconsin? My dealer is not good at all. Any ideas? I have my p-38 upstairs, it uses 1/3 the pellets and cranks out 2 times the heat. This is very frustrating to spend this much money and have a dealer that won't help.

Thanks,

 

[Dougsey]

Is the XXV in an uninsulated basement?

 

[summit]

with the bigger blower and radiant stove surface, i have always found the P series push more heat than the cast iron harman stoves... that being said, make sure your xxv blower is set to high on both sets of fan controls.

 

[Lousyweather]

my 'kneejerk" reaction would be to have you check the distribution fan for "stuff" in the fan itself......animal hair, dust, etc......

 

[goatman-68]

Is your fan (rocker switch) set on high. Some people don't know it's there...........

 

[tdzimmer]

Good ideas everyone. Stove is on first floor in living room. I had my p-38 there the first year and it heated very well, so I thought I would upgrade to this 50,000 btu monster and I would really be set. I moved the p-38 upstairs to the hallway to heat the bedrooms. The rocker switch behind the control panel is set on high. I vacuumed out the distribution blowers and burn pot fan. I cleaned it up really well, still no heat. It is in a 18 x 15 room and I have a hard time getting that room over 70 where with the p-38 it was hard to keep it below 74. the 38000 btu stove kicks this 50,000 btu stove all over. When I clean this thing, I pull all the panels off the back and vaccum it up really well. I'm burning eco-flame pellets, tried lignetics, marth, uncle jeds, and badger, no difference, will just not throw heat.

 

[Lousyweather]

hm....dipswitch settings on the board, maybe?

 

[tdzimmer]

Have a different dealer coming out to look at it. If they can't figure it out, I'm pulling it. I can't afford to burn this thing, when my p-38 is cranking away only using 3/4 a bag a day and this thing is using close to 3 bags.

Thanks Guys. I like this website. Very informative.

 

[Lousyweather]

Have a different dealer coming out to look at it. If they can't figure it out, I'm pulling it. I can't afford to burn this thing, when my p-38 is cranking away only using 3/4 a bag a day and this thing is using close to 3 bags.

Thanks Guys. I like this website. Very informative.

make sure they test the draft when they get there, and also hook up a DDm to the thing, checking other settings as well......agreed....that XXV should outperform the p38.....

 

[goatman-68]

If the flame is high and dancing alittle bit, I would say you have no problem in that area, as that should be a nice hot fire providing you have good pellets. Also when you have your room temp control all the way to high and the temp control at say 80°F you should have a tall dancing fire and the room blower should be putting out max cfm. Check to see if there is a noticeable change in RPM when you toggle fan from low to high. If you have a high nice fire and room blower is doing its thing it has to be blowing hot air, at least mine does. If you can find Bear Mountain pellets in your area those would be the hottest burning pellets I know of in my area. They now have Uncle Jeds (douglas fir) pellets which are Bear Mountain bulk pellets bagged as Uncle Jeds Douglas Fir, or something like that..... The regular Uncle Jeds Cold Remedy are (ok), I burned those last year and they were hot but generated more ash than I cared for.

 

[poconoman]

There seem to be too many problems with the XXV.

 

[Jim H.]

i have the xxv and when it starts up after about a half hour or so, I can't get closer then about a foot from the blower. It is that hot! something is amiss. the longer the stove runs and when the house is up to temp, it will go into a lower mode to keep the temp where i set it. lignetic hardwood and now treecycle hardwood both throw out some nice heat! I have only had a bag so far thru with treecycle but when i got home today (temps 28) outside i kicked on the stove and it is heating nicely! Good luck.

 

[krooser]

Good ideas everyone. Stove is on first floor in living room. I had my p-38 there the first year and it heated very well, so I thought I would upgrade to this 50,000 btu monster and I would really be set. I moved the p-38 upstairs to the hallway to heat the bedrooms. The rocker switch behind the control panel is set on high. I vacuumed out the distribution blowers and burn pot fan. I cleaned it up really well, still no heat. It is in a 18 x 15 room and I have a hard time getting that room over 70 where with the p-38 it was hard to keep it below 74. the 38000 btu stove kicks this 50,000 btu stove all over. When I clean this thing, I pull all the panels off the back and vaccum it up really well. I'm burning eco-flame pellets, tried lignetics, marth, uncle jeds, and badger, no difference, will just not throw heat.

Have you cleaned the ash from behind the firebox? I'd try the leafblower trick.. I bet you'd see a difference in performance.

 

[goatman-68]

Just a quick question, do you have your toggle switch on control panel on auto, if not put it on auto and try that. If it already is on auto, forget you ever read this post. :cheese:

 

[maglite67]

Just a quick question, do you have your toggle switch on control panel on auto, if not put it on auto and try that. If it already is on auto, forget you ever read this post. :cheese:

if your on stove temp and running in manual mode you have a flame for show all the heat goes out the vent

 

[tdzimmer]

you may have hit on something here. I wonder if there is a defect with it and it is stuck in that manual mode. I forgot about that option. I do run it on Auto.

Also, could someone post/send me the link to the leafblower trick.

Thanks everyone.

 

[tdzimmer]

Had the service guy out yesterday. He checked the draft, it was too low. He raised the draft and hooked the computer up to the stove. What we found was that the stove is burning properly. It looked like the esp probe was steady at 500 degrees max. To me it looks like the esp probe is bumping on the high end restricting the heat output. It appears I just cannot get the heat out of this stove, it is producing the heat but going out the vent pipe. Any ideas? I placed a fan on the floor blowing cold air to the stove. The service man also recommended going to 4" pipe. If I can't get this to work, may sell the stove and go back to a p-series steel stove.