Heat output question with Harman XXV

[WOODNUT358]

Right now it's 17*,and my house is at 66*.I have a Harman XXV,and the temp is set high (room temp)and feed rate at 4-5.Should I be getting better heat out of this stove?My house is 1650sf open floor plan. I would like some input from here to see if I'm doing anything wrong.The stove is not dirty,and only running a month.It seems the stove should be putting out better heat.Thanks

 

[pkitfox]

It would seem you should be doing better, depending on how long the stove has been running , house insulation...ect. Have you set the feed rate for the pellets you are using per the manual? Set the temperature control to max and adjust the feed rate to obtain a 1" ash lip? The idea is to burn as much as you can without pushing unburned pellets into the burn pot. Our house is 2150 sf. It is an open tri-level design, if that makes any since. We have only had our stove a couple of weeks, and it has been generally in the high 20's. Last night the house was in the low 70's on the first 2 levels and high 60's on the third level. The stove was on room temp at about 75* with the feed rate at 4. It did not even breath hard keeping the temperature. I watched it just coast along all night (I just had surgery, and am not yet sleeping well). Seriously, it was not straining at all.

I meant to say, pushing unburned pellets into the ash pan, not burn pot.

 

[swalz]

It depends on how well your house holds the heat, I know on days that it gets in the teens the best I can do is around 70 where the stove is and 64 in the living room and kitchen and the bedrooms in the mid 50s. Also keeping the Heat exchanger clean and scraping the burn pot will help get you more heat output from the stove. My house is a little over 2400sf single floor Ranch with the living room 30x25 with 12ft ceiling. I am heating all but one room about 200sf so I think the stove does a good job keeping my house warm, I just know when it hits the teens my stove starts eating the pellets.

 

[investor7952]

It would seem you should be doing better, depending on how long the stove has been running , house insulation...ect. Have you set the feed rate for the pellets you are using per the manual? Set the temperature control to max and adjust the feed rate to obtain a 1" ash lip? The idea is to burn as much as you can without pushing unburned pellets into the burn pot. Our house is 2150 sf. It is an open tri-level design, if that makes any since. We have only had our stove a couple of weeks, and it has been generally in the high 20's. Last night the house was in the low 70's on the first 2 levels and high 60's on the third level. The stove was on room temp at about 75* with the feed rate at 4. It did not even breath hard keeping the temperature. I watched it just coast along all night (I just had surgery, and am not yet sleeping well). Seriously, it was not straining at all.

My Harmon Accentra insert with outside temp around 15-20 will run 72-73 the day I clean it with room temp 73 and feed at 5-6.The 2nd day same settings temp will be around 70-71 the 3rd day 69-70 by the 4th day 68 and needs to be cleaned again.This is the same no matter what pellets I burn.I am burning Lignetics now and same thin also burned hammer hot ones and same thing.For those doing a cleaning once a week I dont get it .I need to clean every 3-4th day.

 

[tinkabranc]

Do you have the rocker switch for the blower on high? This makes a big
difference in heating when it is so cold out. My stove will melt my
eyeballs if I stand too close for too long.

 

[mark d fellows]

Details please.

Where is the stove located?

my house is 1000 square feet with vaulted ceilings and even when it got down to 4 degrees is stayed at 71 on the first floor, 68 in the bedroom and 70 to 69 upstairs.

I would leave the feed rate at 4-5.

if the temperature probe is still coiled on the back of the stove(a lot of installers like to do this) I would unfurl it and stretch it out away from the stove and mount it about6 inches from the floor.

Let us know.

Mark

 

[goatman-68]

Right now it's 17*,and my house is at 66*.I have a Harman XXV,and the temp is set high (room temp)and feed rate at 4-5.Should I be getting better heat out of this stove?My house is 1650sf open floor plan. I would like some input from here to see if I'm doing anything wrong.The stove is not dirty,and only running a month.It seems the stove should be putting out better heat.Thanks

Being that you are using room temp mode, you didn't say what you had the temp set to. I would assume that you had it at 70-75. If you didn't know, there is a (high-low) blower switch located in the cavity that your control panel fits into. If its not on high try that, also try running your ceiling fan in reverse that works for me. I run mine on room temp also and my settings are:
feed- 3
room temp- medium to high
70-75 temp
blower- low
If it is really cold outside I run my room blower on high (ie) below zero, otherwise mine is on low......... My 2 pennies worth........

 

[pkitfox]

It would seem you should be doing better, depending on how long the stove has been running , house insulation...ect. Have you set the feed rate for the pellets you are using per the manual? Set the temperature control to max and adjust the feed rate to obtain a 1" ash lip? The idea is to burn as much as you can without pushing unburned pellets into the burn pot. Our house is 2150 sf. It is an open tri-level design, if that makes any since. We have only had our stove a couple of weeks, and it has been generally in the high 20's. Last night the house was in the low 70's on the first 2 levels and high 60's on the third level. The stove was on room temp at about 75* with the feed rate at 4. It did not even breath hard keeping the temperature. I watched it just coast along all night (I just had surgery, and am not yet sleeping well). Seriously, it was not straining at all.

My Harmon Accentra insert with outside temp around 15-20 will run 72-73 the day I clean it with room temp 73 and feed at 5-6.The 2nd day same settings temp will be around 70-71 the 3rd day 69-70 by the 4th day 68 and needs to be cleaned again.This is the same no matter what pellets I burn.I am burning Lignetics now and same thin also burned hammer hot ones and same thing.For those doing a cleaning once a week I dont get it .I need to clean every 3-4th day.

Like I said, it has been pretty warm since we got the stove. I know when it gets in the teens, it will be working a lot harder. We have heated our house with a DV gas stove of about the same sixe as the Accentra for four years. There has been a few times when it has been at max (40000 btu input) 24 hours a day. What you said about the heat exchangers affecting the heat output of the stove makes total sense. I did not think it would be to the extent you have noted in such a short time. So that leads to a question. The cleaning you do every few days is just of the heat exchangers (remove the 2 vertical panel and clean just the heat exchangers)? I guess that would not be bad for the improvement you have noticed. I will clean them tomorrow for the second time. We are only on our 15th bag. Thanks for the real would numbers

 

[WOODNUT358]

The stove heats very well,and I usually have to turn it down when the temps hit 20's-30's.The rocker switch is on high,and it's been a week since I did a thorough cleaning. I usually open the door and scrape the burn pot of the high ash on the lip once or twice a day.Maybe I should start giving it a good cleaning just prior of colder weather.Thanks for all your responses.

 

[goatman-68]

I scrape my burn pot every day with the Harman tool. Even on a daily basis there is usually a hard layer of crust down in the burn pot near the auger so I like to keep it clean. Also if you let the burn pot build up with crud you may find that it will take longer to ignite since the holes by the igniter can get plugged...........

 

[Ava1]

My Harman Accentra insert, set on room temp, does not need to have a "feed number". It just feeds itself until it reaches the desired room temp...which NEVER happens, in my case.

The "owner" (one of them) came to my home last Monday so, I am posting my experience as promised.

He had another person with him whom I know as well. They took everything apart, cleaned it all...it was cleaned on Saturday and found nothing. The owner did tell me tat the flame was "lazy". Then when I asked them to check my blower, UNDER the stove, it was completley blocked, full of dust. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that! Where did all that stuff come from? My home is clean and I still can't understand it. I did mention to them that they had "professionally" cleaned my stove 3 times and no one had ever checked under the stove...that upset me because they charge quite a bit to clean the stove. So, all and all, the blower is much stronger and the heat was better, until today. It was reading 250 deg on left side, 450 deg in the middle and 450 deg on right side. They told me that that's how it should be...a little cooler on the left side. I didn't believe them. They also told me that my stove will heat a 1400 sq.ft. area, depending on the outside temp. A bunch of bullcrap. I do have to admit that the 'owner' was very nice and I certainly appreciated that. Today i noticed that my heat output was not as hot as yesterday. So, if my stove gets a little dirty (3days) it should not be as hot?? I'm going out tomorrow to see if I can buy one of those temp readers. I'm going to sell my stove. I feel I really did get a lemon, especially reading after all your posts. My stove is selling in thier shop for $3,800!! I still feel it's JUNK!

 

[trogers]

I have an Accentra insert since September and have had the opposite experience. On cold days I usually leave it on stove temp mode at around 4.5 pounds per hours and it keeps my 1100 sp.ft. downstairs at 71-73. Overnight it goes down to around 66, I guess because there is no heat from lights, people, etc. I clean it on a very regular schedule of once a week and I have only noticed that it gets a little colder on the last day if I have had it turned way up due to really cold weather. You may have a dud. I would also be pretty upset that this is the first time in three years that the stove compnay has cleaned your bottom fan out. that seems like a rip off.

Good luck.

 

[mark d fellows]

My Harman Accentra insert, set on room temp, does not need to have a "feed number". It just feeds itself until it reaches the desired room temp...which NEVER happens, in my case.

The "owner" (one of them) came to my home last Monday so, I am posting my experience as promised.

He had another person with him whom I know as well. They took everything apart, cleaned it all...it was cleaned on Saturday and found nothing. The owner did tell me tat the flame was "lazy". Then when I asked them to check my blower, UNDER the stove, it was completley blocked, full of dust. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that! Where did all that stuff come from? My home is clean and I still can't understand it. I did mention to them that they had "professionally" cleaned my stove 3 times and no one had ever checked under the stove...that upset me because they charge quite a bit to clean the stove. So, all and all, the blower is much stronger and the heat was better, until today. It was reading 250 deg on left side, 450 deg in the middle and 450 deg on right side. They told me that that's how it should be...a little cooler on the left side. I didn't believe them. They also told me that my stove will heat a 1400 sq.ft. area, depending on the outside temp. A bunch of bullcrap. I do have to admit that the 'owner' was very nice and I certainly appreciated that. Today i noticed that my heat output was not as hot as yesterday. So, if my stove gets a little dirty (3days) it should not be as hot?? I'm going out tomorrow to see if I can buy one of those temp readers. I'm going to sell my stove. I feel I really did get a lemon, especially reading after all your posts. My stove is selling in thier shop for $3,800!! I still feel it's JUNK!

What type of pellets are you running?

Where is the temperature probe/thermocouple installed?

Can you take a picture and show us where the dust was?

If you are talking about down bottom of the burn box near the combustion fan, that is a big ripoff. Of course that needs cleaned. It shouldn't fill back up with ash in three day though. Have you tried cleaning it yourself?

What about the exhaust vent?

Did it used to heat well for you when it was new?