How to run your HARMAN like an ENVIRO to test different pellets!

Haha, thought the title would get you! ONLY CONDONING THIS FOR TESTING PURPOSES, NOT ORDINARY HEATING. You paid for the ESP, so use it. ;-)

Since Harman stoves use an ESP to control everything behind the scenes, most of us now know that you can't really use the convection air to determine heat output of various pellets...UNTIL NOW.

It's simple, just set the stove to Stove Temp, turn the temp dial to 7 (Max) and the feed rate to around 1 or 1.5. Feed rate doesn't have to be exact, it just needs to be low enough to not hit the max allowed ESP temp. Now you can measure the max convection temps of different pellet brands. Only catch, you cant touch the dials or you'll never reach the same values and your evaluations will be flawed. To get around this, only use a few pounds per brand and you could test several over the course of a day.

And, if you're like me and PJPellet, you can cheat and use your Harman Diagnostic Tool to compare the ESP temps for different pellets since the tool give the exact temperature. Tool can be used to get the knob values exact as well, but I didn't want to rub it in.

Hope this helps! Have fun

How do you feed the exact same lbs./hour with different brands?

Interesting thread and Yep you got me! ;-) How did you fella's get a hold of the Diagnostic tool?

Don't know that you really can. Tough one there!

Feed rate is fixed as long as you don't change the dial between brands. No stove feeds based on weight, only volume, so that cancels out that requirement. Ultimately, you want consistent feed for consistent results. Goal is to record the highest convection temps or temps every 15 minutes for 1 hour, then average them to get a basis for comparison. Hotter the convection temp, "better the pellet" - specifically talking about heat output.

How you develop the testing criteria is up to you, really.

Piles of cash of cash or pictures, they both work.

But but but, that's what I like about my Harman, don't need to determine heat output of different pellets! The stove does it. ;-P Of course it takes more lbs per hour for bad pellets to match the better ones, but my temps stay the same. That's what I'm after, so works for me

However, it is nice to see for yourself. That's all. I'm not advocating this for anything other than testing. We've paid for the ESP, so we SHOULD use it.

(updated 1st post)

IMO, feed rate is not fixed as pellets of different size and smoothness/slipperyness feed at different rates.

The only thing fixed in your senario is auger on time.

1/4" pellets will feed more than 1 1/2 pellets

I have to say that being on my second day with Barefoots, something doesn't makes sense. They actually seem like junk pellets to me (I'm not expert), but they're burning and falling into the ash pan while red before even turning to ash. This NEVER happens with my bargain basement, Green Supremes. I know that I don't have my feed rate up too high (just turned it down to 3 from 3.5), so not sure what the story is. I never really thought changing pellet brand would be this big of an issue for a Harman stove. The other think I noticed is that the Barefoots seem unusually long. Lots of long pellets in the bag, compared to the Green Supremes. I think it's time for me to stop experimenting with pellet brands. Heck, even my wife noticed all the pellets falling into the ash pan while still red. Not a good thing, given the premium price these things fetch.

Point taken, it is worthwhile to know which pellets of a given batch or year are putting out the most heat for the $$. And the stoves without the ESP you need to know. Thanks for the info, gives one something to think about.

Correct, but this is consistent for any pellet stove with an auger feed (think that's all of them). I think J-Takeman said he spent a night breaking up some long pellets to prove that he'd get more heat out of them if the were shorter.

It's also true that a Harman will feed more pellets if they are longer to hit the target heat output.

The concept outlined is just for fun more than anything.

In a way, it's good for all of us to know if we are getting the return on our investment. The way a Harman stove works, just makes it a bit more tricky to separate the claims from the facts. This method gives you an objective approach to measuring the differences for comparison.

PS - I wouldn't trade my ESP for anything.

so post some of your test results so we can benefit from all your hard work in testing different pellets and we can all thank you for helping us out in determining what is the better pellet to use in our harmans