Need help - Harman P68 won't start

[HollowHill]

Hi,

My mother just tried to start her P68 after having left it off for several days after cleaning it, and it won't start. The power light, status light, and combuster blower light are on, but not the igniter or feed motor lights. You can hear a blower on, I'm assuming its the combuster blower. I tried putting it in test mode, which according to the manual should run all the motors for 1 minute, but no other motors came on. I also tried unplugging it and waiting 5 minutes and replugging it, again the combuster motor runs, but nothing else. Any ideas as to what might be the problem or further tests I can try? Thanks. It's colder than billybedamned, she's 77 years old, and won't turn the oil heat on :coolmad: Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[gbreda]

Is the Igniter switch set to auto? If in manual, it wont feed or light.

 

[HollowHill]

Is the Igniter switch set to auto? If in manual, it wont feed or light.

Yes, it is set to Auto...

 

[newf lover]

Are your sure she tightened the 2 screws to the plate under the burnpot? Some people forget to do that after cleaning.

 

[gbreda]

Make sure both front doors are closed and latched and the hopper lid is as well. Nothing in the gaskets, especially hopper lid, that would keep it from sealing and allowing it to start up.

When the cleaning was done, was anything unplugged anywhere behind the panels?

 

[HollowHill]

Make sure both front doors are closed and latched and the hopper lid is as well. Nothing in the gaskets, especially hopper lid, that would keep it from sealing and allowing it to start up.

When the cleaning was done, was anything unplugged anywhere behind the panels?

Yes, I checked the door (only one, right?) and the hopper lid. Both seemed to be tight. Nothing was unplugged anywhere behind the panels.

 

[summit]

open your owners manual to the section about "manual lighting".

 

[newf lover]

There's the main door and the one that leads to the ash pan. Did you check the wing screws to the cover under the burnpot? I remember someone else having the same problem not too long ago.

 

[gbreda]

There's the main door and the one that leads to the ash pan. Did you check the wing screws to the cover under the burnpot? I remember someone else having the same problem not too long ago.

Makes sense on the wing nuts. Was everything put back in place during cleaning? The plate over the combustion blower, behind the ash pan?

If all is tight and all doors are closed, I think Summit's suggestion of a manual light to get mom some heat is a good idea. If all works OK with a manual light and the stove is functioning properly, keep it in manual mode so that it does not go out once up to temp. You can troubleshoot the auto ignite later.

 

[CJ-SR4ever]

Make sure all the doors are closed and sealed tighly. And make sure you dont have any pellets stuck in the hopper lid seal. If everything looks good, the only way for the combustion blower light to come on and nothing else is for the ignitor switch to be in manual. Try unplugging the stove and plugging it back in to reset the board. Take a look at the distribution blower light as well, if it is dimly lit and the stove is cold, you need to clean your ESP probe. If any of the panels were not put on correctly, the feed light and the ignitor light will still come on but it will not feed because the the pressure switch will not sense the negative pressure and not allow the auger motor to run.

 

[HollowHill]

Thanks for all the great suggestions. Have to check them out in the morning. Question, do you have to use the starter gel to do a manual start?

 

[CJ-SR4ever]

You will need to use some sort of lighting gel / flakes to start it manually. But if the stove is not feeding pellets to begin with then the fire would just go out after about 15 minutes of being lit.

 

[FireJumper]

If the feed motor and igniter are not working you may have a draft situation. The pressure switch located in the unit will not allow power to pass to those components if there isn't enough draft to allow the switch to close. Just another thought.

 

[New Hampshire Jim]

Same thing happened to me with my Harman Advance the room temperature was set to 70 deg. and the room WAS at 70 degrees. So fan came on but no pellets going to stove and no ignition. It could happen. I blamed old age.
Jim