P43 cleaned & ready to go - NOT!

[DAKSY]

Since the pellet stash will be here in a coupla weeks & the P43 in the garage is my daughter's only source of heat in the studio above it, I figgered I'd get into it & clean & prep it for the impending season.
Towards the end of last season, she told me she thought there was something hinky with it, but with so much other crap high on the "Honey-Do" list, I blew it off...
Anyway, it WAS filthy & my normal 42 minute clean time probably lasted an hour. All cleaned, painted & ready to fire up. Ran it in test mode to get the burn pot primed & the board said "all systems go"...About 6 minutes into the cycle, the first telltale sparks flew out of the pot & I knew the Harman flame was imminent. She fired & all looked good. 10 minutes later, no distribution fan. Recleaned the ESP & gave it another shot. No D-Fan. Dang. I know I have another ESP around here somewhere...Don't I? Somewhere? Nope. Igniter- yes...ESP - no. Crap. Gotta make a run to the dealer & grab one (or two) & do the "low-crawl" to get back underneath it...Oh, well...Better to find it now than in February, huh?

 

[gbreda]

How true, better now than Feb. Thanks for reminding me to get some spare parts for my 4th burning season. Also might change door gaskets after 3 seasons of running 24/7 for 3 months straight.
An ounce of prevention...........

 

[DAKSY]

Arrgh. I shoulda known better...Went to the hearth shop where I used to work & grabbed TWO (not one) ESPs just in case. 'Course the two retail stores didn't stock them, so I went to the main warehouse. One clerk/scheduler all alone. So I asked him for the ESPs, but I didn't look up the part number & campare that to my serial number. I thought he did, tho, & that's what I get for thinkin...I got them home, opened the firast package & there was a kink in it. I knew right then that wan't gonna work at all, & I'm hopin they'll take it back w/o any crap...So I get the second one installed & as soon as I plug the power cord in, I get a "three-blink" status light...So THEN I check the service parts & find that there are two ESP versions, based on the serial numbers. DANG! I had a 50-50 chance of being 100% wrong. On the upside, I did get the P61A cleaned painted & fired up with out any issues...Back to the warehouse tomorrow at lunch time...*sheesh*

 

[tsmith]

Do most of you Harman owners keep an ESP on hand, or wait till it goes then purchase one. I guess I am asking if it is a common problem part.

 

[DAKSY]

Well, it seems that the ESP & the igniter are the two Harman parts that fail most often, so keeping one around is probably a good thing... Since it's my daughter's only heat source, I gotta have one around, just in case...YMMV