Slightly different issue with a Harman

I got a call from a lady saying her Harman Accentra FS has no power light and actually tripped the breaker. I went out and found the stove very dirty and speaking to her she said in five years the stove vent was never cleaned. The vent was 3" with an adapter to 90 to 4' of vertical to 90 to an adapter into a 6" masonry about 8' vertical. It was plugged. After cleaning the vent and the stove I put in a new fuse and relight the unit. It ran for almost five minutes until it blew the board fuse. The igniter was off at this time so I knew it might not be that part of the problem.

I checked all the electric components and the resistance was in speck. I checked the harness and found no frayed wires and the stove was grounded to a three prong outlet with correct line voltage. The house circuit had nothing on it other than a couple lights. I replaced the fuse and fired it back up and watched it for fifteen minutes and all was good. I also checked the chain drive and auger turning resistance and found nothing wrong.

Four days later I got a call that the stove and breaker was tripped in the house. I went back out and found just the circuit breaker was tripped but not the board fuse. I ran an amp test on all electric components and found the auger motor was spiking at 2 amps but ran consistent at 1.7, speck calls for 1.7 a. I replaced that with a new motor that was turning below .9. Nothing else was found wrong and the stove fired up.

I hope this will take care of the issue for now. I have to return to correct the venting that is leaking but that is a few months away. Posting this in case someone else comes across this issue. Meters can be your friend.

Eric

What's this strange term "cleaning" that you refer to mean?

Once every five years worked for her.

Eric

And some of you OCD peoples do such a thing once or twice a month, Bwwwwaaaahhhh!

Great post! I love this stuff.

Ditto. Good stuff.

I have a feeling the story is not over though. I hope it is but I got this feeling...

!! I feel like I need a shower after reading this.

You need to clean your venting every 5 years? I thought is was 10

5 year cleanings are just for accentras. All the other Harmans are 10 years except for the p68 might be 20 but im not certain. So judging by your sig your due for its first cleaning in 2016.

for some reason, I though they were self-cleaning

Another post on here has a guy cleaning both his stoves twice a week. Everything in moderation people..... even moderation. 'cept beer, stay thristy my freinds.

I had a customers stove that would pop a fuse for no apparent reason - he went through a pile of fuses after I checked everything. Everything was in spec. Changed the board problem went away - put the board in another stove for shits and giggles and the problem followed the board.

But how much did she burn in those five years? I've known stoves that only see a ton in five years.

I had a AES board that would speed up the longer it ran. Shut it down and would reset itself and week later was trying to run auger on high again.

I'll drink to that!

That's crazy. I clean my 2 in the house once a year LOL

Cheers

I am not a stove tech, but the motor drawing 2 amps don't think would trip a breaker. What size was the board fuse & do you know what the total amperage draw for the stove was ???

I am not sure but I would say 2-3 tons a year. It does run 24/7 but in a 14'x30' outbuilding they only use for Bible study. I guess someone upstairs was watching out for them to keep em warm..

6 amp fuse but it is the only thing I can find that was slightly out of order. If it continues I will swap the boards since I have no way of checking them except for the DDM and that is not a great job.

Eric

I was thinking the same thing as gfreek. That feeling I had...

My suspect would be the board given the electrical is in order. I have seen weak breakers but very rare. Another possibility is that she may also may have that circuit over loaded with other appliances.

It might interest you to invest in a Kill a Watt. You can easily read the line voltage and amperage draw for the entire unit while under operation. The basic model is around $20.

Well guess who called? The stove has no power and the house breaker is not tripped. I will be headed out this weekend with a board and see how that works. Only thing on this circuit is lights and that is two ceiling lights.

Arrrggghhhh!

Eric

If the Board does not do the trick consider running a long heavy duty extension cord to another circuit and take that issue right out of the equation.

Hey Eric, just wondering how you made out?

This has been a PIA case for me. I went over Sunday to install a board and to cover all bases I again checked all components to find something messed up with the igniter. Instead of running a resistance test I pulled it to find it installed assbackwards. The wires were charred. This is what I get for taking someone else's work as correct. The customer purchased an igniter from me over a year ago and had a "handyman" install it. So since I did not have an igniter in my van I have to make one more trip. I was able to manually light the stove so it is still running to keep heat in the house.

Eric

So likely the wrongly installed ignitor started this chain of events!?