Tips on starting a Harman in MANUAL mode

[THE ROOSTER]

Here in KY. the days are warmer and the nights are still cool, so our stove is only needed at night, there is nothing wrong with the ignitor but I thought I'd try to start my Harman manually... I had no luck, so any tips would be great... I had the burn pot 1/2 full of pellets, I used a hand sanitizer but it just looked like the fire never got hot enough for the stove to kick on in...

Since I am burning only at night and just about every night, would you just go on and use the ignitor or would you light it manually???

Thanks in advance for all your input

 

[HEMI]

Here in KY. the days are warmer and the nights are still cool, so our stove is only needed at night, there is nothing wrong with the ignitor but I thought I'd try to start my Harman manually... I had no luck, so any tips would be great... I had the burn pot 1/2 full of pellets, I used a hand sanitizer but it just looked like the fire never got hot enough for the stove to kick on in...

Since I am burning only at night and just about every night, would you just go on and use the ignitor or would you light it manually???

Thanks in advance for all your input

run the stove in room temp, once its up and running switch it to manual and it will keep a VERY small fire going when its not calling for heat..........pellet consumption (to me) was minute when it was idle

 

[Lousyweather]

Here in KY. the days are warmer and the nights are still cool, so our stove is only needed at night, there is nothing wrong with the ignitor but I thought I'd try to start my Harman manually... I had no luck, so any tips would be great... I had the burn pot 1/2 full of pellets, I used a hand sanitizer but it just looked like the fire never got hot enough for the stove to kick on in...

Since I am burning only at night and just about every night, would you just go on and use the ignitor or would you light it manually???

Thanks in advance for all your input

Roostermeister:

Ok....flip the old dog into manual.....feed at 3.5, temp at....whatever...70?......fill the burn pot 1/2 full, squirt alot of fluid on the pellets, light them, close the door......THEN put the feeder into TEST mode....when it cycles down (1 minute or so), take it out of test, put it back in test, let it cycle...you might need to repeat a couple times...fianlly, your ESp will detect the heat, and you can put the feeder back to 3.5 or so.....and off ya go

 

[Ladderlieu]

Here in KY. the days are warmer and the nights are still cool, so our stove is only needed at night, there is nothing wrong with the ignitor but I thought I'd try to start my Harman manually... I had no luck, so any tips would be great... I had the burn pot 1/2 full of pellets, I used a hand sanitizer but it just looked like the fire never got hot enough for the stove to kick on in...

Since I am burning only at night and just about every night, would you just go on and use the ignitor or would you light it manually???

Thanks in advance for all your input

run the stove in room temp, once its up and running switch it to manual and it will keep a VERY small fire going when its not calling for heat..........pellet consumption (to me) was minute when it was idle

That's my method as well. Once the ignitor shuts off the first time, it'll not need to come on again unless the stove gets shut off or runs out of pellets.

 

[tinkabranc]

When my ignitor let go last year it took me a while to figure out how to light it quickly.
I first tried the test mode procedure as mentioned, but the burnpot kept overflowing
with fuel.

What did end up working for me was:
Put stove in manual.
Mix up approx 1/2 cup pellets with starter gel before putting in burnpot.
Light it up. Turn on stove using room temp.

Once the fire got big enough to touch the heat exchangers, it took right off.

 

[exoilburner]

The trick with MANUAL LIGHTING for me is to get a good bed of pellet coals established before letting the auger start dumping.
To do that I fill the burn pot up to the top with pellets. Start the pellets flaming with a cheap torch. (I don't use any chemicals) When the pellets flame on their own partially close the door against the wrong side of the door latch. (the vacuum switch should keep the auger from adding pellets) Let the pellets burn down until pellet coals are established.

Open the door and toss a couple of hand-fulls of pellets on top of the coals.

Close the door normally with the latches sealing the door up.

Put the feed adjust to minimum until the fire is about to a normal burn. Turn the feed rate back to the normal setting.

 

[summit]

fill pot 1/2 way to 2/3rds.... squirt alot of firestarter gel (not hand sanitizer), then mix it all up into a soup w/ the pellets. light match, toss in, close door, turn stove on.

 

[THE ROOSTER]

THANKS AGAIN, for the info, now one last question... Now that I know how to start a fire in manual, why do I have to put it back into "auto", once the auger is feeding pellets to the fire, to get the distribution blower to run??? My glass window was hot to the touch, and the blower would not kick in, I placed the switch in auto and the blower went straight to high...

 

[summit]

in manual op stove temp, the blower will not typically come on below setting "5" on the Tstat dial (not feed adjuster). It allows you to run a radiant fire without the fan blowing you out (Ya know, when you just want it on, seeing the fire, not blasting you outta the room kind fire) without adding an extra button to bypas the fan. Also, when in stove temp, the fire will run continuously without self shutdown: so why have it flipped to manual other than to start it?