What about the Harman Oakwood or Lopi Leyden?

[elkimmeg]

There is enough said about the Vc products top loaders, a long detailed post about the Island Royal ,
that turned into a PE summit thread.

Are there any Harman Oakwood owners that care to step up and describe how that stove burns over the long burn? It would be great to hear how that stove does. Also, Shane, what are you seeing with the Leyden with regard to the heat output curve over time?

Can anyone confirm if the Harman Oakwood is thermoatically controled is the leyden? If you own one of these stoves explain how you opperate it and how you obtain secondary burn

Harry what about the harman Oakwood ?

 

[HarryBack]

Im not familiar as to how the Leyden is thermostatically controlled, but the Harman Oakwood, or the Exception, for that matter, isnt thermostatically controlled....Im not sure how you'd make a thermostat work on a unit and still ensure the afterburner runs as well, as its so dependant upon draft AND temperature...let it go too low, and you lose secondary burn. From what i understand, the afterburner on the Harman works best at an internal temp of 1200 degrees or so, if that helps.

 

[begreen]

That's what I thought too Harry. VC seems to have a corner on this market, though PE has their flavor, but without user control. I too would love to hear how the Oakwood performs in an all day burn and what kind of temperatures are seen from it. It would also be great to hear from Leyden owners.

 

[HarryBack]

Ive sold several of both the Oakwood and the Exception, and have never really heard anything back...which, in the sotve biz, is usually a good thing. Hard data might be difficult tho, since there are so many variables here, such as draaft, chimney height/type, fuel, air settings, home envelope, etc.

 

[Corie]

Agreed. There just don't seem to be enough of them yet. Shoot if I had the cash I'd grab one just for a test mule.


Unless I can find another deal on one of those like the Aspen........

 

[begreen]

Yes, I'd love to set up a test lab for these stoves and run them through their paces with a controlled amount of wood. Maybe we need Consumer's Report to get in on this.

 

[Corie]

If the funding was there, it would be very simple to do and document. I wonder if there is a market for something like that.

 

[Shane]

I run the Leyden in the shop full open all day long. At night I damper it. Often times there are coals in the morning. As for heat output on the lower setting I can't really say because I'm not there. As a dealer I feel like my reviews of stoves mean nil. So I will let real stove owners do the reviewing.

 

[begreen]

Shane, is there a thermometer on the stove? If yes, what are average stovetop temps? What wood are you burning, pine? I value your opinion, even if you are a dealer.

 

[Corie]

Yeah, I do as well Shane.


I'd love to hear a detailed description of what you think of the stove.

 

[Shane]

I think it's a good stove. When I come into the shop in the morning I usually light it. It takes 30 min or so to get it up to temperature. I burn about 1/2 firebox worth of wood to get a good 2-3 inch coal bed. Then I rake them to the back and add a few splits. Once they catch good and my stack temp (probe thermometer 18" above flue collar) is 600-1000 I'll engage the secondary combustion system. So long as temp is high enough and a good bed of coals it burns beautifully. Average stack temp when the stove is operating efficiently is 500-700 and the stove top is 450-600. If the coals aren't there then you watch the stack temp fall. If I see it go under 300 then I open the bypass again and let it get back to temp. The formentioned scenario happens more in warmer weather than in cold. I've had to adjust the damper tension twice since it was installed. The top loading door did bind for approx. 2 weeks when you would close it. Not enough to prevent it from closing or operating properly it just caught a little due to the hinge design. This has gone away with use. The combustion technology is definately different than the other noncats I've operated. It is similar to a catalytic stove in the sequence of operation but burns better at higher temps. I don't feel that it has the heat output range of a similar cat stove. I have done some minimal overnight burn testing. I'll load the stove approx. 6:00 p.m. and we return at 7:30-8:00am. There have been coals for me in the morning, enough to restart the fire usually. But take my review with a grain of salt since I think the products I sell are the best thing since sliced bread!

 

[begreen]

Thanks Shane, that's a great assesment. It sure is a nice looking stove.

How long do you think the stove will hold a 500-600 stove top temperature? What kind of wood are you burning?

 

[Shane]

I burn pine, 16" splits. I got some really nice dense stuff from 7000' it burns really good. The stove is in our office area so I just feed it splits all day long. Once I get it going it maintains that temp all day. I'll usually load 3-4 splits at a time and let them burn to coals and then add more. If I were to load it and let it be (like someone would in their home) I would guess that a 5-6 hour burn time at the high rate of burn is reasonable. I plan to get some more wood this weekend if you have any scenarios you'd like me to test let me know. Also there should be a new Avalon version sometime this year. I read about it the other day and asked the rep when he came in. I need to install more chimneys. It would be really cool if I could set up two more right next to the one I have now. I could burn a Leyden, an Encore and maybe a NC Dutchwest or even a cat Encore or Defiant. That would be sweet comparison, 3 stoves with the same chimneys, same weather conditions and the same wood. Talk about apples to apples. I won't be able to do that until the next showroom expansion though, and that probably won't happen until sometime in '08. BTW my chimney set up is 4' single wall 90's out the wall and continues up with 18'-20' of Duratech.

 

[jejennings]

I can't comment on the Harman Oakwood, by can on the company and it's complete disinterest in in it's end customers.

In addition to the looking at the relative merits of any heating units you are considering, regardless of type, also consider the manufacturer’s service and support policies. I didn’t do this when I bought a Harman Model 2600 multi-fuel central furnace in 2000 to replace an ancient wood and oil burning furnace that we had had for many years. I now regret the choice. Three seasons ago I decided to run the furnace on oil only until my wife recovered from her lung cancer surgery, so that there would be no chance of even a whiff of wood smoke entering the house. When the furnace fired we smelled oil. This has continued right up to this season and we’ve tried everything to get it repaired, complete cleaning and resealing of the oil heat exchanger (twice), various adjustment to the oil burner, chimney cleaning, etc. We even had the air conditioning oil pulled so that the heat exchanger could be inspected for cracks (none found). My heating technician is at his wit’s end and blames it on poor furnace design. Emails, telephone calls, and faxed and snail mailed messages to Harman asking for technical help or referral to a technician who could solve the problem have been unanswered. They won’t even send me a replacement manual. Their standard reply is that all service and parts orders must go through the dealer who sold me the furnace. I of course called the dealer from whom I bought the furnace and was told by the owner’s widow that when her husband died, Harmon pulled her dealership and gave it to someone else, even though they sold 84 Harman units a year. She said her very experienced and qualified service technician would no longer service Harmon products because of the way
Dane Harman and his company treated her. The two Harman Dealers within reasonable driving distance from me do not handle furnaces, only stoves, and do not have service technicians qualified in the oil heat part. The bottom line – Do not purchase ANY Harmon product unless you are absolutely sure that your dealer will remain in business for as long as you own the stove and will be willing to provide service and parts when needed.

Jack Jennings
Sicklerville, NJ
[email protected]

 

[TruePatriot]

Hi Jack, 'er, Hello, Jack,

I am sorry to hear about your travails with the Harman Company, but not suprised.

I thought this thread might be of interest to you, as your experience confirmed my admittedly much-more limited involvement with this company: https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/6822/

I do hope you wife's recovery went well, and that she is fine.

All the best,

Peter

 

[jejennings]

Hi Peter,

I had read the linked post before, so I knew that I was not alone in being dissatisfied with the way that they Harman Factory handles end customer communications. My Harman furnace problem continues, since I have not yet had the oil heat exchanger pulled for inspection. If it is defective, as expected, it will be interesting to see if Harman will honor their warrantee.

My wife is now five years past her surgery for lung cancer and it cancer free. It was caught early enough.... not usually the case.

Jack

 

[Shane]

That really sucks. I wonder how true that is? Pulling a line under the circumstance explained above is lower than low. Maybe there was something else to it. Although it seem stove companies anymore are just like any other company if someone down the road will sell 25 units and your only selling 24 then guess where your line is going. The "family" feeling in the industry is non-existent now, maybe it never was there who knows. I would imagine that the store not working on Harmons anymore has more to do with not being able to get parts than anything. That is one issue these stove companies should think a little more about. Dealer A sells these stoves for 20+ years then you pull the line and Dealer A has to send all his business that he's busted his ass to get down to Dealer B because some pencil pusher saw an opportunity for a couple more units and they cut off the parts supply to Dealer A. I suppose at the end of the day that the people trampled on aren't worth consideration. What about the customers of these dealers? Do the companies care about them? Apparantly not if you can't even get a manual. Maybe they figure there's no money to be made from these customers as they've already bought a stove and likely won't be replacing it for a decade or two.