whistle in a Harman P61A...

[Bigjim13]

Was in my den tonight on the computer when I heard a whistle coming from my stove (Harman P61A). Upon further inspection it seems the whistle only occurs when the auger turns to add pellets to the burnpot. Does something need to be lubed inside my stove? Last weekend I gave it a pretty good cleaning, usually I do this once a week, and for the first time I pulled the fine deflector and cleaned that out. Could this have caused something to get jarred loose? For what it's worth, I ran the stove all week and didn't have an issue and frankly other than being kind of a nuisance the whistle doesn't seem to cause the stove to run poorly.

Any thoughts would be great, tomorrow is cleaning day, will be able to shut it down in the AM and leave it off until I come home from work around 1 or so. I plan to do a full all out cleaning and check it all over, so any suggestions would be much appreciated! Thanks!

 

[Lousyweather]

check gaskets (door and hopper, but especially the door), and make sure the clean the end of the auger tube WELL

 

[Bigjim13]

check gaskets (door and hopper, but especially the door), and make sure the clean the end of the auger tube WELL

The end of the auger tube? Is that where the pellets get fed into the burnpot? Sorry to sound like a newb, but that's pretty much what I am. Thanks!

 

[Lousyweather]

yea, sometimes a carbon buildup IN the tube can deviate is and cause a rubbing

 

[seaken]

You might want to give yourself a little more time this cleaning cycle and remove the auger and clean both it and the auger tube. It's not too difficult with the P61A since it's relatively light. Move it away from the pipe and wall and sit down in back of the stove and go to work. Make sure you mark any wires you disconnect and get them put back in place correctly.

Sean

 

[Bigjim13]

You might want to give yourself a little more time this cleaning cycle and remove the auger and clean both it and the auger tube. It's not too difficult with the P61A since it's relatively light. Move it away from the pipe and wall and sit down in back of the stove and go to work. Make sure you mark any wires you disconnect and get them put back in place correctly.

Sean

I thought about doing that, and had posted in another thread asking how to remove the auger from this stove. The general feeling I got from that thread is that if I don't have to remove the auger than I should NOT remove the auger. I still don't really see how it comes out and think I will just leave that alone.

I did however shut the stove off completely, let it cool for a few hours and give it a thorough cleaning. It amazes me how much ash gets built up inside. That seems to have helped. I also scraped off ALOT more carbon buildup from the burnpot than I expected. I thought I had been getting alot of it off with the tool that was provided when I bought the stove. Turns out I was wrong. So far so good and haven't heard the whistle again- knock on wood.

 

[seaken]

Carbon build up in the bottom of the burn pot near the auger could be contributing to your noise. Some pellets tend to buildup some hard carbon deposits. Use a screw driver and a hammer to dislodge.

Removing the auger is very easy when you are sitting directly behind the stove and have two hands to work with. It is very hard when you are reaching around the back of the stove when up against a wall and have only one hand to use.

Simply remove the feed motor from the auger shaft. Remove two retaining bolts and slide out the auger assembly. You will have to disconnect some wires so make sure you mark them and get them back in the correct manner.

 

[gbreda]

I also scraped off ALOT more carbon buildup from the burnpot than I expected. I thought I had been getting alot of it off with the tool that was provided when I bought the stove. Turns out I was wrong. So far so good and haven't heard the whistle again- knock on wood.

The tool provided does squat on the carbon buildup. It's ok to get ash out and a quick scrape whilte the fire is going, that's about it.

On the weekly cleaning I use a screwdriver and sometimes a chisel if I have larger builup on the side. Be carefull of the welds though.