XXV airwash reducer

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My stove has been in operation since October, I hope I don't have to replace my door gasket already but it would not surprise me. I'm going to do the dollar test on it this weekend.
 
My stove has been in operation since October, I hope I don't have to replace my door gasket already but it would not surprise me. I'm going to do the dollar test on it this weekend.

You should be fine (hope so on a new stove) but when you do....the kit from lowes is inexpensive and not difficult.
 
I bought my Harman XXV on 2-16-13 and from day one have had the same smoke pattern on the glass. The dealer has been out several times to try to repair this problem by replacing the door gasket, ash pan door gaskets, removed the air wash inset, and adjusted the air wash but the problem has not gotten any better. I burn Bear Mountain pellets and get very little ash and the stove heat good but the glass soots up in about 1 hr. has anyone had any luck finding an answer?
 
I bought my Harman XXV on 2-16-13 and from day one have had the same smoke pattern on the glass. The dealer has been out several times to try to repair this problem by replacing the door gasket, ash pan door gaskets, removed the air wash inset, and adjusted the air wash but the problem has not gotten any better. I burn Bear Mountain pellets and get very little ash and the stove heat good but the glass soots up in about 1 hr. has anyone had any luck finding an answer?

No answer yet on my end either. Still have the same problem and if anything, it has seemed to get even a little worse as the winter progressed meaning that it is appearing almost instantaneous (within 5 minutes) as soon as I fire up the stove after a complete cleaning which includes brushing the whole pipe. I am dumb founded. Besides though always having dirty glass, the stove is amazing and the heat is tremendous. Just stinks to pay that much money for the esthetics of the XXV with a larger then normal viewing glass to have dirty glass all the time. Hopefully one day someone figures out this problem.
 
No answer yet on my end either. Still have the same problem and if anything, it has seemed to get even a little worse as the winter progressed meaning that it is appearing almost instantaneous (within 5 minutes) as soon as I fire up the stove after a complete cleaning which includes brushing the whole pipe. I am dumb founded. Besides though always having dirty glass, the stove is amazing and the heat is tremendous. Just stinks to pay that much money for the esthetics of the XXV with a larger then normal viewing glass to have dirty glass all the time. Hopefully one day someone figures out this problem.

I finally found out what part of my problem was. I had installed my vent system & outside air supply for a Cumberland stove that took a 2" flex hose for the outside air intake. I got thinking that the soot on the glass was improper combustion as I had my feed rate turned to 2 for all pellets burned. So I thought it must be it isn't getting enough air into the stove so I wanted to check the air intake damper where the air intake goes into the stove so when the stove had just started back up I pulled out the outside air intake out of the stove & immediately heard & saw that the flame was burning a lot hotter. After the stove cycled & shut down I cleaned the stove & glass & restarted this time you could see the flame was very different & the glass didn't soot up immediately. It did get some soot after a few hours but you can enjoy the flame now where before it was behind the soot. It still gets some soot but nothing like before & I can go till my weekly cleaning to clean the glass & still see the flame where before we couldn't. I also had to put my feed rate up to 4 where Harman recommends & life is good! I was told by the dealer while going through this that the air wash reducer was added later to get the effieciency up to pass some federal ratings. He said the stove will burn a bit better with the air wash reducer installed but can be run without it. I just left mine in after getting the air it needed to the firepot. Hope this helps!
 
I finally found out what part of my problem was. I had installed my vent system & outside air supply for a Cumberland stove that took a 2" flex hose for the outside air intake. I got thinking that the soot on the glass was improper combustion as I had my feed rate turned to 2 for all pellets burned. So I thought it must be it isn't getting enough air into the stove so I wanted to check the air intake damper where the air intake goes into the stove so when the stove had just started back up I pulled out the outside air intake out of the stove & immediately heard & saw that the flame was burning a lot hotter. After the stove cycled & shut down I cleaned the stove & glass & restarted this time you could see the flame was very different & the glass didn't soot up immediately. It did get some soot after a few hours but you can enjoy the flame now where before it was behind the soot. It still gets some soot but nothing like before & I can go till my weekly cleaning to clean the glass & still see the flame where before we couldn't. I also had to put my feed rate up to 4 where Harman recommends & life is good! I was told by the dealer while going through this that the air wash reducer was added later to get the effieciency up to pass some federal ratings. He said the stove will burn a bit better with the air wash reducer installed but can be run without it. I just left mine in after getting the air it needed to the firepot. Hope this helps!

Also I have not installed a bigger (2 7/8" id 3" od) Harman outside air kit because the dealer said I shouldn't have any problems without it. I've read also that they are not needed unless you have a very tight house & have draft problems. What I didn't mention was I bought a 3' piece of Harman flex pipe before to mate the 2" flex to the stove for air intake & slipped it over my existing 2" air intake & sealed the end where it went through the wall with duct sealing tape. Apparently the Harman needs the bigger air intake to run right so I just put the end of the flex hose on the outside of the hole on the back shield going to the air intake port & not into the port giving it a several inches to draw room air with while still drawing some outside air. I think I will remove the outside air intake system this summer & just draw inside air for combustion.
 
I bought my Harman XXV on 2-16-13 and from day one have had the same smoke pattern on the glass. The dealer has been out several times to try to repair this problem by replacing the door gasket, ash pan door gaskets, removed the air wash inset, and adjusted the air wash but the problem has not gotten any better. I burn Bear Mountain pellets and get very little ash and the stove heat good but the glass soots up in about 1 hr. has anyone had any luck finding an answer?


Where in the house is the stove located and what does the venting consist of (list each part and diameter of pipe)?

Eric
 
glad you solved the problem, Scott.......minimize the outside air and you'll have less airflow across the glass, and cause more sooty deposits on it
 
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