Woke up to the smell of smoke...

[GrahamInVa]

I cleaned the stove and vent again tonight. When I plugged it back in this happened..I turned the temp dial up just a touch and it starting working fine.

It was basically cutting on and off. Any ideas?

 

[PoolGuyinCT]

So where did you hang the smoke and fire alarms? I hope they are up by now.

 

[Delta-T]

my first guess is dead spot on potentiometer...but, if you have meter, check your line voltage at the outlet....anything below 116V can make for "squirrely" action. If dead spot on pot, then maybe you try getting some contact cleaner from Radio Shack (or other similar establishment) and try cleaning pot (stove unplugged of course)...works on my guitar pots (which are notorious for gunking up).

 

[GrahamInVa]

** UPDATE ***

All of a sudden the stove starts burning really lazy w/ lots of smoke.. Oh great.. here we go again. At first I thought I had an exhaust fan or door gasket issue. But after some poking around I found the air intake flap stuck CLOSED. Soon as I pushed it open, POOF, big vibrant flames.

Question.. Why didn't the stove shut down when this happened? Instead it just feeds pellets and makes a BIG mess!

 

[Lake Girl]

Guess the Harman isn't that smart Sorry, had to do it! Harman read low burn and adjusted what it could... the pellets.

Glad you found your problem. Where is the flap that got stuck? Outside?

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Guess the Harman isn't that smart Sorry, had to do it! Harman read low burn and adjusted what it could... the pellets.

Glad you found your problem. Where is the flap that got stuck? Outside?

On the stove side of the air intake.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

** UPDATE ***

All of a sudden the stove starts burning really lazy w/ lots of smoke.. Oh great.. here we go again. At first I thought I had an exhaust fan or door gasket issue. But after some poking around I found the air intake flap stuck CLOSED. Soon as I pushed it open, POOF, big vibrant flames.

Question.. Why didn't the stove shut down when this happened? Instead it just feeds pellets and makes a BIG mess!

It works just like your ESW stove when its combustion air gets severely restricted, it feeds pellets until there are no pellets to feed or everything jams up.

 

[Lake Girl]

On the stove side of the air intake.

Is this potential listed on troubleshooting list in manual?

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Is this potential listed on troubleshooting list in manual?

I believe that it is mentioned as to where and for what I can't remember.

I suspect that your stove might have issues when its air intake gets blocked, how it would react I don't know, if it has an air flow or oxygen level sensor it might scream some message and shut down or it might not, what does your manual have to say?

 

[Lake Girl]

I believe that it is mentioned as to where and for what I can't remember.

I suspect that your stove might have issues when its air intake gets blocked, how it would react I don't know, if it has an air flow or oxygen level sensor it might scream some message and shut down or it might not, what does your manual have to say?

I would bet money that it would - necessary part of the fire triangle. Obviously enough air in combustion chamber initially but quickly starved. The Elena has alarm low flame but it seems to be associated with ignition phase so not sure if it would pick this problem up depending on timing. No mention of air intake blockage. Low flame alarm just mentions no pellets or bad pellet/air mix and contact Technical Assistance. Possibly depression alarm which mentions combustion chamber dirty, flue vent blocked or vacuum switch malfunction. Would not be a happy camper if the fix for the issue was an unmentioned flap in the air intake. Ecoteck manuals leave a lot to be desired... Might want to add this intake check on the "what your manual doesn't tell you"

 

[DexterDay]

The stove doesn't shut down, because it doesn't see the problem. If you open the door or plug the exhaust, you will have vacuum issues.

But by the flap staying shut, there is actually more vacuum applied to the vac switch, because the stove is trying to pull air from any other port. So the vac switch is more than happy. Again, plug the exhaust or make a big enough leak and its a different story

 

[dhall28]

2. Blocked or partially blocked inlet air.
a. Backdraft damper on the inlet pipe may be stuck
closed. (from harman's manual pg26, six blink code troubleshooting, usually caused by incomplete combustion of pellets)
Eventually the stove would shut down with a three or six blink status but it isn't smart enough to do it instantly in this situation.
I have heard of the backdraft damper rusting in place and check for it when i do s stove cleaning/service but i have never seen it yet, but all the stoves we install unless necessary by code we recommend not installing an OAK...

 

[smoke show]

I've woke up to the smell of smoke before. just sayn.