Harman Absolute 63 Soot Issue

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Cyb33r

New Member
Jan 3, 2019
47
Idaho
I installed both a P68 and Absolute 63 a few weeks ago and have burned about a half a ton of pellets in each. I noticed today that my Absolute 63 has a thick layer of soot on the inside of the stove and the ash pan was covered in soot as well(completely black). My P68 has a thin layer of pellet ash but zero soot. I checked the venting and nothing is clogged. I am burning the same brand pellets in both.

Do I need to turn up the combustion fan? Anyone else have this issue? Any other ideas?
 
Run it a bit hotter if you can, my P61 will soot up when its warm out and running on a lower temp.
 
I am not a Harman technician,but,from all the info out there,about the Harman Touch control stoves,seems most need the combustion blower set higher.You need to get into the "dealers" menu,and,I recommend bumping up the "low" and "high" settings,a little at a time.You can find threads here about how to do that.
 
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I am not a Harman technician,but,from all the info out there,about the Harman Touch control stoves,seems most need the combustion blower set higher.You need to get into the "dealers" menu,and,I recommend bumping up the "low" and "high" settings,a little at a time.You can find threads here about how to do that.

I will try bumping up those settings. I know how to get into the dealer menu. I cleaned all the soot out and will see if that helps.

I was also curious if any other absolute owners have had that issue.


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Run it a bit hotter if you can, my P61 will soot up when its warm out and running on a lower temp.

It was zero last night so it is still running decently hard. How did you fix the issue with the p61?


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I saw your post in the other thread. My stove has still been running significantly better, not coming choking for air anymore. I'm still getting the very black soot that, after a minute or two with the door open which allows the stove to cool down, often starts to glow from the fly ash on the soot. I'll scrape it off and then it's fine for about a week before I have to do it again. I'm certain it's a design flaw of the Absolute. The highest minimum I can set is 2600 and I keep the max at 3,100 still.
 
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I saw your post in the other thread. My stove has still been running significantly better, not coming choking for air anymore. I'm still getting the very black soot that, after a minute or two with the door open which allows the stove to cool down, often starts to glow from the fly ash on the soot. I'll scrape it off and then it's fine for about a week before I have to do it again. I'm certain it's a design flaw of the Absolute. The highest minimum I can set is 2600 and I keep the max at 3,100 still.
Wow."fly ash" is very fine burned dust.Mostly associated with coal stoves.Flyash cannot catch fire/burn,as all its energy has been expelled.I think you are not explaining your problem,well.Wood burning stoves created debris,they create smoke,dust,soot on the glass,all part of life.Fly ash is already totally burned,soot still has the ability to burn.Feel free to correct me if I am wrong.
 
Wow."fly ash" is very fine burned dust.Mostly associated with coal stoves.Flyash cannot catch fire/burn,as all its energy has been expelled.I think you are not explaining your problem,well.Wood burning stoves created debris,they create smoke,dust,soot on the glass,all part of life.Fly ash is already totally burned,soot still has the ability to burn.Feel free to correct me if I am wrong.
I'll take a video next time it happens, possibly not "fly ash" but it's all sorts of glow and movement. A quick scrape and it goes away but it's an issue I've had since day 1. I clean according to the manual and this soot/glow issues I've had has not gone away. I've heard from many people here having dirty burns from the Absolute.
 
I'll take a video next time it happens, possibly not "fly ash" but it's all sorts of glow and movement. A quick scrape and it goes away but it's an issue I've had since day 1. I clean according to the manual and this soot/glow issues I've had has not gone away. I've heard from many people here having dirty burns from the Absolute.
If you see "glow and movement",but your glass on the stove window is not black,your stove is preforming well!!!!Sparkles,jumping embers,etc means it is working well!!!
 
If you see "glow and movement",but your glass on the stove window is not black,your stove is preforming well!!!!Sparkles,jumping embers,etc means it is working well!!!
OK, just to clarify, jumping embers and sparkles refer to when the stove is in operation with the door closed right? I'm talking about I open the door, let it cool down a little and the walls literally look like they have glowing mini embers that are multiplying until I either close the door and the stove heats up or scrape them off. After I scrape them off, they sit in the ash still glowing.
 
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OK, just to clarify, jumping embers and sparkles refer to when the stove is in operation with the door closed right? I'm talking about I open the door, let it cool down a little and the walls literally look like they have glowing mini embers that are multiplying until I either close the door and the stove heats up or scrape them off. After I scrape them off, they sit in the ash still glowing.
Why in the world would you have the stove door open,when it is running?Where are you "scrapping" the "embers": from?Need some logic here.
 
Why in the world would you have the stove door open,when it is running?Where are you "scrapping" the "embers": from?Need some logic here.
When I open the door to clean the ash off the burn pot, I do this while it's still running. With the door being open, heat escapes and stove cools down slightly which seems to ignite the walls in a glow. When I scrape this glow off the walls, it falls into the ash and is still glowing. Hopefully this is enough "logic", if not I'll send a video since you seem to a visual learner.
 
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When I open the door to clean the ash off the burn pot, I do this while it's still running. With the door being open, heat escapes and stove cools down slightly which seems to ignite the walls in a glow. When I scrape this glow off the walls, it falls into the ash and is still glowing. Hopefully this is enough "logic", if not I'll send a video since you seem to a visual learner.

Thanks JR52. I really appreciate all your help. I just don’t get why the P68 was burning so clean and this stove isn’t. I am hoping that your settings clear things up. I will report back in a few days.


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When I open the door to clean the ash off the burn pot, I do this while it's still running. With the door being open, heat escapes and stove cools down slightly which seems to ignite the walls in a glow. When I scrape this glow off the walls, it falls into the ash and is still glowing. Hopefully this is enough "logic", if not I'll send a video since you seem to a visual learner.


So you have what sounds like burning pellet debris sticking to the walls of the stove? That ive never seen. A video clip would help.
 
I saw your post in the other thread. My stove has still been running significantly better, not coming choking for air anymore. I'm still getting the very black soot that, after a minute or two with the door open which allows the stove to cool down, often starts to glow from the fly ash on the soot. I'll scrape it off and then it's fine for about a week before I have to do it again. I'm certain it's a design flaw of the Absolute. The highest minimum I can set is 2600 and I keep the max at 3,100 still.
There might be a lil white screw on the control panel. That controls the combustion motor speed. try turning it just a little bit higher. If the stove runs a little hotter it eliminate that problem
 
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So you have what sounds like burning pellet debris sticking to the walls of the stove? That ive never seen. A video clip would help.

Yes. Mine has done this too. My stove gets a thin layer of soot on the walls and then the pellet dust sticks and glows.


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There might be a lil white screw on the control panel. That controls the combustion motor speed. try turning it just a little bit higher. If the stove runs a little hotter it eliminate that problem

I set my combustion blower has high as it can go in the menu to match JR52’s settings. We will see if that helps.


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Check the Cap and see how much it's breathing. Ie take a look and see steam or smoke. Still sounds like stove not breathing right.

2 sides to this. How is the OAK? You could try holding open the flapper on the oak fitting with big magnet. Warning don't drop it!!!!!

I had similar problem and more air and cleaning cap solved it. You said chimney cleaned. They go up on roof and do a good job? If not bring them back
 
Check the Cap and see how much it's breathing. Ie take a look and see steam or smoke. Still sounds like stove not breathing right.

2 sides to this. How is the OAK? You could try holding open the flapper on the oak fitting with big magnet. Warning don't drop it!!!!!

I had similar problem and more air and cleaning cap solved it. You said chimney cleaned. They go up on roof and do a good job? If not bring them back

I had my chimney professionally cleaned two weeks ago and do not have an outside air kit. I would normally agree with you that could be the problem but I think it is the stove settings or the stove design.


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It was zero last night so it is still running decently hard. How did you fix the issue with the p61?


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My stove will soot up a bit when its running on a lower temperature setting...walls and glass...on a higher temp and auto light.I think if you post a video, we'll all be able to understand better.
 
My stove will soot up a bit when its running on a lower temperature setting...walls and glass...on a higher temp and auto light.I think if you post a video, we'll all be able to understand better.

I scraped it all off yesterday and cleaned everything. The stove has been running mostly on medium/high as it was negative 7 F last night. I changed my settings and will see if it helps. I can take a video if it happens again. There was so much soot that the entire inside and outside even the bottom of the ash pan was coated black. I had to take the ash pan to the garage and scrape it. I have run pellet stoves with a little soot but this was a lot.
 
The video attached is what I was trying to describe earlier. This is after 4 days cleaning according to the manual including brushing the interior clean and cleaning the exhaust pipe. I have since scraped the sides and it's perfectly fine now but will likely build up over the next few days with soot as we get near 0. This has been happening since I got it but less often since I changed my settings on the combustion fan to increase airflow. I'm pretty sure it's creosote but it comes right off and it's a flaky substance. Thoughts?

 

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Have you tried holding open the OAK flapper? I used Magnet when I had trouble. It helped. My problem was dirty cap on Chimney. Nasty Black stuff in stove.