Three weeks in to my first Pellet stove.

Hi Everyone.

So I’m three weeks in as a new Pellet stove owner and I have a few follow up newbie questions. Hoping you guys can continue to provide the good advice I’ve seen here so far.

I run a Harman Absolute 63.

Fairly happy with it, but I’m convinced it’s running dirtier than it should be. I run Hammer Hot Ones for pellet fuel.

I’m cleaning the glass and scrapping the burn pot every day, and checking the pot holes every three days. I empty the ash pan every 4 bags at most. Seems like the pan is about 3/4 full when I do.

This seems abnormally dirty to me. The glass gets down to about 30% visibility within a few hours of running with a high flame. When I open the door to scrape the pot I get a decent amount of ash falling out from the glass gasket.

I’m also noticing a grind coming out of the auger a few times a day. It’s only a few seconds but it’s loud. Almost as if pellets are getting stuck and it sounds like gears are stripping. Is this normal?

What is going on with this thing?

The dealer came back out and re-sealed the exhaust pipe so now we aren’t having any smoke detector issues. The OAK is fully connected and it’s only a 2 foot run to the outside. I get a nice white hot flame. On start up the smoke is grey and visible during the day but after a few minutes it’s clear.

What do you all think?

I attached a few photos of a start up after a cleaning. The last photo is the glass after one hour. It gets darker and dirtier from there in the same pattern.

JR52 said:

I've responded to a few of your posts mainly because I also have the Absolute 63. I have had similar feelings to you that it's running dirtier than it should be and I believe it's mainly due to a flawed design which does not allow enough oxygen into the fire. I've learned to live with the fact that I have to clean it more often and that I will also have a dirtier stove.

Having said that, if it's 3/4 filled after 4 bags, there is something wrong. I have the cheapest of wood pellets and never had to empty until a week or 14 bags. Is this all ash or are there unburned pellets in the ash? If so, I'd recommend turning down your max feed rate to 50% or below until you are getting nearly 100% ash. I've already commented on the glass but nothing I've done has fixed the near instantaneous coat it seems to have on it. The auger will start to make that noise when a pellet gets stuck. I've had it happen a lot and, while it's annoying, it hasn't caused an issue in 2 years of use.

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Thank you! Even though it's still new, I'm starting to realize this is just the way it's going to be. I'm glad another 63 owner is sharing the same issues. I am going to try a few different brands of Pellets to see if something changes.

As for the ash in the pan- it's all ash. No unburned pellets.

I'm glad someone else has the Auger noise too. It only happens a few times a day but it gets our attention. I'm going to mention something to the dealer. I already did a full cleaning on it. Even took off the auger cover in the rear and cleaned that out too.

Jim S said:

I have a new Harman this year and I was having the same issue with the dirty flame. What I realized was that the vent pipe outside was getting clogged with ash. Due to a lot of humidity and rain, the mesh screen was building up with ash and therefore getting clogged which was causing the stove to get limited air. Look outside and see if this is happening to you. I took it off and cleaned it and vacuumed it out. Now at least once a week I go outside with a dustpan brush, brush the screen clean and tap the bottom of the pipe to let the ash blow out. It is likely due to the moisture plus a cheaper pellet burn.

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Good call. I did check the vent pipe and it's all clean. It was only installed a few weeks ago so I would have been surprised to see anything in there. I took the pipe off the wall outside and it was mostly clean.

alternativeheat said:

What stage of burn was that second shot taken at ? The only time I get a flame like that in my P61 is from an overload of fuel on start up because the stove needs cleaning, more specifically, the ash needs to be removed from below the igniter.

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Just like you mentioned it was a fuel overload on start up. We do at times have the flame rolling at the top of the fire box. Luckily I think that was just a bad pic as I almost always have a white hot flame and never really see any lazy orange flames at all except for when the stove is shutting off.

bogieb said:

That does seem to be abnormally dirty to me, but I run P-series Harmans so am unsure how big your ash pan is (mine go weeks between cleanings even with the worst pellets). I read somewhere that someone else is getting interesting ash out of the Hamers this year, but I wouldn't think it would be that bad.

My P43 runs with a clean glass for weeks, my P61a glass gets dirty, but in a pattern and certainly isn't massively dirty after a couple of days (using same pellets). Your picture doesn't look all that bad - but for an hour of running is probably worse than it should be.

The first picture looks like a great flame but I'm not liking the second picture's flame. Try removing your OAK from the back of the stove and see if there is any change. If so, there could be an obstruction (check inside for clear plastic pieces from the packaging materials - been there). Also, if the OAK flex pipe is not 3", and going around the outside of the pipe on the stove inlet, then it may not be getting the air it needs. If removing the OAK flex pipe doesn't change the characteristics of the fire, then check the air inlet path for the stove for foreign materials.

Last thought, if it has been very humid in your area, that can affect the ashiness of pellets - at least that is my experience. Nothing you can do about that though except wait until it gets cold and dry.

I'm sure others will be along with suggestions.

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Checked the OAK today as you suggested and it's all clear right through the outside. I have to wonder if maybe something got up through the flapper on the inside of the unit? I'm going to shut it down tomorrow and check it when I do another full cleaning. Also going to change the pellet brand with a single bag from somewhere else to see if that changes anything.

I just did a complete cleanout of the stove and wow was it FILTHY! I mean, black liquid like sludge/tar/whatever all over the ash pan, the bottom of the stove, even in spots up near the burn pot. I think doing an oil change on a car with no gloves would have been cleaner then cleaning out the liquid black crud that came out of this stove. Clearly something is wrong. I get that in the end, there is a flame inside and that means black soot, but I never though it would be like it was, and after only a few weeks and half a ton of pellets.

I switched up the pellets to Lignetics Premium Hardwood and so far I still have the dirty glass issue but the ash has gone down. I also turned down the feed rate to see if it keeps from overfeeding the burn pot a little even though I wasn't seeing unburned fuel in the ash pan.

alternativeheat said:

Have you undone the two wing nuts below the burn pot where the igniter is, lift off the cover and dig the ash out of there ( not the top of the burn pot but down low in front) ?

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Yes. I make it a point to vacuum this out every time I do a complete cleaning which is about every two weeks.

alternativeheat said:

How is the new brand test working out ?

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So I did a complete clean out, ran two bags of the Lignetics, and did a complete clean out again. I noticed a tangible difference between the two. The Lignetics was clearly cleaner. Right away I saw a difference when I opened the main door (stove off) and I didn't get a hand full of ash falling off the door onto the floor. The ash left in the burn pot was fluffy and very light. The ash pan after two bags looked like it could hold another ton vs the Hammers where I'd already be thinking about emptying it. When I scraped the burn pot, it was a very easy clean up vs the Hammers where it felt like I was scrapping off burnt grease from a cooking pan where something was left on the heat too long. This time nothing was flaking off the sides of the burn pot. The glass was still poorly visible, that didn't change. But the stove was noticeably cleaner after two bags.

I also noticed- No noise out of the Auger with the Lignetics after I cleaned out the auger housing access in the rear. The Hammers had tons of fines caked up in there.

Now I'm torn. I'd rather just go buy more Ligenetics and say screw the other half of the Hammers. This whole setup cost me $7,000 and I don't want to run crap through it. But on the other hand, I also don't want to waste half a pallet.

I'm guessing we will just push through the Hammers and then never go back. I've also learned my lesson on just blindly buying a pallet without testing a bag or two first.

Going to try and find some softwood pellets also. I'm thinking because this unit is SO big, and we have it located in the most liveable part of the house, that it just really isn't running as hot as it needs to clean itself a little. I payed close attention to the flame height the last few days and when left on Room Temp mode- the flame only ever went above a half height about 20% of the whole time the stove was on. My house holds heat really well so once the stove and the rooms are up to Temp, the feed rate automatically adjusted to like a 10% rate and it was a low flame mostly. I figured that might happen and I wanted to go with a smaller stove but the dealer sold me...

papa bears stove said:

Have you checked the flapper on the air intake? I’ve seen this stuck before and it has caused the same issues you are seeing with your stove.

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Yep. I actually just pulled off the 3" flex intake pipe a few moments ago to check again. It's clear to the outside and the flapper inside the stove moves freely with virtually no resistance. I do wonder though- sometimes at start up the flame will flicker a lot very fast for a few seconds. Once the fuel overload is done this doesn't happen again. I wonder if the flapper could be taken off or propped open for good. Wouldn't you want the stove to have it's max available airflow at all times or is the flapper that useful?

JR52 said:

Another good spot to check is in the flue behind the combustion fan. I spent a little extra time there during yesterday's clean and the stove is running significantly better

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The last time I did a complete clean I spent some extra time back there as well. Thankfully I didn't notice much dirt back there at all. Actually, despite my complaints about the rest of the stove being filthy, the combustion fan behind the ash pan, and the area of the flu behind it leading up to the ESP were very clean. The brush that came with the stove didn't really pull much off the fan. I checked the outside portion of the flu as well and it seemed very clean. When the stove first starts up you can see a mildly dark blue smoke coming out of the exhaust but once it's running, you never seen anything but the heat ripples right at the outermost edge of the screen.


I guess my biggest surprise is that- I had read several reviews online saying the Hammers were a good quality brand. My dealer must have had about 60 pallets of them and he couldn't even keep them in stock. Sells out every two weeks. I generally assumed this was a great pellet. Maybe I just got a bad batch?