2 Harman issues/question

[Bigjim13]

First, i have a Harman P61A and have owned it since 2008. I clean it regularly, full cleaning every 4-5 weeks during the burn season. I run about 4 tons through it each year.

I fired up my stove last night and noticed a noise coming from my stove. At first I thought it was my distribution blower but that is almost new-just about 2 years old. I believe its my auger but its not really a squeal, its almost a humming and grinding noise as if the auger is rubbing against the auger tube.

So today I shut the stove down and gave it a good cleaning. I scraped out the auger tube, cleaned all the ash and fines box. I even added a little graphite powder into the pellets where they feed into the burn pot-hoping to lube the auger.

I really don't want to pull the auger motor so close to the end of the season but am i missing anything else?

Separate from the auger issue, i turned the stove to the off position this morning around 10 and left the house knowing i needed to do a cleaning this afternoon. I returned around 3 to find that my stove was still running, basically keeping the room at the same temp from when i left. In order to get the stove to shut down, i had to scrape the pellets from the burn pot and let the fire die that way.

Any thoughts on these issues?

Thanks!

 

[bogieb]

For the stove not shutting down, it could be the pot dial, which they say is a cheap and easy fix.

For the noise, I have no idea but unless it is really loud, or sounds like it is tearing something up, I would just go with it until the season is over. Of course, you realize that I also just turn my radio up if my car starts making strange sounds, so my advice may not be the best in the world on that .

 

[Lake Girl]

Fines box cleaned? Slide plate sticking has been noted as well.

Potentiometers have been noted problems for those dials. Contact cleaner may give you the time to limp to the end of the season. Search for past posts on replacing potentiometers.

 

[alternativeheat]

When the slide plate gets jammed ( hopefully temporarily, like say crunching a long pellet ) it can make a pretty loud buzzing sound, then sometimes a bang ( this scenario also fits a stuffed fines box as mentioned already). Grinding could be the auger and tube scenario, you might check and make sure the end of the auger isn't chewed off or burned away. We have seen some of that but not so much on a P series. A hum could be the auger motor, a whining sound could be the transmission gears . So you have a bunch of stuff to investigate/isolate LOL !

Not shutting down is likely a dirty pot.

 

[Maladjusted]

Of course, you realize that I also just turn my radio up if my car starts making strange sounds, so my advice may not be the best in the world on that .

That's funny chit right there.... Thanks for the laugh.

 

[Lake Girl]

I also just turn my radio up if my car starts making strange sounds

Like Maladjusted, I got a chuckle from this ... In our house, Hubby ignores stuff if he can't hear it ... but he has hearing loss in certain ranges and knows it. "I don't hear anything!"

 

[Maladjusted]

I laughed because my wife does the same thing... I got in her Tahoe the other day and went to drive out the drive way... the brakes were grinding so bad I had to back up. I pulled the front wheels and the pads were gone... metal on metal. I asked my wife and her exact words were... "oh yea... I meant to tell you about that, but I crank the music so I can't hear it." dying laughing.

 

[alternativeheat]

I laughed because my wife does the same thing... I got in her Tahoe the other day and went to drive out the drive way... the brakes were grinding so bad I had to back up. I pulled the front wheels and the pads were gone... metal on metal. I asked my wife and her exact words were... "oh yea... I meant to tell you about that, but I crank the music so I can't hear it." dying laughing.

That's the end of those rotors. Could have been $65 for a set of pads back when the warning squeakers were probably sounding up, now you can add in $250 for a set of rotors too ( maybe more on a Tahoe) LOL !

 

[Maladjusted]

Surprisingly not that bad... $53 per rotor for a mid tier rotor. $31 was the cheapest. Luckily I do all my own vehicle maintenance. (I have trust issues).

You have to laugh at the small stuff... otherwise you'll spend your days miserable!!

Mal

 

[bogieb]

Surprisingly not that bad... $53 per rotor for a mid tier rotor. $31 was the cheapest. Luckily I do all my own vehicle maintenance. (I have trust issues).

You have to laugh at the small stuff... otherwise you'll spend your days miserable!!

Mal

I was shocked at how little the rotors cost when I had brakes done in my 2004 Explorer last fall. Technically I didn't need to replace the rotors, but they were very old and rusty, and the time wasn't too far in the future, so when they said it was about $50-75 each (I don't really remember), I just went with it and figured it saved me some labor costs by doing them at the same time. 10-15 years ago it was way more expensive!

 

[alternativeheat]

Most of our auto parts manufacturers like Rebestos and TRW have moved to China. They send engineers and tooling and bosses from here and reap the harvest of low or no environmental controls and cheap labor. Before I retired ( I was a heavy truck Mech but also did routine maintenance on fleet cars), I saw that influx of cheaper parts coming in the door, same brand name boxes but made In China on the packaging. There was a time where Chinese parts were terrible and non manufacture names. But that has changed. It's also closed US factories and put people out of work.

 

[Maladjusted]

Very true... in 2015 my wife and I went on a crusade to only buy locally grown organic foods and only products Made in USA. We succeeded with the food portion (and still do) but failed miserably at the products within 6 weeks. I couldn't find a source of a headlight for the Tahoe that was made in the US, nor kids shoes or electronics.

 

[jp99]

Like Maladjusted, I got a chuckle from this ... In our house, Hubby ignores stuff if he can't hear it ... but he has hearing loss in certain ranges and knows it. "I don't hear anything!"

My wife has hearing loss and I've learned a lot about hearing issues from this.

Such as when we age, women usually lose the low frequency ranges and men lose the high frequency ranges. Like we lose the ability to hear each other.

I figure it must be the reason why some marriages last a long time