Here we go again I thought I had this fixed, anyway I had the stove on Room temp mode when I woke up today it was going but with a very low flame, turned the temp up and she started to crank, while sitting here reading the new post and drinking my coffee, I went back to the stove and it had no flame and 6 blinking lights, Ok no time the play with it I just shut it down, when I got home tonight I turn the stove on and went to watch the last period of the Ranger game, when I came back upstairs I had the dreaded 666666 blinking lights,I Read all the trouble shoots in the manual, pulled the ESP probe cleaned it and notice it had a slight bend to it, put it back in and it just smolders, the pellets are feeding, it just wont get up to speed, Tomorrow I will check the vent and make sure it is clear, So Pellet People help me!!
6 lights blinking on Advance
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is the auger cycling every tome the light on the conrol board shows it should be? or do you have really long pellets causing a bridge over the hopper bottom, or some crappy ones in the middle of the bag that don't wanna burn... if you can get it to go in stove temp mode, then this would negate a fuel or feed problem, and point towards a mechanical error.
From a P68 manual, don't know if it helps....
#6 status blink: A 6 blink control board status indication is caused by poor or incomplete combustion. The Automatic Ignition circuit board has the ability to track the combustion through feed settings and ESP temperatures. When the control board has calculated poor or incomplete combustion, it will shut down the unit as a safety feature. (Poor or incomplete combustion is a contributer of creosote which may cause a chimney fire)
A 6 blink status may be caused by several things:
1. Blocked or partially blocked flue.
2
. Blocked or partially blocked inlet air.
a. Backdraft damper on the inlet pipe may be stuck closed.
b. If outside air is installed, the inlet cover may be blocked.
3. The air chamber under the burnpot may be filled with fines and small bits of ash.
4. The holes in the burnpot may be getting filled with ash or carbon buildup.
5. Combustion blower fan blades may need cleaned.
6. There is no fuel in the hopper.
#6 status blink: A 6 blink control board status indication is caused by poor or incomplete combustion. The Automatic Ignition circuit board has the ability to track the combustion through feed settings and ESP temperatures. When the control board has calculated poor or incomplete combustion, it will shut down the unit as a safety feature. (Poor or incomplete combustion is a contributer of creosote which may cause a chimney fire)
A 6 blink status may be caused by several things:
1. Blocked or partially blocked flue.
2
. Blocked or partially blocked inlet air.
a. Backdraft damper on the inlet pipe may be stuck closed.
b. If outside air is installed, the inlet cover may be blocked.
3. The air chamber under the burnpot may be filled with fines and small bits of ash.
4. The holes in the burnpot may be getting filled with ash or carbon buildup.
5. Combustion blower fan blades may need cleaned.
6. There is no fuel in the hopper.
tkrock said:
Well, I've never owned or worked on a Harman, but based on what tkrock got from his P68 manual, if they all work about the same, it would seem that the stove simply isn't getting enough airflow through it.
BX, when was the last time the stove was "torn down" and a full and complete cleaning of the stove & pipe done?
summit said:
2 Weeks ago the dealer walk me through cleaning the feed motor, the light would come on but it would not feed, this seem to work, the new pellets I got this year PA Pellets some are long, last night it was cycling in both stove and room mode but it would not get up to speed. tried to turn it on this morning and it back to not cycling, I will do a break down and clean out later, The stove was cleaned at the end of the season and cleaned again 2 weeks ago when the problem started.
Stove was taken apart and cleaned leaf blower to the vent, then I called the dealer he said check the ESP probe, I told him I did and that I cleaned it with Windex, he said try alcohol, Windex leaves a film, OK did that it started to work OK, so I shut it down for about an hour and then tried to start it and nothing happened, then all of a sudden it started to work in both stove and temp mode, works then it doesn't work, whats up could the ESP be going bad????, waiting for them to call back. :bug:
When the dealer first installed my stove I had the same problem, after a few tries it turns out it was just not getting enought air, how is your stove hooked up OAK or some other setup?
I'm not real familiar with these stoves yet but I am an electronics tech and deal with electrical / electronic issues all day...I am betting that the ESP is nothing more than a thermocouple of one variety or another. This thermocouple generates a very small voltage which is a function of temperature. This voltage is fed into the circuit which tells the processor (or whatever) to start the auger (or turn it off) or start the ignitor (if yours has an auto start).
Again, I'm not sure about your stove but I'm wondering if there are some kind of connectors on the end of the wires of the ESP that are loose causing an intermittent connection. If the ESP is a true thermocouple then there really isn't all that much that can go wrong with them. It's essentially two dissimilar metallic wires (usually some sort of nickel/chromium/platinum/rhodium alloys) welded together at one end...the other end goes to whatever it is that the thermocouple (in your case, the ESP) is attached to.
Just some thoughts...
Again, I'm not sure about your stove but I'm wondering if there are some kind of connectors on the end of the wires of the ESP that are loose causing an intermittent connection. If the ESP is a true thermocouple then there really isn't all that much that can go wrong with them. It's essentially two dissimilar metallic wires (usually some sort of nickel/chromium/platinum/rhodium alloys) welded together at one end...the other end goes to whatever it is that the thermocouple (in your case, the ESP) is attached to.
Just some thoughts...
BXpellet said:
what was going on with the feed motor?
What do you mean it would not get up to speed?
Could be the ESP , or a failing combustion blower, poor gaskets.......
I'd get rid of the PA pellets they are junk and have always been junk... just MHO. I seen to many people here that buy these pa pellets and they have nothing but hard times. Try another brand of pellet just for shits and giggles, i'll bet it works wonders...
Was the Stator binding on the rotor of the feed motor?
A side note here Check the hose to the vacuum switch also, I don't know if the leaf blower cleaning may have collapsed the line or worse ruptured the diapragm in it a quick check would be next time it happens jump the vac switch and see if the stove wakes up.
EDIT
But could still be the comb blower if jumping it works.
HMMMMMMM I can't think of a way of checking it right now....
A side note here Check the hose to the vacuum switch also, I don't know if the leaf blower cleaning may have collapsed the line or worse ruptured the diapragm in it a quick check would be next time it happens jump the vac switch and see if the stove wakes up.
EDIT
But could still be the comb blower if jumping it works.
HMMMMMMM I can't think of a way of checking it right now....
just as a side note....if you had puled out the slide plate from the feeder box, it is possible that it was put in upside down. There is ridge on the plate that should be facing up. The ridge helps to push the pellets and if the ridge is facing down it will prohibit the feeding of the pellets.
woodsman23 said:
It started to do it last season but It was my last 2 bags so I totally forgot about it until I stated the stove, But I did notice the PA pellets are long and when I cleaned out the hopper there was a lot of saw dust in the feed tube
Delta-T said:
Slide plate is in correct, stove was working fine for the rest on the day when I came home last night it was cranking in Room temp mode, I lowered it and went to bed, when I woke up and turned the stove on to take the chill out, went to work ,when I came home 6 blinking lights, unplugged it and turned it back on and its working
BX It's a tough call.
if the comb blower is dying it may only marginally pull on the diaphragm of the vac switch causing the switch to open and close while the stove is running.
Jumping the vac switch out won't tell you whether it is the switch or comb blower.... That's where I'm stuck It'll tell you one or both is bad but not which one.
Marginal draft can effect the vac switch, the same can be said for a marginal vac switch and good draft..
So knowing this........
Easiest way to tell if its the comb blower...........Draft check
Vac switch....There are ways to check but it's essentially a pressure switch and they can have intermittent failures, sometimes tapping the ones that don't work will cause them to work temporarilly.
The ones that I work with on some coolant pumps are nearly identical to the type on the Harmans and when in doubt I change them out (they are just too hard to check, short of taking them apart which effectivly destroys them)The switches could make the sepoint sometimes but not others
With all this in mind:
To jump the switch out you would take the two wires off the switch and connect them ( be sure to remember which connections went where if there are 3 terminals on the switch).
AND THIS IS ONLY TO TEST DO NOT LEAVE IT JUMPED OUT
In a nutshell If you have a magnehelic and you're draft is NOT suspect then jump the vac switch if this takes care of it get a new switch.
I suspect it is the blower but since you did the leaf blower trick I have to mention the possibility of the vac switch being bad.I hope this longwinded explanation helps.
if the comb blower is dying it may only marginally pull on the diaphragm of the vac switch causing the switch to open and close while the stove is running.
Jumping the vac switch out won't tell you whether it is the switch or comb blower.... That's where I'm stuck It'll tell you one or both is bad but not which one.
Marginal draft can effect the vac switch, the same can be said for a marginal vac switch and good draft..
So knowing this........
Easiest way to tell if its the comb blower...........Draft check
Vac switch....There are ways to check but it's essentially a pressure switch and they can have intermittent failures, sometimes tapping the ones that don't work will cause them to work temporarilly.
The ones that I work with on some coolant pumps are nearly identical to the type on the Harmans and when in doubt I change them out (they are just too hard to check, short of taking them apart which effectivly destroys them)The switches could make the sepoint sometimes but not others
With all this in mind:
To jump the switch out you would take the two wires off the switch and connect them ( be sure to remember which connections went where if there are 3 terminals on the switch).
AND THIS IS ONLY TO TEST DO NOT LEAVE IT JUMPED OUT
In a nutshell If you have a magnehelic and you're draft is NOT suspect then jump the vac switch if this takes care of it get a new switch.
I suspect it is the blower but since you did the leaf blower trick I have to mention the possibility of the vac switch being bad.I hope this longwinded explanation helps.
GVA said:
Yeah you lost me on this, I have a funny feeling it could be the pellets they are long and when I cleaned the stove I pulled a handful of sawdust fron the bottom of the hopper, I wondering if it is clogging up the slide chamber and causing it shut down, but as I sit here now the stove is cranking out heat, tall flame and feeding pellets to the burn pot, go figure
Sorry for losing ya.
key points are now highlighted in blue.
I'll add if the stove is showing symptoms again check to see if the light on the control board for the feed is lit. if it is lit and the auger is not turning (and you flick it with you're finger and it still doesn't turn ;-) )
Then it is the vac switch or comb blower not the pellets (unless the feed motor is bad..........Ok GVA stop.........)
sorry there...... I almost did it again %-P
key points are now highlighted in blue.
I'll add if the stove is showing symptoms again check to see if the light on the control board for the feed is lit. if it is lit and the auger is not turning (and you flick it with you're finger and it still doesn't turn ;-) )
Then it is the vac switch or comb blower not the pellets (unless the feed motor is bad..........Ok GVA stop.........)
sorry there...... I almost did it again %-P
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