A reply to a Harman Accentra questions...Some useful info for you to read....

[gotscot]

Updated 12-29-2008*****Thanks for your reply. Its not that I am dissatisfied. I guess you could say I am lazy?haha You have to load it in the morning and then you have to load it once at night.. I use it to heat my entire home(except basement) its about 2000sqft ranch. It runs constantly from about October or November til about February(except if there is a warm day then it shuts it self off and restarts when needed). Keeps the house about 70degrees. Have to dump the ash pan about every 3weeks and do a thorough 30min cleaning every 8weeks. And once a season usually in the summer clean the entire flue pipe out.. I use about 3 tons of pellets...I live in St. Louis Missouri.. The worst thing about the stove is Harman Inc. has no customer support. You can only ask your dealer questions. And they are usually clueless.. I taught them most things about the Accentra insert. Its nice because you set the temp you want the room and that all you do..It keeps it almost exactly that temp..3 problem the Accentra has.. The hopper lid doesn’t stay up on its own, you have to prop it up or have one person hold it open while you fill it.. Another thing(not so much a problem just an FYI) you have to make sure the pellets are not to long. Around 1/2 inch or under and you will have no problems... And the last thing is the blower is kinda loud on high, maybe comparable to a small window air conditioner? Its still has a full year of warranty parts and service. And 4 years left of parts only warranty.. I paid about $4,000 for everything. So I still want to get around $3000 for it.. And free customer support(through me )haha....Hope this helps you.. If you are interested please reply back... PLease feel free to leave me any comments or questions you may have......

 

[Tom Pencil]

The hopper door should stay open, if you have the same stove that I have. I once had to replace the latching mechinism to keep the door up when pouring in pellets.
If the length of the pellets are too long then a bridging will occur and will not flow down properly. I did this for one season and think it was just the brand of pellets I was using.
My stove is loud compared to my parents harman but I have the insert and they do not. Same fan but different air design flow. However, for the amount of heat I get and ease of cleaning along with the cast looks. I think it is a great stove.