Yes, I'm puzzled.
I've had a Harman Accentra 52i pellet insert in my living room fireplace since October 2013. I have become very proficient at doing the "regular" cleanings -- i.e., where you do everything but pull out the whole unit. Normally I do those "regular" cleanings about every 40-50 bags. (Of course I also do the daily or every-other-day stuff like scraping the burn pot, emptying the ash pan, vacuuming the insides, etc.)
A few weeks ago, just a couple of days after I had done another deep-ish cleaning (everything you can do without pulling the insert out), the insert basically stopped working -- a couple of times I got the 6-blink message, a couple of times the fire was just really tiny and thus pretty useless, so I shut it off. I had two 275-gallon oil tanks full of heating oil, so I just switched to oil (and given that right now oil costs $1.50/gallon, it wasn't too traumatic a decision!). I also checked my records and saw that I had gone through just under 4 tons of pellets without pulling the insert out to do the deep, deep cleaning -- I normally have my dealer do that. So fine, I figured I would call them for that service once my work schedule calmed down, and in the meantime I would just use oil.
Well, I had become very spoiled with pellets -- I actually like heating with them BETTER than heating with oil, because of the way my particular house is laid out and the kind of temperatures I typically like. So even though I have plenty of oil, today I was in the living room and I figured I would try to start the insert -- and it started up right away, and got a large fire going -- and kept going, and going, and going. Honestly, I kept expecting the fire to dwindle away into nothing, as it has done every other time I've tried it in the past few weeks -- but it never did. It stayed big and beautiful (and my cats were deliriously happy to be able to snooze in front of the fire again!).
OK, yeah, I'm glad it's working again ... but I am COMPLETELY confused as to HOW it is working again, and what could have happened in the past few weeks for it to suddenly work great again. I REALLY like understanding how these things work, but right now I am at a loss.
The short version: the insert crapped out on me just a couple of days after a "regular" deep-ish cleaning, so I figured I would have to call my dealer for the deep deep cleaning -- but as of today it started up again as normal, as if it had been fine all along. And I have no idea why or how.
Anyone have any idea what's going on?
I've had a Harman Accentra 52i pellet insert in my living room fireplace since October 2013. I have become very proficient at doing the "regular" cleanings -- i.e., where you do everything but pull out the whole unit. Normally I do those "regular" cleanings about every 40-50 bags. (Of course I also do the daily or every-other-day stuff like scraping the burn pot, emptying the ash pan, vacuuming the insides, etc.)
A few weeks ago, just a couple of days after I had done another deep-ish cleaning (everything you can do without pulling the insert out), the insert basically stopped working -- a couple of times I got the 6-blink message, a couple of times the fire was just really tiny and thus pretty useless, so I shut it off. I had two 275-gallon oil tanks full of heating oil, so I just switched to oil (and given that right now oil costs $1.50/gallon, it wasn't too traumatic a decision!). I also checked my records and saw that I had gone through just under 4 tons of pellets without pulling the insert out to do the deep, deep cleaning -- I normally have my dealer do that. So fine, I figured I would call them for that service once my work schedule calmed down, and in the meantime I would just use oil.
Well, I had become very spoiled with pellets -- I actually like heating with them BETTER than heating with oil, because of the way my particular house is laid out and the kind of temperatures I typically like. So even though I have plenty of oil, today I was in the living room and I figured I would try to start the insert -- and it started up right away, and got a large fire going -- and kept going, and going, and going. Honestly, I kept expecting the fire to dwindle away into nothing, as it has done every other time I've tried it in the past few weeks -- but it never did. It stayed big and beautiful (and my cats were deliriously happy to be able to snooze in front of the fire again!).
OK, yeah, I'm glad it's working again ... but I am COMPLETELY confused as to HOW it is working again, and what could have happened in the past few weeks for it to suddenly work great again. I REALLY like understanding how these things work, but right now I am at a loss.
The short version: the insert crapped out on me just a couple of days after a "regular" deep-ish cleaning, so I figured I would have to call my dealer for the deep deep cleaning -- but as of today it started up again as normal, as if it had been fine all along. And I have no idea why or how.
Anyone have any idea what's going on?
