BRAND NEW Harman Allure50 ROARS like a freight train??!!!

[dreamingofpalmtrees]

After battling one used pellet stove after another, we bit the bullet this August and bought a brand new Allure50 from a Harman dealer on Cape Cod. Had it professionally installed - all to the tune of prob $4K.

It finally got cold enough to really fire this baby up today. As we sat at dinner, I asked what that rumbling sound was - it sounded like an 18 wheeler was idling JUST OUTSIDE the house. Or a freight train rumbling by.

I'm not exaggerating at how loud and all-encompassing the sound is.

We dismissed it, and kept eating - until it began to dawn on us that the sound was sort of pulsating, coming at regular intervals. We went outside, and it was perfectly quiet. Inside the house? Not so much.

We are just a little freaked out - as this was a BIG purchase for us. What do we do? Reading a bit and we see that some people are saying that it only happens at Med-High speeds. It's turned down to 2 right now, and not making that sound - but it's not acceptable that it makes a freight train sound ALL THE TIME at med-high - cause we are gonna need those sorts of levels this winter to heat this house.

Anyone else have this with their Harman? I'm feeling a bit sick right now - but thinking I will call the dealer tomorrow and speak to them about it. One thing I'm worried about is that this dealer does NOT service the stoves they sell - they subcontract out their installation work and recommend people - but this is a warranty issue, right?

Ugh. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Kara

 

[Overfireinthehole]

Sounds like an airflow issue. Describe how it’s vented. Pictures always help. What do you have everything set at? Pellet feed and blower speed are adjustable. How does your flame look? Is it pushing unburned pellets off the edge of the pot or blowing them around. Sparks are normal but burning chunks are not. As a last result, there is an option to turn the combustion blower down to counteract high draft scenarios, but you have to be a Harman tech to access that (we get in trouble if we hand out the password to that menu). Give us some video or pictures and we might be able to come up with something.

 

[MButkus]

Did you call the installer. Sounds like an unbalanced fan. Did this get resolved ?

 

[Stovensen]

This noise issue with Harman stoves ( and other stoves ) was discussed in this thread back in 2011. Link to thread:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads...bwoofer-low-frequency-vibes-help.76411/page-2

Forum member "stoveguy2esw", Mike Holton came with the most plausible suggestion to fix it:

"its an air issue, if you watch the fire it "quakes' when this is happening as well. ive seen our stoves do it too. sometimes you can make it go away by putting a "speed bump" in your intake. try this

cover the intake pipe on the stove by about 1/4 of opening just use a piece of silver tape, leaving 3/4 uncovered. do this whille teh stove is rumbling. see if it goes away or get to be lesser frequent in happening.if gone, great leave the tape there and reinstall oak back over it, if its lessened but not gone reposition tape to cover slightly more unntil you make it go away and still burn clean. with an ESW unit usually when they do this covering somewhere between a quarter and a third of the intake makes it go away. you do not want to cover too much as it will make you burn dirty but usually there is a "sweet spot"

that said i do not know if this will"fix" this on a harman. but its easy to try and can be removed instantly. hope this helps ya"

 

[rich2500]

When I first hooked up my Allure I used the more flexible aluminum venting for my oak and I had a rumble, could actually see the vent fluttering, this year I changed out the vent to the more rigid aluminum vent and my rumble is gone.

 

[dreamingofpalmtrees]

So - no, this hasn't been resolved. Still rumbling & roaring - and during the auto start up, it began making a new metal-metal, startling sounds, then quieted down. It did this a few times. It was a different sound then the roar - and such that everyone in the living room looked at each other an said "what the HELL is that?".

But that's not the worst thing.

When my husband came home on Thursday, the stove had shut down, with a message about a "door being open" or something similar. No door was open. This was a brand new install in late August. It was a floor model, but had never been used. Now it's not working at all.

We've burned maybe 3 bags of pellets in this thing.

When it runs, it's warm - but the sounds it's making? And of course now that it's NOT working?

We called the stove place this morning - the phone was answered by a person who has been there 3 days - and supposedly no one else was there. She said she'd have someone call back.

No call back by 3 today and so I called again. This is our heat source and of course the temp is dipping. She suggested maybe I call the company who installed it to ask for their advice (??? this needs to be FIXED!). I asked if there was anyway to contact the owner or someone who could help us and she said "No, sorry!".

I texted the sales person who sold us this stove just now saying that we are not happy with the operation of the stove and it either needs to be fixed, or we want to return it and get something else. There's a complaint on the BBB site on this place - someone who said they bought a floor model and it was noisy, and stopped working intermittently. Wondering if they returned the Allure50 and that's what we bought? My husband says the pellet burn counter on the stove is 230 lbs, and 81.6 hrs (more than we've done). Of course that could have been burned in the showroom, or if it's a lemon, it could have been returned

Not happy with this Harman at all....after reading so much about them and taking the plunge. Or this stove place.

Ugh.
Kara

 

[Peterfield]

If they are reticent to offer assistance, ask them for the name and number of the Harman rep that covers their area. That should illicit a response.

 

[dreamingofpalmtrees]

oh, and we don't have an OAK. this is vented up a chimney that sort of sits in the middle of the room.

 

[dreamingofpalmtrees]

This is exactly what I was thinking about - or just contacting Harman directly. They wouldn't be happy to hear all this. Bummer because we were sooo excited to finally MAYBE be warm this winter.

 

[Bearle]

After battling one used pellet stove after another, we bit the bullet this August and bought a brand new Allure50 from a Harman dealer on Cape Cod. Had it professionally installed - all to the tune of prob $4K.

It finally got cold enough to really fire this baby up today. As we sat at dinner, I asked what that rumbling sound was - it sounded like an 18 wheeler was idling JUST OUTSIDE the house. Or a freight train rumbling by.

I'm not exaggerating at how loud and all-encompassing the sound is.

We dismissed it, and kept eating - until it began to dawn on us that the sound was sort of pulsating, coming at regular intervals. We went outside, and it was perfectly quiet. Inside the house? Not so much.

We are just a little freaked out - as this was a BIG purchase for us. What do we do? Reading a bit and we see that some people are saying that it only happens at Med-High speeds. It's turned down to 2 right now, and not making that sound - but it's not acceptable that it makes a freight train sound ALL THE TIME at med-high - cause we are gonna need those sorts of levels this winter to heat this house.

Anyone else have this with their Harman? I'm feeling a bit sick right now - but thinking I will call the dealer tomorrow and speak to them about it. One thing I'm worried about is that this dealer does NOT service the stoves they sell - they subcontract out their installation work and recommend people - but this is a warranty issue, right?

Ugh. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Kara

Dont worry. Sounds like the burnpot is getting overflowed with pellets and burning too intense. Im a pellet technician and people always freak out when this happens but its actually fairly normal. Shouldnt be all the time but it does happen once in a while and usually only lasts a minute or two. Sounds like you need to adjust the pellet feed rate down a bit. Also dont freak out yet, pellet stoves are always a learning curve if you havent had one before. Sometimes you need to tweak the settings. Read your manual!!

 

[Miss Bailey]

Squeaky wheel gets the grease!

Make a ruckus and don't be afraid you're going to offend anyone. Nothing worse than a shop that sells you something, and in this case something very expensive, and then gives you the runaround when you have an issue.

Must be a lemon law in Massachusetts that covers you. Give them a chance and if you're still having problems with it or you are still dissatisfied tell them you want your money back.

We had a Whitfield that ran for 25 yrs and had to be replaced last minute. I went online to search Best Pellet Stoves. ComfortBilt, a name I had never heard of came up on several searches.

I was almost ready to go with a Harmon, until on found this site and saw so many people having so many issues. So I decided to order the ComfortBilt HP22. 50,000 BTUs. Delivered it cost me $1,899. Tax and shipping included.

If they don't resolve this fast, I'd give them one week, or I would demand a refund.

Good luck and I sincerely hope they are able to fix it, at no charge, to your satisfaction.