Did I buy a lemon??

[pes5]

All,

I purchased a Harman Accentra insert that was installed back in December of '08 so it's just over 2 years old. The starter has been replaced twice and the combustion blower once. In mid January of this year, the distribution blower began to turn off on it's own. It starts back up after 5-10 minutes, but does this ever 20 minutes or so. The stove also never shuts down...even if I let it try overnight. The company that sold this to me is very slow to help. They finally said I need a new distribution blower and they've put this order into Harman (we'll be going on two months since I notied them of the issue by the time it's replaced). I'm not confident that replacing the blower will resolve this issue as I think it's bigger than that...but we'll see.

So, I have no faith in this stove. It's one thing after another and it's out of commission more than it's running. I'm afraid that they'll keep replacing parts until the warranty runs out...then I'm out of luck. Does anyone have any advice for me? Is there anything I can do?

Much appreciated

 

[kinsmanstoves]

I would look at the ESP. Also when has the liner been totally cleaned?

Eric

 

[Delta-T]

please describe your cleaning and maintenance schedule. I'm guessing dirty ESP as the reason for your blower going on/off and the shutdown thing. Status light blinking? Fan coming on/off in "room temp" at the low burn is normal. Its a good stove, many of them out there.

 

[pes5]

Hi Eric,

They have run diagostics twice and they did a full cleaning in between (about 3 weeks ago). My bigger question is at what point do we say enough is enough...there have been too many problems for such an expensive stove?

Thanks

 

[pes5]

Hi Delta-T,

I've been giving it a full clean every 3 weeks, but had the company that sold it come out and do a 'professional' cleaning after I reported this issue. It made no change...same problems. Status lights do not blink. The distribution blower stops, but the combustion blower and feeder continue. It doesn't matter if I'm on room temp or stove temp mode. It's barely keeping the room it's in at 70 degrees. I know it's a good stove (when it's working)...but wondering if the amount of issues I'm having is typical or not.

Thanks

 

[Delta-T]

not typical...assuming the install and everything was done right. When you say "full clean" does this include removing the unit from the cage and getting at the guts in the back? Did the 'professionals' do this when they were out? do you have colder air coming from the left side of the face than from the right?

 

[kinsmanstoves]

What is a full cleaning and what is a professional cleaning? I am talking removing the stove and running a brush up the liner not just empty the ashpan and scrape the burn pot. Harman will not "just replace" a stove because a customer is not happy with it. Read your warranty and no where in there is a replacement stove mentioned.

Harman stoves are real good units and no matter who installs them 85%-90% of problems are through not cleaning the stove correctly or bad installations. Yes there might be repeated issues with a stove but there is a reason the same parts keep failing.

Eric

 

[pes5]

Pyro Extraordinaire,

Sorry...my cleaning is not a full clean then. The 'professionals' did remove it from the cage.

When facing the stove, the left side blows hot air, but not quite as hot as the right side. The top right of the stove itself is hotter to the touch than the left.

Thanks

 

[pes5]

My cleaning every 3 weeks is per the manual (thorough cleaning) except I do not remove the stove from its cage. I leave that for the company that sold it to me.

 

[kinsmanstoves]

My cleaning every 3 weeks is per the manual (thorough cleaning) except I do not remove the stove from its cage. I leave that for the company that sold it to me.

Is this a full liner or a stub?
What is the diameter and the height of the chimney liner?
The liner should be cleaned every three tons. This is running a brush all the way and getting into the air chamber that runs behind the unit and the combustion blower removed. It is dirty but needs to be done.

Eric

 

[Delta-T]

you could have some blockage in the channel that connects the left side of the heat exchanger to the combustion blower, not likely the source of your problems though. ignitor failure is sorta common, frequently caused by stuff collecting between the fins and preventing the heat from escaping (basically cooking itself to death). blower failures are less common, #1 thing i see to cause that is dust bunnies and/or animal hair building up on/in them and straining them. I agree with Eric on all counts, you may have a legitimate problem, but we must eliminate the possibility that there is some deficiency in the maintenance first.

 

[pes5]

I think I need you guys to head to Massachusetts.....not much faith in the company that sold this to me and services it. Seems like I'm stuck with them until the warranty runs out.........

 

[Lousyweather]

I think I need you guys to head to Massachusetts.....not much faith in the company that sold this to me and services it. Seems like I'm stuck with them until the warranty runs out.........

well, there's plenty of good dealers in Massachusetts.......but, agreed with the above.....we need to rule out any cleaning idiosynchracies prior to saying the stove is faulty. The on/off of the distribution fan is, IMHO, unlikely to be the fan, but more likely to be either the ESP or curcuitboard. Availability of both parts is usually no more than a week from Harman. In fact, a good dealer will keep several of each in stock "just in case" (tough to tell a guy that he has to wait on parts when its 0 out).

FWIW, I dont believe in "lemon" stoves.....there is a great track record of Accentra Inserts out there.....this isnt saying yours doesnt have any issues. There were issues with the ignitors a couple years ago, but the newest ignitors (been out about a year or more), have been good...we havent replaced any of the newest ones (so far).

There are a couple of very good resources on the net for cleaning your unit well- here is one:

http://homewarmth.com/pdffiles/accentrainsertcleaninginstructions.pdf