Does your Harman XXV Make A Squealing Noise?

[Anne]

We purchased a Harman XXV Oct 16 2007 and had been happy with our choice to a great extent... BUT: we have already had two service calls on it. Here's the problem: about 3 weeks after we bought it, it started making this high pitched squealing noise. it sounds like a metal-on-metal sound. Anyway early in Nov. the guys from the shop came to take a look... made some adjustments, yada, yada, and it was fine, ie. no more squealing. Alas, the fix was temporary. About a week ago The Noise started again. It starts out intermittently, then became constant and quite unbearable. Has anyone else had this problem with the XXV? The guys from the wood stove shop came again yesterday. They had spoken to Harman rep and concluded that it might be a bad motor. But, after thorough examination, the guys now believe the problem is actually related to creosote buildup near the auger/output in the burnpot. So they scraped it all away with a screwdriver - and there was quite a bit of it. They thought about 1/8 inch thick. And we haven't even burned 30 bags yet. We are using Eastern Embers which are premium pellets. They are kept nice and dry. I don't recall seeing anything about this creosote buildup in the manual under 'maintenance' but I will take another look... Anyway just thought I'd check with other XXV owners to see if anyone else has had this trouble?
On a more positive note, the wood stove shop has been very responsive and professional and they gave us a bunch of free pellets to compensate for the oil we had to burn while the stove was out of commission. Also, though we haven't had any real cold spells here yet (PEI/Atlantic Canada) to put her to the test, we've been pleased with the way the XXV has heated this cold old house up on a windy hill (house is approx. 1200 sq ft).

 

[cantman]

What is the manufacture date? See the back of the stove where the clearance spec label is.
The date code is at the bottom of the label.

 

[Anne]

the manufacture date is July 2007

 

[cantman]

Anne,
I just installed my Harman XXV with a manufacture date of June 2007. I've only run a few bags of pellets through it,
and it's performing great. I don't have the squealing noise, but I will keep a watchful eye and ear for this issue.
If I encounter a solution, I'll contact you.

 

[GVA]

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/4251/

It could just be the carbon buildup..
How well do you scrape the burnpot down? How often?

 

[samandlillie]

I have a year old XXV and burn Eastern Embers in NS and I find that a good daily scrape in burn pot produces a more efficient burn. There is a slow build up of carbon in the burnpot with any pellet.The problem is trying to clean the burnpot on a daily basis without shutting down stove. I find smoke enters the room when I open the door to do the scrape. Yes, it has been mild here in maritimes lately so I shut the stove down at night and clean the glass(windex) and scrape the pot before starting up the stove for the day.
Wayne in NS

 

[tinkabranc]

No squealing issues with my XXV so far.

As others have mentioned, scraping the burnpot often is a good idea
and may help resolve your issue. Sounds like clinkers are the culprit.

I am burning three different brands of pellets right now and have noticed that
one brand constantly leaves clinkers stuck on the bottom of the burnpot
against the auger after only a couple of bags.

keep us posted if you find the problem-

 

[johnnywarm]

What is the burn pot? i think its something different then i think it is. Is a clinker an unbruned pellet?

 

[GVA]

A quick link to types of scrapers..........
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/10653/
Smoke shouldn't escape the burn chamber unless the comb blower is off, well a little will but it was never enough to set off my combo smoke / CO detector........
With a good tool you can open the door and give a couple of scrapes (less than 30 seconds) and then close the door, your stove will thank you..

 

[Kenny1]

What is the burn pot? i think its something different then i think it is. Is a clinker an unbruned pellet?

The burn pot is the little "pot" that holds the burning pellets.

A clinker is a bit of carbon - not so much an unburnt pellet as some fused ash (is that a good explanation?)

Here is a link to an article about cleaning an Advance pellet stove - has pictures of the burn pot and some carbon build up (clinkers).

(broken link removed)

 

[johnnywarm]

What is the burn pot? i think its something different then i think it is. Is a clinker an unbruned pellet?

The burn pot is the little "pot" that holds the burning pellets.

A clinker is a bit of carbon - not so much an unburnt pellet as some fused ash (is that a good explanation?)

Here is a link to an article about cleaning an Advance pellet stove - has pictures of the burn pot and some carbon build up (clinkers).

(broken link removed)

Thank you sooo much. i do most of what i seen every 10 bags or so. My burn pot is removible so it looks ease to clean then some others.I have a Big E from Breakwell.

Thanks again JW

 

[petejung]

Not sure if this will help you or not - I'd be sure to ask your Harman guy's if it's OK to do this on your stove before you try it:

I was having a squealing noise on my Englander - sounds like that same metal on metal squeal like you're hearing... They had me take a coffee can's worth of pellets and a tablespoon of dry graphite (got mine from my local Ace hardware for $4 for more than I hope I ever need) and run that through the system, w/o burning it. They said that would lube my auger mechanism. This was on my top auger, which shouldn't be getting any of the buildup related from burning, so I knew it wasn't carbon buildup or anything like that. So far, it seemed to do the trick.

 

[snowrider]

FINALLY Another Harman owner with this problem. After a few months of operation, my Harmon Advance started making an intermittent squealing sound, which got worse, then it finally got to the point we shut it off as we couldn't stand it. I called my dealer, and he said the feed motor was bad. My dealer doesn't like to do house calls so I went to him and picked up a feed motor. I put it on, and away we went; no more squealing. After a few more months...it came back. I called him, he said to come up and get another motor, and I put another one on...squealing stopped. He said he never heard of a motor going bad. Then! after 3 months! it came back. I called him and I got his wife on the phone, my dealer works out of his house. She said her daughter's Harmon Advance was doing the same thing so he went and looked at it. It's actually the Auger shaft from what he found out. He said it goes out of alignment and it get's dry..... each time I changed the motor, I inadvertently wiggled the auger shaft and the noise went away. there was nothing wrong with my motor. I take his reasoning as BS as the bearing is sealed and I don't see how it goes out of alignment but when the noise came back I gave it a good whack and the noise stopped...

Here is what I do when the squealing sounds, because it comes back every three months:

1) Wiggle the auger shaft.

2) I place a few drops of machine oil on the bearing where the auger goes into the stove.

After I do this the noise goes away for a few months.

Now, after reading the above posts, I do think that Carbon build up may play a factor. I scrape mine every day now. Thank GOD for this site. Both Harman and my dealer said that they never ever heard a stove squealing before......

Don't change your feed motor. Try what I do first.

 

[snowrider]

Hey Firestarter, I meant to ask.. do you have an outside air hook up???? Initially I had the optional outide air intake hooked up and the stove would run like crap and the carbon would build overnight!! I yanked the outside airt and am now running the inside air and it seems to be burning much better. I do scrape the pot every day and I find that the left side of the burn pot builds very quickly. Please keep me posted on your squeal....

 

[petejung]

On my Englander, they did tell me that if the graphite didn't work, that I'd need to re-align the auger shaft itself. Not sure how it could come out of alignment in the first place, unless it was due to hot/cold cycles of using the stove, then shutting it down, and the metal flexing and what not...

 

[snowrider]

O.K.....

We are hitting this post at the same time! You will see that my dealer said that the shaft goes out of alignment.. I agree with you, how does it go out of alignment, and how do you bring it back in alignment; did they tell you how to do it???

 

[petejung]

Englander told me to take off the auger motor... Then there are 4 bolts that hold the bearing block in place. Take those out, and remove the auger. They said to run a file along the auger, to make sure there were no burrs (the auger is cast) while I had it out... Then put the auger and bearing block back in - screw the bolts back in in a diagonal pattern (opposite corners), and turn the auger by hand to make sure it's not bound up form over tightening one bolt more than the others. I would think that it would be a trial and error thing, more or less, as to how tight to tighten each bolt before moving across to the next one, but if the auger binds up, youneed to figure out if you need to tighten or loosen one of the bolts...

 

[Bob Petras]

I have the Harmon 61A Pellet stove. Squealing noises are always an excellent indication that the stove is in need of a good clean. I have gone over four weeks since I cleaned the Harmon P61A and today it started squealing. It has been burning steady for all this time - 24 hours a day and we are just coming out of a bitter cold spell that has lasted 11 days - a true Canadian winter. Thankfully the temperature is heading for a warming trend and we will be - 5 C. tomorrow, time to shut it down for 2.5 hours and then to start cleaning it.

The secret is how you clean your pellet stove. You need to clean out the burn pot, the blower motor and follow the Harmon manual in cleaning it properly. The walls and brick also need to be scraped out so there is not a trace of soot left. Don't forget to also clean out the chimney pipe.

There is an excellent web site that gives coverage on cleaning pellet stoves. It is: (broken link removed) While it relates to the P38 and P61 models, the advice is worth looking at for all Harmon stoves.

Yes, my stove squeals, especially when I am close to a major clean out of the system. After a good cleaning, the noise is gone. We burn fir and pine. Pine is cheaper however I was given a ton of 50 - 40 lb bags of fir this fall and was surprised how clean they burnt. The stove had far less ash in the clean out box.

 

[weistk]

My Harmon 61A Pellet stove was squealing only during feeder operation which led me to believe it was auger related. After reading this forum last night I gave it a good cleaning and the noise was still there. I gave the auger a little lateral tweak with a screw driver, not hard - just enough to see movement, and "voila" no more noise! If and when the noise returns I'll post again.
Thanks to all!
Weistk

 

[goatman-68]

Add another one to the list of squealing auger.

My stove is only a couple months old and burned only 12 bags since new. I have thooughly cleaned and vacuumed it twice and do clean the burn pot daily. I have had the auger motor replaced due to gear noise and they have deburred and aligned the auger twice already. It seems to last about a week or so and the LOUD squealing is back.

On the (new) style XXV it is much more of a project to get the auger out since it is now direct drive instead of chain drive.

 

[slheinlein]

I had the same problem with my XXV a month ago. It appeared to be carbon buildup. Once I gave it a good cleaning, it went away. I am now more cognizant of cleaning around the auger and I have not had any problems since. Here is a link to my post.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/27948/

 

[swalz]

I never had the squealing with mine, I also give it a good cleaning every week inside. I do a good scraping of the burn put and make sure I get as much of the carbon out from around the auger. Once or twice a month I will mix some graphite with some pellets when the hopper is low and let them run through and burn. I can hardly hear the auger running it is very quite by doing this, this year I have notice more carbon build up most likely from the pellets I am using. Just make sure you give the burn pot a good cleaning especially down near the bottom and get all the carbon build up you can out.

 

[Bill in NH]

I am so glad I found this site, we also have the Harman XXV. ..and it sqeals...gonna try these tips! Can anybody else chime in..

Thanks

 

[jjp009]

Hi there. I have a Whitfield pellet stove that came with the condo I bought seven years ago. I believe it is about 10 years old. I have a very weird metallic squealing problem, too. It is NOT the auger, because it squeals only after it gets hot (an hour or so) and it squeals even when the auger is in its "off" cycle, so that's not it. I'm guessing it's the motor or the fan blowers needing lubrication or something. The "pro" who comes to clean it once per year has no idea what he's doing other than cleaning. I've left messages and even wrote him a letter asking him to come out and look at it, but he ignores me. I will NOT be calling this clown again (You got the red dot, Tom...you know who this is).

Does anyone have a similar problem? It sounds like the squealing problems posted here are not relevant to mine. Thank you.

 

[weezy]

This is the third winter for my XXV.....and.....it just started to squeal last night! My what a sound! I am going to try the graphite trick---about how much do you put it with the pellets? Also, does anyone know how to take the auger out or is that something left to the "pros"? Thanks!