Does your Harman XXV Make A Squealing Noise?

[john350z28]

Fixed my squeal:

I have a Harman P68 that we purchased 3 years ago - No problems except we had to replace the ignitor every year. All of a sudden started squealing when the feed auger engaged - contacted dealer who said that it was fines built up in the back panel by the feed lever. Took off the back side panel, removed the fines - did not help the noise at all. Just cleaned the stove the other day so I knew it had nothing to do with carbon build up (I haven't cleaned the stove for up to 3 weeks during a Maine winter and did not affect operation of the stove).

Let stove cycle down and UNPLUG STOVE (There are electrical ground wires behind the panel) I completely removed the entire back panel (both sides, top and bottom). With the back panel off you will see that the feed auger shaft runs from the stove to a fan motor at the back of the stove just above the exhaust pipe. In between the main body of the stove and the fan there is a collar on the auger shaft with a set screw and a 1" wheel attached to the collar. When the feed auger shaft rotates the wheel rolls against cam levers that activate the trap door for the pellets in the hopper. The wheel is held on by a hex head bolt - the head of the bolt was scraping against the output housing for the shaft. (If Harman had used a carriage bolt instead of a hex there would be no squealing.....) The bolt head was barely touching, however it was enough to drive everybody in the house nuts after a week of squealing.

I loosened the set screw on the collar and moved the collar back towards the fan motor. The collar only moved a 1/8" to 1/4" (very tight tolerance) but it was enough to get the bolt head off of the output housing. Retightened the set screw and no more squealing.

 

[smwilliamson]

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...

Englander uses a floating auger...burrs are not going to make a noise when surrounded by pellets in a sealed shaft. Try lubricating the flaot bearing at the nipple provided on the back plate

 

[summit]

it's probably some carbon buildup inside the tube, 'bout 2-3" back in. I run into this with a fair amount of frequency from some of our customers who run their stoves on low alot. I bought a 2" rd wire wheel that attaches to an extension for my cordless drill. Remove the auger, and ream out the auger shaft w/ the brush attached to the drill, and also wire brush down the auger itself. This solves most squealing issues. Then, ask the dealer about getting a crossover tube kit, its inexpensive, takes about 1/2 hr to install, and keeps carbon backup out of the auger shaft.

 

[sandpipe]

I had an intermittent auger squealing problem on my old Harman Invincible insert. Often happened after I vacuumed and scraped the fire pot. I bought a can of spray graphite in Home Depot and spray it into and around the auger after every vacuuming. It seems to have totally stopped the high pitched squealing. (The squealing only occurred when the auger was feeding pellets).

 

[nhdblfan]

Mine has been fine,every once and a while there is a noise but I suspect its just a clinker making it way through.I do try and scrape it out real good every week including the pot. Only issue I have had with it was the blower motor went in the first month,the dealer gave me a new one and I had it replaced in 20 mins.

 

[exoilburner]

My Harmon starts squeeling when the auger is cycling. It starts after burning about a ton and every ton like clockwork. I burn 5-7 tons a year. All I've ever done to stop it is empty the pellet hopper and vacuum all around the top of the slide plate while it is moving back and forth. After many episodes of this the vacuuming has stopped the squeeling every time. I dust the fines on the hopper walls down into the bottom of the hopper and vacuum those out too.

 

[lessoil]

Not sure if this will help but here goes:
We had a squeal a few months back. I tracked it doen to the Auger drive end. (Under side cover)
I was able to change/eliminate the squeal by lightly pushing on the drive end of the shaft.
To me it sounded like a dry bushing.
So, I carefully put some 3-in-1 oil on the area that seemed to be the cause of this noise.
Within a couple of minutes the noise was gone.
I called the dealer and ran this by them. The tech said that he had done this before and was OK with what I had done.
I brought this up at the Harman seminar a couple of weeks ago. The rep from New England was not in agreement with what I had done.
I would say do this carefully and do not put on alot. Oil attracts dirt/dust.
I will be doing an end of season cleaning and plan to look at this area closer to try and see just where the noise was coming from.
Aside from that, the stove is running great.

One area that I have not checked is the area where fines can build up. Will be checking that for sure.

Hope this helps!!

 

[imacman]

......The rep from New England was not in agreement with what I had done......

And HIS solution to the problem was....????

 

[sandpipe]

Not sure if this will help but here goes:
We had a squeal a few months back. I tracked it doen to the Auger drive end. (Under side cover)
....
So, I carefully put some 3-in-1 oil on the area that seemed to be the cause of this noise.
Within a couple of minutes the noise was gone.
I called the dealer and ran this by them. The tech said that he had done this before and was OK with what I had done.
I brought this up at the Harman seminar a couple of weeks ago. The rep from New England was not in agreement with what I had done.
I would say do this carefully and do not put on alot. Oil attracts dirt/dust.

Try spray graphite. The solvent evaporates and the remaining dry lubricant does not attract dirt/dust or thicken up into a gunk.

 

[lessoil]

1) Clean carbon buildup but noise was out back.
2) Also clean the fines catcher which is on my list.


All I know is the noise has not come back!....yet

 

[lessoil]

Not sure if this will help but here goes:
We had a squeal a few months back. I tracked it doen to the Auger drive end. (Under side cover)
....
So, I carefully put some 3-in-1 oil on the area that seemed to be the cause of this noise.
Within a couple of minutes the noise was gone.
I called the dealer and ran this by them. The tech said that he had done this before and was OK with what I had done.
I brought this up at the Harman seminar a couple of weeks ago. The rep from New England was not in agreement with what I had done.
I would say do this carefully and do not put on alot. Oil attracts dirt/dust.

Try spray graphite. The solvent evaporates and the remaining dry lubricant does not attract dirt/dust or thicken up into a gunk.

Yes,
Great idea!