Emergency; Please Help! Harman 52i

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rob.mwpropane

Member
Dec 1, 2013
107
Baldwin MD
Hey guys, I'm doing this from my phone so excuse anything. I'm with the family in Disney, house sitter calls and power went out, stove went out. I walk her through lighting it, everything works well. She calls back and says that it's running, but won't die down.

I have it wired to a thermostat, but no matter what I have her do, the flame just keeps getting more. Status lights indicate all are on full blast (except ignitor). What gives, it just keeps getting hotter? Any thoughts?

I know it was lit when the power went out, and the flame died out. It's always been run on manual except to light it.

Please help!?!?
 
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm 1000 miles away, temps dropping super cold in Maryland, and this is really my only form of heat. Oil burner hasn't been ran in a year, and I cant trust her with that.
 
If she is sure that it is warm enough in the house that the stove should be cutting back, have her turn it to off. Wait for it to stop the fans, unplug it for a minute or so then plug it back in and relight it. Please note that I am going by my P-series stoves, not an insert, but I would think they run pretty much the same.
 
If it won't shut off, have her open the hopper door - the stove shouldn't feed then
 
I'd have her send you a picture of the control board settings first. Feed at 4, room mode, yada, yada, yada.

Also have her watch the feed LED to make sure the auger is not running constantly. LED should turn on and off within a any minute if running normally. If on all the time, the flame would definitely get very large.
 
I had her do all of those things. Every light stays on except ignitor. I have had her turn the temp on thermostat, and temp on Stove all the way down and the feed motor continues. The only thing that kills stove is the distribution fan turned off (and power down stove)
 
Is the stove on a decent surge protector? If not the surge when the power came back on probably toasted the board:(
With the ugly weather here in my area we are experiencing more power issues than I have seen in a couple years.
 
Bioburner said:
Is the stove on a decent surge protector? If not the surge when the power came back on probably toasted the board:(
With the ugly weather here in my area we are experiencing more power issues than I have seen in a couple years.
Click to expand...

That's my worry, but I don't know. I just can't imagine why it would all still come back on and not be totally toast?
 
Yep definitely could be board. Have sitter try turning thermostat temp way down so stove won't turn on if moved from Off to Room Temp. Move Feed Adjuster to Test position where motors turn on, then back to 4. If they dont turn off a board is probably needed. They are about $200 on ebay or Amazon, takes 5-10 minutes to set DIP switches and swap out old for new.
 
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jzm2cc said:
Yep definitely could be board. Have sitter try turning thermostat temp way down so stove won't turn on if moved from Off to Room Temp. Move Feed Adjuster to Test position where motors turn on, then back to 4. If they dont turn off a board is probably needed. They are about $200 on ebay or Amazon, takes 5-10 minutes to set DIP switches and swap out old for new.
Click to expand...

I will have her try that. I haven't had her try turning to test and then back to 4 with the stove off.

What's weird is with the wall thermostat (connected in line with room temp sensor) turned off, it doesn't get the 4 flash error code like it used to. It just stays running.

I had an UPS with surge that was connected to the stove for a long time, but it cropped out the end of last year and I haven't gotten a new one yet. I thought I plugged it into a cheap strip surge protector, but she said it was plugged direct to the wall:(
 
Sounds like new board time, and then play with old board when you have time, and warmer weather. It's always nice to have spare parts on these contraptions.
 
Looks like the Disney trip just got a big cost increase. No need to beat the dead horse about the installation recommendations for surge or UPS
 
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Yep, my first thought was I bet it's not on a surge protector.
 
With the stoves having the ability to go into shut down mode when they recognize the UPS coming online and are on sale almost every week now for $100 for a good sized unit, sure beats the $200 plus for a board
 
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Some boards for other brand stoves I've heard prices in the $300+ range.
 
Board for the PC45 is $275. Older Whits are no longer available
 
My stove is on a surge protector ! We had one fry here too, after heavy lightning storms and brown outs. Glad it took the hit and not the board LOL. Hah, it sacrificed itself !
 
Had the maple tree outside of the house get whacked this spring. No issue on things in the house but the wires into the well pump got fried. Oh well it was due to be properly cleaned so was not more than a few more $$ to splice the wires.
 
Is it possible the igniter switch got flipped to manual?
 
Oh man, I feel horrible about this thread. I stopped getting emails saying anyone replied and thought the thread died. For some reason they started going in the spam folder?

Anyway, to finish the story, the sitter would just let the stove run until the house got warm, then turn it off for the night. When I got home everything was working as it should. There were a few things that crapped out during that storm. I had a fish tank pump stop working. I'm almost certain it was some type of surge.

The pellet stove was not on a surge protector. I now have a whole house surge protector wired in at the E box along with the strips at appliances. Thank God everything was ok, it was really weird how it just started working again.

I wanted to thank everyone for their time. If anyone wants to see pictures of the whole house surge protector installed, I attached a link;

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wpcp2dg8hhykbrk/AAAQ60ebbVuJ3ZjjyZZSQE_8a?dl=0
 
Last edited:
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Glad you got things resolved and no real problems other than the fish?
 
Bioburner said:
Glad you got things resolved and no real problems other than the fish?
Click to expand...

Actually, even the fish were ok. I felt bad, but I had her take the heaters and all the sensors and put into the display tank. I have a system that tells me the temp, pH, etc. and sends it to my phone. I could see the tank not working on my phone, but being in Disney I couldn't do anything....it was a mess!

Thankfully, no fish or coral died.
 
rob.mwpropane said:
Oh man, I feel horrible about this thread. I stopped getting emails saying anyone replied and thought the thread died. For some reason they started going in the spam folder?

Anyway, to finish the story, the sitter would just let the stove run until the house got warm, then turn it off for the night. When I got home everything was working as it should. There were a few things that crapped out during that storm. I had a fish tank pump stop working. I'm almost certain it was some type of surge.

The pellet stove was not on a surge protector. I now have a whole house surge protector wired in at the E box along with the strips at appliances. Thank God everything was ok, it was really weird how it just started working again.

I wanted to thank everyone for their time. If anyone wants to see pictures of the whole house surge protector installed, I attached a link;

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wpcp2dg8hhykbrk/AAAQ60ebbVuJ3ZjjyZZSQE_8a?dl=0
Click to expand...
Don't rely on that surge protector in your panel or the strips to protect your stove. Been there done that. You should get real surge protector and install it on the outlet your stove is plugged into. Many of us use one of these. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006B81D/?tag=hearthamazon-20
 
Harman Lover 007 said:
Don't rely on that surge protector in your panel or the strips to protect your stove. Been there done that. You should get real surge protector and install it on the outlet your stove is plugged into. Many of us use one of these. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006B81D/?tag=hearthamazon-20
Click to expand...

Why disregard the Square D in the panel? It's rated at 3300 joules. And what bad experiences have you had?

I'm just trying to learn, and I'm not opposed to the other device at the wall for the stove.
 
rob.mwpropane said:
Why disregard the Square D in the panel? It's rated at 3300 joules. And what bad experiences have you had?

I'm just trying to learn, and I'm not opposed to the other device at the wall for the stove.
Click to expand...
My experience is it won't do what it is intended to do for today's sensitive electronics. I have the same devices on my two panels and surges have gotten by them....
 
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