Harman Absolute 43 Constant Overheat

[ESteele]

Hi All,
My 8 year old Harman Absolute 43 has been working well this season up until a week ago. It would not should down, neither from lowering the room temp sensor nor from hitting shut down.

It then started to consistently be on the highest heat setting, a massive flame 24 hrs a day. This was constant wether I had it on low constant burn or on a low temp setting.

A couple days ago it overshot the ESP temp limit of 470 and hit 520 degrees, which caused some fan malfunctions. I opened the hopper to let the flame die down. After this I cleaned the ESP sensor (another startup gave the same overheating results), and went as far as had a tech come out and give an opinion.

The tech cleaned out the ventilation system inside and out, and after startup it overheated again stuck at high temp. I’ve been told it may be a control board.
I have now noticed that the pressure switch says closed every time I look into the diagnostics. Could this have anything to do with overheating? Looking for any smaller fixes before buying the expensive board.

 

[Ssyko]

A vacuum switch failure will eventually shut the stove off. Not allowing the auger to run and then starves the stove of pellets. It sounds like something failed on the board. Im not a Harman guy but im sure they will post when they see it.

 

[ABusWrench]

Is the stove plugged into a surge protector?

 

[ESteele]

A vacuum switch failure will eventually shut the stove off. Not allowing the auger to run and then starves the stove of pellets. It sounds like something failed on the board. Im not a Harman guy but im sure they will post when they see it.

Is the stove plugged into a surge protector?

No surge protector, we had a small blip in power a day or so before I noticed the symptoms.

 

[johneh]

No surge protector, we had a small blip in power a day or so before I noticed the symptoms.

BINGO

 

[ESteele]

BINGO

Ok! So are we saying that caused a problem with the control board?

 

[johneh]

You may have taken a power surge through the board
This would allow the Majic smoke to escape

 

[Ssyko]

Believe it or not electronics are very sensative. A stray millivolt can let the magic smoke out. Boards are divided in two low voltage on one side and line voltage on the other. They are usually separated by optoisolators and diodes. One good spike will do damage before a fuse will blow. Sorry to hear its not a cheap fix.

 

[ESteele]

Believe it or not electronics are very sensative. A stray millivolt can let the magic smoke out. Boards are divided in two low voltage on one side and line voltage on the other. They are usually separated by optoisolators and diodes. One good spike will do damage before a fuse will blow. Sorry to hear its not a cheap fix.

At least I know how to prevent this in the future…. Thanks y’all. I’ll update when the new board goes in.

 

[Whitenuckler]

At least I know how to prevent this in the future…. Thanks y’all. I’ll update when the new board goes in.

Also, if you want to run in the Catskills (beautiful place been there) during a power blip or outage without the control board even knowing, then invest in a sine wave inverter (1000W lots) 12V Battery, and 30A battery charger. Run it on the UPS all the time. (You will need a generator or solar system to keep running) Oh I see you have lots of generators ! The battery you want would be deep cycle or AGM
I forgot to mention you should add a SPD to your panel and start protecting all the electronics in your house/garage. I recently installed a Leviton R2120-B

 

[johneh]

A suggestion Friendly fires in Ontario most likely have the board you need
and with the exchange rate now the cost is about 40% less using American Dollars
They do ship to The USA

Find My Part

Find My Part Search for your part on our site. Search by Category Wood Replacement Parts Gas Replacement Parts Pellet Replacement Parts BBQ & Outdoor

friendlyfires.ca

 

[Ssyko]

Search for a Tripp lite iso bar surge protecter been running mine almost 10 yrs now 👍👍

 

[Whitenuckler]

At least I know how to prevent this in the future…. Thanks y’all. I’ll update when the new board goes in.

Yes please do, as I just got a P43 and will be doing my own maintenance and troubleshooting. I have most parts as spares except for the control card and dist blower. If I were you, I'd get spares because if you don't have them you can't fix it and find out what is really wrong.
As far as my dealer here they did a good install but there is where the support will end. Harman say they have this great warranty but then they say the dealer must provide all warranty - forget it

 

[ESteele]

Hi all, the long awaited update! I replaced the board, which solved the overheating issue this whole season, UNTIL it returned last week.
Stove is on 1 constant burn, and lowest feed rate setting. Burning around 400 on the esp (compared to 294 with same settings earlier in the season). Today it jumped up to right under the esp limit of 470. I shut off the stove, cleaned everything including the esp sensor, and now it’s jumping right back up to high exhaust temps. Stove also makes the key engine plane takeoff noise when the flame gets slightly low.

I’m getting a hold of a tech, not much hope as no one could figure it out last time.

 

[NS P-68]

Did you install a new ESP with the new board?

 

[ESteele]

Nope just the board. The ESP seems to be reading accurately, would it still be telling the stove to over feed considering that? Also weird that the same ESP would work with the new board then crash halfway through the season.

 

[NS P-68]

I'm not familiar with the touch screen Harman but many folks on here usually replace the ESP probe whenever they replace a board so your basically starting with new controls.
Do you have a room sensor probe as well...?

 

[ESteele]

I'm not familiar with the touch screen Harman but many folks on here usually replace the ESP probe whenever they replace a board so your basically starting with new controls.
Do you have a room sensor probe as well...?

Yep but I always run it on constant

 

[NS P-68]

Maybe try room temp and see if it acts any different. I believe constant mode is controlled completely by the ESP probe. It may rule it out for you.

 

[ESteele]

Room temp is also uncontrollable high temps, and the stove will not shut down unless I pop the hopper lid

 

[NS P-68]

And you have a touch screen control?
Possible your issue is with that?

 

[ESteele]

And you have a touch screen control?
Possible your issue is with that?

yep screen control. the screen does spazz out and change heat settings, which is why I have it locked so it wont move. Been doing that since I installed it.

 

[Whitenuckler]

yep screen control. the screen does spazz out and change heat settings, which is why I have it locked so it wont move. Been doing that since I installed it.

Seems like you need to change the control card again - Are you using good surge suppression?

 

[ESteele]

It’s been plugged into a APC UPS. Pretty top of the line piece of gear. It’d be crazy if the card blew because of power. It’s also weird that when I first posted this thread about the same issue, it was only a week off of when it happened exactly one year ago

 

[Whitenuckler]

It’s been plugged into a APC UPS. Pretty top of the line piece of gear. It’d be crazy if the card blew because of power. It’s also weird that when I first posted this thread about the same issue, it was only a week off of when it happened exactly one year ago

I was wondering if that other display card's issues could have damaged your control card. You can't do any better than having it plugged into a UPS as they have built in filtering. It was a long time ago I see, one year