Harman - Accentra Insert - slight clicking sound

[Engineer2]

Hi All,
I have a Harman Accentra Insert that is about 16 months old. The stove is great,
it is easy to use and really is producing great heat for us.

For the most part we always use:

Room Temp - set between 65-70
Fan set right in between L and H
Feed between 3 and 4
Igniter - auto

A couple of days ago I noticed a slight "clicking" or "ticking" sound that seems to come from
the back of the stove. It is slight, you have to be close to hear it.

It kind of sounds like a switch clicking on and off and does not happen at regular intervals, but
it happens at least every minute and 4 or 5 times and when it does they seem to be 3 to 5 seconds
apart.

I'm wondering is this is one of the switches beginning to fail.

We have no status messages, no noises from the auger, as a matter of fact the
performance seems unaffected. It is running great with a good strong flame and plenty of heat.

Any ideas with this could be? Kind of drives me nuts to hear it because I think something may be wrong.

Thanks for any input.

 

[Trickyrick]

Have you cleaned out the combustion fan recently?

I have some clicking this fall the first day I started it up for a test burn. I had shut down in the spring and cleaned it including the combustion and distribution fan. Well after cleaning everything top side twice and checking everything there I decided to check out the distribution fan. Should have realized it durring start up no sound and only when distribution kicked on there was clicking. Well there was a piece of wrapping paper in there.

You know it could be your combustion motor going bad. You might want to check ot fro any debris take it out and blow it out.

I can't think of any mechanical switches back there to go bad.... I think the only mechanical switch is the vacuum switch and I have never heard it click.

 

[Lousyweather]

open up the back and visually inspect all the "stuff".....might be something simple like the end of a ziptie touchng a moving part.....clean the fines chamber while you are back there tho....

 

[Trickyrick]

There is a flap for the combustion air. If you have enough wind and are using an OAK that could get "blown" closed and then the combustion blower would open it back up but conditions would have to be perfect to make that happen so it would be very unlikely.

 

[Lousyweather]

There is a flap for the combustion air. If you have enough wind and are using an OAK that could get "blown" closed and then the combustion blower would open it back up but conditions would have to be perfect to make that happen so it would be very unlikely.

thats more of a "clank" tho

 

[Engineer2]

Have you cleaned out the combustion fan recently?

I have some clicking this fall the first day I started it up for a test burn. I had shut down in the spring and cleaned it including the combustion and distribution fan. Well after cleaning everything top side twice and checking everything there I decided to check out the distribution fan. Should have realized it durring start up no sound and only when distribution kicked on there was clicking. Well there was a piece of wrapping paper in there.

You know it could be your combustion motor going bad. You might want to check ot fro any debris take it out and blow it out.

I can't think of any mechanical switches back there to go bad.... I think the only mechanical switch is the vacuum switch and I have never heard it click.

I clean what I can get at from the front pretty often, including the heat exchanger, burnpot, and the chamber where the igniter is.

I have never actually pulled the unit out to get at anything behind. Since it was installed I have only burned about 4 tons so I was thinking
that the areas behind should be ok.

I did just give the unit a pretty good cleaning last Saturday, but just from the front.

 

[Justin M]

I am new to burning pellets this year, but it doesn't take long hanging out here to notice that the majority of stove problems are resolved with a proper cleaning. Pull your insert out and clean out the fines box, exhaust path, combustion blower, distribution blower, vent pipe, as well as look for loose/foreign objects as previously mententioned. There's no point in guessing what the problem could be until you complete those things.

 

[Delta-T]

I am new to burning pellets this year, but it doesn't take long hanging out here to notice that the majority of stove problems are resolved with a proper cleaning.

brilliant, two thumbs up

 

[Trickyrick]

I clean what I can get at from the front pretty often, including the heat exchanger, burnpot, and the chamber where the igniter is.

I have never actually pulled the unit out to get at anything behind. Since it was installed I have only burned about 4 tons so I was thinking
that the areas behind should be ok.

I did just give the unit a pretty good cleaning last Saturday, but just from the front.

4 tons and you havn't gone in and cleaned fines, the combustion fan and housing and I would bet not cleaned out the venting.

I have the same stove and my schedule is as follows.

Every day a scrape the pot while running.
Every weekend shut down and clean from the front including all ash, burn pot, heat exchangers, venting with provided brush, ignighter area and the hopper.
Every other weekend do above and pull away and clean the fines bin, combustion chamber, and ESP.
Every ton All of above plus run lint eater through venting and do the leafblower trick. Inspect for ash buildup on combustion blades and in venting.
Every sping do all of the above and clean distribution blower, cap the vent, close intake, put a few packets of that stuff to absorb moisture in the burn pot.

this time of year I have to empty the ash pan every week anyway so the schedule makes sense.

 

[Engineer2]

any tricks for removing the stove? I do not have the rail kit. should I make some support using 2X4s for instance?

 

[Trickyrick]

any tricks for removing the stove? I do not have the rail kit. should I make some support using 2X4s for instance?

Only if you want to pull it all the way out off the rails. I pull it out far enough to access the combustion motor and its access door on the right side. Usually rest the front on a 2x4 and your good to go. If you do not have to go that far It stays on the rails. Remember lift with your legs. Unplug before moving. Take off the bottom shroud. Un snap the locking system and when you go to put everything back make sure the clips are in the right position before you push the stove all the way back.

 

[Engineer2]

thanks for the advice. I`ll give it a try this weekend.

 

[Lousyweather]

yup, all good advice....watch the wires when pulling out! Also, dont forget the distrubution fan is under the unit, so you will need support to get to this fan and clean it....stacked 2x4's work just fine, by the way.

 

[glenc0322]

I made rails out 2x4 first and it worked except the stove was sticking on the wood so I ended up making one out of 1 1/2 Kindorf (unistrutt) free from work and works great. Like everyone says clean everything then fire it up. It will usually fix all the problems. I had a problem at the beginning of the year wear the auger would not turn and it turned out that a bird flew down the chimney and was stuck in the blower motor had to go to the roof and add a screen over the cap to prevent this from happening again. So crazy things can happen