Harman Advance

[Wilson01]

I have a Harman Advance pellet stove I purchased 3 years ago. It’s a 2010 model that was in a showroom so it was practically new. It didn’t come with a user manual but the dealer went over everything with me. My problem is the dealer told me the feed rate should be set at 3 and not to adjust it. I recently looked at the manual online and it says it should be set on 4. The pellets I use are from the dealer but are fairly expensive. The stove runs perfect with these pellets but I have tried other pellets(5 different brands) and they burn terrible. I have friends that burn the different pellets that I’ve tried and they burn awesome for them in their P68. I’m wondering if it’s because the feed rate is set to low on my stove? The biggest issue with these other pellets is the amount of ash produced and low heat output. I would like the opportunity to burn different pellets in case the dealer runs out. Thanks for any help

 

[prh7270]

Not sure if that setting would do that. I got a p35i last year, set the feed rate at 4, and have burned a few different brands. All seem to do well, some with more ash than others, some hotter, but they all burn fine. Just started to burn Turmans, they burn good, with little ash. Get them for 5.80 a bag in my area. Going to get a couple ton this summer for next year.

 

[Mt Bob]

Most Harmans will burn any pellet well.Yes,if feed rate is too low,you can get lower heat output.More ash with cheaper pellets is a fact of life.Set it at 4. Read this.https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/how-your-harman-works-what-your-manual-doesnt-tell-you.91030/

 

[greg13]

Try setting it on 4 and see what happens, that's where I keep our's. You will find the stove will burn about anything, but cheap pellets burn dirty with lots of ash.

 

[Wilson01]

Thanks for the replies. I realize cheap pellets won’t burn as hot and efficient as good pellets but like I said above my two buddies get 9 tons each of a cheaper hardwood pellet and they burn phenomenal in their P68 stoves. They can go a month without cleaning the stove and the heat output is awesome. I took 10 bags of their pellets and tried them in my stove and the ash output was terrible and the heat wasn’t great at all. The glass in the doors was covered in black soot in one day. I wouldn’t think that my stove would burn that much different than theirs but I never tried to adjust the feed rate either because I was told to leave it on 3 by my dealer. Thanks for the help

 

[Connecticut Yankee]

In my admittedly limited experience, black soot means the fire needs more air. If your stove has a damper control, try opening it. Otherwise, you may have to increase the combustion fan speed a bit.

I also find that pellet quality makes a difference. We just bought our final ton for the season, and although the stove dealer insists that these are the exact same pellets under a new brand name, I'm getting an awful lot more ash. I opened the damper a bit more, and the ash isn't quite so bad as it was a few bags ago, but it's still annoying.