Harman - Holes in auger screw - Now with photos!

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kilarney

New Member
Mar 1, 2008
168
Vermont
I tried a search, but did not see anything about this problem.

I was cleaning my Harman Accentra insert today, and noticed that there are two holes in the auger screw. (the part that looks like a huge drill bit) This is the part of the auger that terminates right at the burn pot. The metal at the end of the auger is extremely thin. The stove is less than two years old, which is troubling. It looks as if something burned right through the metal in two spots.

Has anyone has this happen? Hopefully I explained it well enough. Fortunately, the stove is still under warranty.
 
kilarney said:
It looks as if something burned right through the metal in two spots......

Pictures (close-ups if possible) of what your talking about will help immensely.
 
kilarney said:
I tried a search, but did not see anything about this problem.

I was cleaning my Harman Accentra insert today, and noticed that there are two holes in the auger screw. (the part that looks like a huge drill bit) This is the part of the auger that terminates right at the burn pot. The metal at the end of the auger is extremely thin. The stove is less than two years old, which is troubling. It looks as if something burned right through the metal in two spots.

Has anyone has this happen? Hopefully I explained it well enough. Fortunately, the stove is still under warranty.

Hard to believe that 2 holes were burned right thru the auger. Yeah, we definitely need pictures. This is gonna be interesting.
 
pictures!

some newer augers actually are the same auger used on the PC45, and these aguers have a receiver at the end....basically a hole....with an indent above and below.....if we could see a digital picture would be most helpful.......or is it the auger tube thats holed? We have seen that!
 
I'll do my best to get a picture taken tonight. The stove is running right now, and I'm not nearby.

In the meantime, here is a very crude diagram of what I am talking about.
 

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This is just a thought and only that but what if it is to pull the auger out? My Countryside's auger slides right out if you grab it in the center with vise grips and pull. It can come in handy if it's jammed with fines from corn and even pellets. Could it be the hole is put there as a means to hook the auger and give you leverage to remove it? Just a possibility to consider if it came that way OEM.
 
Driz said:
This is just a thought and only that but what if it is to pull the auger out? My Countryside's auger slides right out if you grab it in the center with vise grips and pull. It can come in handy if it's jammed with fines from corn and even pellets. Could it be the hole is put there as a means to hook the auger and give you leverage to remove it? Just a possibility to consider if it came that way OEM.

No, if the holes are in the flights (the helix) of the auger, then they arent supposed to be there....they arent put there to aid in removal of the auger, etc......could simply be the auger is worn for some reason.....ive seen a few extreme cases of wear on augers, but thats usually when the user has used a non-approved fuel in the feeder (the worst ones ive seen are usually caused by burning coal)...
 
I've only used commercially bought premium grade pellets.
 
I can't believe it could get that hot to burn through those auger flightings. No way. How does the rest of it look ? Are the edges of the auger flights where they contact the sides of the feed tunnel nice and square or are they worn in some obvious visible fashion? Pictures sure would help figure it out. For the life of me I can't imagine anything even coal actually drilling circular holes in that flighting. No matter what happened there has to be obvious wear on the exterior edges as even coal dust or rocks for that matter can't "drill" holes. The auger on my stove still looks like brand new and the edges are sharp and square after 5 seasons of burning either dusty corn or cheap premium pellets. It has even sucked 2 nails and a piece of pellet mill shrapnel that took some serious abuse to get dislodged, all with no visible deformation. Sounds to me like you might have chance to see how well Harmon stands behind their product warranty. Pictures, pictures, post us some pics please.
 
Besides the pictures that are defidently needed! I'd also supply a Built Date for the stove in your post.
 
I took a couple of photos. I'll post them in the morning. I tried to tonight, but I'm having a little trouble with the camera. The stove was ordered from the factory in February of 2008.
 
I've lost the cable to my camera (which of course is a Samsung-specific format) and I just learned that me SD card reader will not read SDHC cards. I'm going to Radio Shack to see if I can get a new cable and/or card reader. Hopefully I will have the pictures sometime within the next 1-2 days. Grr....
 
I cleaned the stove, and did a quick shutdown to take photos after it had only been burning for a little while after the cleaning. I didn't clean the burnpot as well as I would have liked for the photos, but hopefully they show what I am talking about.
 

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The other photo. This was taken before I removed some of the ash and partially burned pellets.
 

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Just some background. The stove was purchased new in the spring of 2008, and was manufactured at the same time. The stove is professionaly maintaned and is regularly cleaned by me. These photos make it look a little worse, since I didn't clean before taking the photo. I opened the stove when the fire was still smoldering, which may be why it looks much more black than normal.

The stove is currently working fine, although I'm starting to think I'm on borrowed time.
 
Wow, I don't think they are supposed to be there!
Quick look is that somehow it overheated - that orange color usually means that.

That does not mean you did anything, but that maybe the spec on the metal (auger) was off or air is coming in at the wrong places, etc.
 
As I mentioned earlier, I have only used commercially bought premium grade pellets.

Could going too long before scraping the burn pot have this result? I don't scrape every day, but I didn't think that I went too long between scraping.
 
Wasn't there a problem with the Harman's burning thru the auger's? The fix was welding up the two lower holes in the burnpot or replacing the burnpot with an updated design?

Maybe I was just dreaming or it was the mushrooms I ate...
 
kilarney said:
As I mentioned earlier, I have only used commercially bought premium grade pellets.

Could going too long before scraping the burn pot have this result? I don't scrape every day, but I didn't think that I went too long between scraping.
I really doubt this is anything that you did.
It is in the design and engineering somewhere - and as mentioned, there might be a fix.

Contact your local Harman dealer.....or if you cannot get any answers, try the email link at the bottom of this page:
http://www.homewarmth.com/
 
Damn, that looks like metal failure.

I can count four holes and the start of at least three more.
 
I've emailed the dealer, and attached a photo. I'll let you know what happens.
 
metal failure due to overheating......but still warranteeable.......have the dealer replace the auger....easy and fast, maybe half an hour job, and that includes drinking coffee......havent seen one like this though....thats an old-style auger, by the way......even less prone to erosion than the newer ones, no need to worry, but it should get replaced....
 
Do you have the five holes at the bottom of the burn pot? It may be because of it burning in the auger tube, seems to be an issue with Harman stove sold in 2007 - 2008. They should replace the burn pot if it does have the five holes.
 
I totally agree with swalz. By the looks of the auger tube there is way to much carbon buildup within the auger. I would check to see if you have the lower holes in the burnpot that would indicate this issue could of been caused by the poor design of the burn pot for the few years they were released. I think all of the Harman owners here are very interested on how the dealer and Harman will handle this issue. So keep us informed and thanks for going through the trouble to get the pics posted. A picture says a lot!
 
I'm out of town for a couple of days, so I can't check the burn pot right now. But I will keep everyone posted.
 
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