Harman P38 won't light.

[BURN2BURN]

I have had pellet stoves for years so I'm familiar with how they work, light, run etc. I've even a newish P38 that I use at my cabin. That said, I bought a used, older P38 and saw it run, then brought it home.

New piping installed. tried the typical 2 handfuls of pellets, door slightly open to let it burn up a little, however when I go to close it, the fire is starved and basically stops burning. What am I missing? is there a trick to lighting these older P38's ( it's the 2 knob version with turbo setting).

I don't vent my other P38 and it works fine. any help is appreciated.

 

[Bioburner]

More fuel? I know when I try to get our PC45 it takes a good sized pile to get enough heat to get the stove to start feeding itself. Manually lighting most stoves takes a few tries to get it right.

 

[BURN2BURN]

More fuel? I know when I try to get our PC45 it takes a good sized pile to get enough heat to get the stove to start feeding itself. Manually lighting most stoves takes a few tries to get it right.

I manually start my other P38 all the time. I've tried tons of pellets and gel, stirring them together, you name it this thing won't start....spent the last 2.5 hours and no luck.

 

[Bioburner]

Call the previous owner? Maybe the move has shifted the gaskets enough to not get the vacuum switch to activate auger. I had that happen with a stove I got.

 

[gfreek]

The sensor in the exhaust (ESP) has to reach a certain temperature to activate the auger.. First I'd check to make sure the hopper lid gasket is sealing, I had a piece of pellet that prevented my stove from running, and other gaskets .2nd, maybe it's not getting hot enough, connections loose, dirty or bad sensor...

 

[BURN2BURN]

funny you mention that, I was just reading about that sensor. The fan comes on for 30 seconds in test mode but won't come on when I set it to 1 or 2, nor will the auger. Is there a way to test this sensor or bypass it?

Regarding the temperature, I'm sure it was hot enough to run.

 

[Bioburner]

If you use the search feature you should find the ohms testing values. I cant believe it went bad from time you got it till you got it home. You could try and temporarily jump around the vac switch to rule out air leaks.

 

[BURN2BURN]

I called one of the local harman dealers, they said I need to start with why the fan isn't coming on when I set it to an number. This is a pain.

 

[gfreek]

The exhaust fan isn't coming on at all, only on test?

 

[BURN2BURN]

only the distribution fan was coming on test. I took the back off and cleaned the heck out of it. Unplugged, the exhaust fan was hot to the touch so cleaned it good.
Now, I have a fire going. I'm not sure what I did to fix it other than clean it more, it wasn't really that dirty.?? anyways, thanks for all your help.

 

[Bioburner]

Loose connection to the fan not providing enough juice to get it going and you moved it around enough to improve the connection? I would go through every terminal and check before putting into service! Or a poor pot switch?

 

[Big papa]

There was a thread on here recently were the fan wouldn't come on for him he said he cleaned and spun to see if it was free and started working for him as well so you may have had some dirt inhibiting that fan from coming on as well

 

[alternativeheat]

So basically the fan was stuck, the motor got hot because it couldn't turn. Or a connection got loose in transit. The good news, it's running now ! However I too would probably take a good look at other connections on the stove. Lets hope the motor doesn't have a dead spot in it but I doubt that.