Harman P43 Burnpot Full

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Puffypuff1012

New Member
Dec 18, 2022
4
Sanford Maine
We woke up to a full burnpot and no fire. My husband fell asleep on the couch, said the dial was on room temp, it wasn’t blowing cold air. I came down and found the burn pot stuffed full of pellets. He had turned off. I turned on again and it seems to be going now. I will add for the last month and a half we’ve been using Energex I’ve been having to scrape the pot 3 times a day. Just made the decision to go back to wood and son. Energex was leaving loads of ash and a black window every morning.
 
What ypu describe is a no start condition. A code would have been flashing on the control board. If you deleted the code, by turning any of the knobs, then see if stove will light and run.
Why do you "feel the need" to "scrape the burn pot" 3 times a day?? It is a "bottom pusher" stove, ash on the pot is normal,belongs there, it is self cleaning. To scrape the burn pot on a Harman is only to remove hard deposits underneath the ash. You should only have to to that once a day, or less. Some only do it once a week, with no issues. "Black window every morning" sounds like you are burning in room temp, manual mode, and stove is staying in low mode all night, which will make a stove and glass dirty fast, that mode is not made for long term use in warmer conditions, makes stove dirty, worse emissions. Read manual, and this-
 
We woke up to a full burnpot and no fire. My husband fell asleep on the couch, said the dial was on room temp, it wasn’t blowing cold air. I came down and found the burn pot stuffed full of pellets. He had turned off. I turned on again and it seems to be going now. I will add for the last month and a half we’ve been using Energex I’ve been having to scrape the pot 3 times a day. Just made the decision to go back to wood and son. Energex was leaving loads of ash and a black window every morning.

After 10 years using our P43 I can say if you run in room temp/manual, scraping the burn pot a couple times a day seems to keep the carbon buildup (aka speed bumps) down. Room temp/manual does dirty up the glass faster.

sam
 
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Using GS pellets, I clear the "mustache" off P43's burnpot at least a couple of times a day while running in room temp / auto (I scrape 1x per day). The P43 has a deeper / steeper (but not as long) burnpot than my P61a so doesn't seem to clear the ashes as well. Both stoves are running GS at present and I clean the "mustache" on the P61 at most, 1x per day - and most times it is every other day. I scrape less often than that.

The door glass stays clean for much longer than a day though - and none of the deposit is black. Could it be the pellets? I've had some that did that and it cleared up without me doing anything but changing the pellets. However, it also could be burning on low for long periods too.
 
We are not in warmer conditions. We’re in Maine. Did not get to see the code. Spouse deleted it.
What ypu describe is a no start condition. A code would have been flashing on the control board. If you deleted the code, by turning any of the knobs, then see if stove will light and run.
Why do you "feel the need" to "scrape the burn pot" 3 times a day?? It is a "bottom pusher" stove, ash on the pot is normal,belongs there, it is self cleaning. To scrape the burn pot on a Harman is only to remove hard deposits underneath the ash. You should only have to to that once a day, or less. Some only do it once a week, with no issues. "Black window every morning" sounds like you are burning in room temp, manual mode, and stove is staying in low mode all night, which will make a stove and glass dirty fast, that mode is not made for long term use in warmer conditions, makes stove dirty, worse emissions. Read manual, and this-
We woke up to a full burnpot and no fire. My husband fell asleep on the couch, said the dial was on room temp, it wasn’t blowing cold air. I came down and found the burn pot stuffed full of pellets. He had turned off. I turned on again and it seems to be going now. I will add for the last month and a half we’ve been using Energex I’ve been having to scrape the pot 3 times a day. Just made the decision to go back to wood and son. Energex was leaving loads of ash and a black window every morning.
So my husband deleted the code so I wasn’t able to google it. He turned it off and turned it on and turned it off again. Said the blower wasn’t going when he woke up. I’ve been the one scraping and cleaning the stove. I’ve been scraping it because the pellets we used don’t burn com
Using GS pellets, I clear the "mustache" off P43's burnpot at least a couple of times a day while running in room temp / auto (I scrape 1x per day). The P43 has a deeper / steeper (but not as long) burnpot than my P61a so doesn't seem to clear the ashes as well. Both stoves are running GS at present and I clean the "mustache" on the P61 at most, 1x per day - and most times it is every other day. I scrape less often than that.

The door glass stays clean for much longer than a day though - and none of the deposit is black. Could it be the pellets? I've had some that did that and it cleared up without me doing anything but changing the pellets. However, it also could be burning on low for long periods too.
I’m running a brand that Energex doesn’t even advertise on their site. Leads me to believe they’re discontinuing them for a reason? They’re upper valley premium by Energex.
 
After 10 years using our P43 I can say if you run in room temp/manual, scraping the burn pot a couple times a day seems to keep the carbon buildup (aka speed bumps) down. Room temp/manual does dirty up the glass faster.

sam
So basically what I surmised from reading is either need to leave on constant burn with less food so it burns it all, or crank it .
 
After 10 years using our P43 I can say if you run in room temp/manual, scraping the burn pot a couple times a day seems to keep the carbon buildup (aka speed bumps) down. Room temp/manual does dirty up the glass faster.

sam
My P43 runs on room temp 24/7 until the ash pan fills then I shut it down and clean. I scrape the burn pot on the fly maybe once a week? I will knock the ash off the lip occasionally if I walk by and the fire is low.
 
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After 10 years using our P43 I can say if you run in room temp/manual, scraping the burn pot a couple times a day seems to keep the carbon buildup (aka speed bumps) down. Room temp/manual does dirty up the glass faster.

sam
I’ve got a P43 and the Accentra insert. I purchased two of the Harman Super Scrapers and these are much better than the Harman scraper that comes with the stove. It really keeps the speed bumps/carbon build up in the burn pot to a minimum.

I would recommend the super scraper. It’s heavy duty and costs approx $25.
 
I forgot to add that with the ashier pellets, I have to clean out the igniter area every 7-10 days even though I only clean the rest of the stove every 3-4 weeks (I do not have to do thatwith the P61a). Otherwise the pellets are close to overflowing upon start up. I was reminded of this last night. I did a deep clean of my stoves, including the leaf blower trick, on 12/9.

I burn my stove on room temp / auto, attached to a remote thermostat to start up/shut down. My glass stays clean for quite some time. and even when I clean it, it is just pretty much the upper corners that have a light brown ash.