Harman P61 distribution blower noise

[Phil79]

Hello All,

I have an older (11 years) P61 that I've just last year had a few parts start to wear out and need replacing. One of those parts was my distribution (blower) fan. I had replaced it at the beginning of the season in 2016 but quickly returned the fan to the dealer as the horrible noise it made was making me crazy. By the end of the season my old fan finally bit the dust and I had no choice but to put another new one in. the same thing is happening. once the stove gets going and warmed up the fan starts making a noise that I cant describe other than that noise the TV used to make when the channels went off the air at night.....ya you know the noise...its horrible ( if you done know what I mean...google channel off air sound....) the sound only changes slightly when moving the temp setting from low to high..just changes the volume of the sound.

Now the weird part here is that if I turn the stove to test mode the noise will stop...which I can only assume is because in test mode it cranks everything to full power? I say this because the distribution fan light gets brighter when the sound goes away.

I had also thought that perhaps the circuit board was part of the issue so I replaced it as well. That just caused a whole host of new issues, the distribution fan never "ramped up" it was always on minimum, unless I turned the thermostat up from the current setting to make the stove call for heat. typically my stove can maintain the temperature without having to dump a bunch of pellets into the burn pot and go into high burn. so basically with the new board it never turned the fan up. That compounded the problem as then the heat didn't move around therefor making the basement even hotter than intended.

if anyone has any thoughts on what could be causing the issue with the fan or if you've experienced the issues with replacing a control board and figured out a fix I'd love any advice you can offer.

 

[Phil79]

tried to upload a video but the file is too large. will try to take a smaller one later on.

 

[vinny11950]

I am not familiar with your stove model, and hopefully another Harman owner and forum member will chime in. But I would check the basics again, like is the motor mounted on correctly? Is anything rubbing or touching any part of the moving fan blades? Pull out the stove literature and look to see if the fan motor uses a capacitor of some sort, if it does it may have failed and is causing your issues?

Also, contact Harman and ask them what they think.

Good luck.

 

[freebird77]

Did you ever find why you had the noise? My blower was replaced a couple years ago, and it drives me nuts. Sometimes all I have to do is tweak the fan speed just a tiny bit, and it stops, for a few minutes then back again. Hope to hear what you found out.

 

[Mt Bob]

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/p61-distribution-fan-noise.164710/ As far as your control board problems,sounds like you put in a used one? or you do not have the switches on back set properly.

 

[freebird77]

Did you ever find out what the noise was? I know this is an old post but Im having the exact same issue, driving me nuts. Any one with similar problem be thankful for any advice.

 

[JR52]

It's very likely your combustion fan blades. Did you clean behind the distribution fan blades? The brush that Harman provided me for my Absolute 63 is too big and when I pull it back out when I'm done it pulls the blades close to the fan guard. It makes a high pitch noise that sounds like the TV station out of service noise. You need to push them away from the guard and the noise will go away. That worked for me when it has happened before and most recently a week ago after a full cleaning.

 

[freebird77]

Sorry for the double post. Im not so sure now that its not the exhaust motor making the sound. Hearing is poor in these old ears. How hard is it to replace the exhaust blower? I have heared that sometimes the fan is froze on the motor shaft.

 

[Tonyray]

Sorry for the double post. Im not so sure now that its not the exhaust motor making the sound. Hearing is poor in these old ears. How hard is it to replace the exhaust blower? I have heared that sometimes the fan is froze on the motor shaft.

you then have to use a dremel tool with a cutting blade or similar [sawzaw] and cut the shaft holding the blades.
not that hard.. it's a thin shaft. also, the blades will be getting replaced anyways so you just bend them out or snap them off with needle nose plyers in order to have room to cut.