harman P61A distribution blower won't run in room temp mode

[Honda]

Anyone know why my distribution blower will run in stove temp mode but not room temp mode in Auto. I rarely use room temp mode, almost always stove temp. It worked fine in room temp in the past, however, switched to room temp from stove temp for the first time this year, and the dist blower shut off. no dist blower light either in room temp mode. feed still runs. Temp setting #4-70 deg.

thanks.

 

[kinsmanstoves]

Sounds like a board issue. I do not get into replacing parts on a board but I would look in this direction.

Eric

 

[Honda]

that's what I was afraid of. Every other mode works fine, hopefully it stays that way!

 

[Honda]

Found 100k Pots on ebay in another thread, may have to try this. Looks like the room temp side of my POT could be bad? Also in stove temp it doesn't seem like the blower gets to max RPM, and the blower only has a couple of months use, essentially new. Maybe this is a sign of dead spots in the POT. I think the local radio shack would be able to replace the pots fairly easily for me. I don't want to have a complete failure when it gets really cold!

 

[Lousyweather]

Sounds like a board issue. I do not get into replacing parts on a board but I would look in this direction.

Eric

X2

 

[roadking88]

manual says you have to set the room temp mode to higher than 4 or 5 i believe to run the blower...

 

[Lousyweather]

manual says you have to set the room temp mode to higher than 4 or 5 i believe to run the blower...

huh?

 

[Melissa220]

manual says you have to set the room temp mode to higher than 4 or 5 i believe to run the blower...

If you are looking at settings 1 through 7 to set your stove, you are looking at STOVE temp. Room temp is settings 50 through 90.

If you run in stove temp/manual operation, the distribution blower will not run unless the stove temp is set at above 4. Stove temp/auto operation the dist fan will always run and the stove will not shut down until you run out of pellets.

Edit: you also need to make sure your dist blower setting is correct on either stove or room

 

[Harman Lover 007]

If you are looking at settings 1 through 7 to set your stove, you are looking at STOVE temp. Room temp is settings 50 through 90.

If you run in stove temp/manual operation, the distribution blower will not run unless the stove temp is set at above 4. Stove temp/auto operation the dist fan will always run and the stove will not shut down until you run out of pellets.

Edit: you also need to make sure your dist blower setting is correct on either stove or room

Look at you Melissa...giving out the Harman advice...you go girl!

 

[Lousyweather]

Look at you Melissa...giving out the Harman advice...you go girl!

yep- in another few days, she'll be throwing in snide comments about "read your manual", "clean your stove", and "its spelled hArmAn!"

she's a quick study

 

[Harman Lover 007]

yep- in another few days, she'll be throwing in snide comments about "read your manual", "clean your stove", and "its spelled hArmAn!"

she's a quick study

I'm fairly certain she's passed the initiation test here.....

 

[Northwoodneil]

I agree but did she put in her own OAK? I missed the end of that thread lol.

 

[subsailor]

I don't believe so. I think she's waiting until next spring.

 

[Melissa220]

yep- in another few days, she'll be throwing in snide comments about "read your manual", "clean your stove", and "its spelled hArmAn!"

she's a quick study

Does it count if i just think it? Or is this similar to: If you don't see a picture, it didn't happen?

 

[Lousyweather]

Does it count if i just think it? Or is this similar to: If you don't see a picture, it didn't happen?

oh, no, Melissa.....thats what separates the men from the boys here....(or the girls from the women!)....you have to vociferously state what is on your mind, regardless of the feelings of the offending party....pointing out the error(s) of his/her ways, such that they may have a better pellet buring experience....so....no, you cant just "think it"....state it, loudly.....

 

[Don2222]

Hello

There seems to be another case where the Distribution blower can be off in Room Temp mode!. This stove below has the newest circuit board so it may not be true for older circuit boards
When running Room Temperature mode and the switch is in Auto, if the temperature of the room is just 2 Degrees above the set point on the stove (2 Degree upper Swing), the room blower in this case will turned off automatically only if the fire is at it's lowest setting! I did not see this happen on the colder days when the fire was ramped up! ! !

Example:
The fire was still going and the auger was still feeding pellets at the min rate in pic 1&2
See Pic 1 -- Room Temp on Digital Thermom is 72 Deg F
See Pic 2 -- Harman P61a-2 stove temp dial is set to 70 Deg F and only combustion blower LED is on and only the combustion blower is running.

When I turned the temp dial up to 72.5, just above the room temp on digital thermometer, the distribution blower and it's LED came on!
See Pic 3

When I turned the temp dial on stove back down to 70, the room distribution blower and it's LED went off.
See Pic 4 and notice the pellets are still feeding at a min rate becasue the auger feeder LED is on and I hear it still feeding.

Note: If the stove temperature dial is set any lower than 70, the stove goes into shut down mode. Therefore it looks like a 2 degree bottom swing programmed into the chipset.

Click on pics below to Enlarge and see slide show,

 

[railfanron]

My P43 operates pretty much like Don says. Something interesting, the convection fan can be running and the stove not calling for heat in room temp auto but if you switch to room temp manual the convection blower will immediately turn off. In manual mode it can run on low fire without the convection fan until it ramps up on a call for heat. This may be an hour or so. Basically the convection fan runs longer in auto mode than manual.
Ron

 

[Don2222]

My P43 operates pretty much like Don says. Something interesting, the convection fan can be running and the stove not calling for heat in room temp auto but if you switch to room temp manual the convection blower will immediately turn off. In manual mode it can run on low fire without the convection fan until it ramps up on a call for heat. This may be an hour or so. Basically the convection fan runs longer in auto mode than manual.
Ron

Wow, that is interesting. I have not used manual mode much. I will have to try it.

 

[alternativeheat]

Wow, that is interesting. I have not used manual mode much. I will have to try it.

I run in manual all winter, in the spring I switched back over to auto. But I really wonder if the OP is in room temp at all. has that been cleared up yet, i read most of the posts and didn't see where it may have been verified.

 

[Harman Lover 007]

My P43 operates pretty much like Don says. Something interesting, the convection fan can be running and the stove not calling for heat in room temp auto but if you switch to room temp manual the convection blower will immediately turn off. In manual mode it can run on low fire without the convection fan until it ramps up on a call for heat. This may be an hour or so. Basically the convection fan runs longer in auto mode than manual.
Ron

That's called "low burn" or maintenance burn, it's described in your manual. Many of us run our stoves that way in the dead of winter. The distribution fan will stay off until the ESP senses 350 degrees, then it will come on.
Interestingly, on newer Harmans, Stove Temp mode is now called Constant Burn mode on the control panel.

 

[TonyVideo]

Remember in room temp mode it is designed to keep the room temp at the desired selected temp. If it is warmer than selected it will shut of the distribution blower. If the switch is in manual it will keep a maintenance fire going for quicker respond for more heat and will not shut down. If in auto mode and room temp is higher than selected then the stove will shut down. It is more obvious when first setting the temp. In auto it will extract as much heat as possible from the stove before shutting down as the fire dies down so than fan will stay on as the temp of the fire does down. In manual it just does a maintenance burn and waiting for the call for more heat and therefore can respond quicker so the fan shuts down and back on as needed.