Harman P61A Won't shut down...

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Bigjim13

Minister of Fire
Hearth Supporter
Jan 5, 2009
588
Central Vermont
As the title says, I have a Harman P61A and it won' shut down. Swith is in AUTO, turn knob to off position and turned thermostat dial way down. The blowers aren't running but the auger is feeding pellets still and a small to medium flame is burning.

Step one tomorrow will be to let it run dry of pellets and clean it but what should I be looking for other than clean esp probe? How can I tell if the circuit board is acting up or something needs to be replaced?

Stove was purchase is May 2008 so it's on its 7th season and has been a beast right along. I keep it very clean as a rule but its due for a cleaning, overdue actually, right now.

As always, thanks in advance for any thoughts!
 
I should also mention that when in the off position the status light goes off.


Thanks!
 
ESP maybe. Deep clean and fire her up and try to shut it down after awhile.
 
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The blowers aren't running but the auger is feeding pellets still and a small to medium flame is burning.

Both blowers are not running, auger continues to feed pellets and small to medium flame keeps burning? Something doesn't add up to me.
 
Both blowers are not running, auger continues to feed pellets and small to medium flame keeps burning? Something doesn't add up to me.
My bad, distribution blower was still going...not much though.

Not adding up to me either.
 
Give it a complete cleaning including an inspection of the venting and let us know how you make out. Could be a dirty ESP.
 
As the title says, I have a Harman P61A and it won' shut down. Swith is in AUTO, turn knob to off position and turned thermostat dial way down. The blowers aren't running but the auger is feeding pellets still and a small to medium flame is burning.

Step one tomorrow will be to let it run dry of pellets and clean it but what should I be looking for other than clean esp probe? How can I tell if the circuit board is acting up or something needs to be replaced?

Stove was purchase is May 2008 so it's on its 7th season and has been a beast right along. I keep it very clean as a rule but its due for a cleaning, overdue actually, right now.

As always, thanks in advance for any thoughts!

Hello

I would replace the circuit board to make sure I have the latest chipset with the bugs out and the latest heat algorythms in. A CB is not very expensive especially compared to a Whitfield control panel. LOL
 
Had this problem with my XXV at a particular overdue cleaning this year. Attributed it to a dirty ESP, which had soot & ash insulating it and "tricking" the stove into thinking it was still warm. My solution was to scrape out the whole burn pot into the ash pan and dump the pan into my ash bucket outside - no more fire and it eventually cooled down and shut off. You should probably turn it to "manual" if you do that though so the igniter doesn't turn on.
 
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I do not think you need to run it out of pellets to shut down,just crack door or hopper lid and let vacuum switch shut it down?
 
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My money is on the control board. I had a similar issue and that's what it was.
X2, mind you I haven't changed my board yet but I did swap another ESP and still did not shut off!
 
I gave it a good cleaning. The ESP probe wasn't the worst I've ever seen it but there was a good amount of ash in the exhaust pipe, so that may help.

I'm going to fire it up later and see what happens. Just out if curiosity, how much and how difficult is it to replace the control board?
 
I removed mine for pot replacements and it was not too hard to do. Just be careful with the wires getting pinched. ESP does get dirty and gets gently brushed clean when I do my heavy cleanings. You can remove and a do a wipe clean but my OAK piping gets in the way, poor design by Harman's engineers.
 
I removed mine for pot replacements and it was not too hard to do. Just be careful with the wires getting pinched. ESP does get dirty and gets gently brushed clean when I do my heavy cleanings. You can remove and a do a wipe clean but my OAK piping gets in the way, poor design by Harman's engineers.
I don't have an oak so cleaning the esp isn't so bad, the hardest part is getting the screw back in.
 
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