Harman P68 status blinks 3 times

[SininStyle]

Was awoken this morning by a burnt plastic smell. rand down to see what was going on. Pellet stove was running but it stunk. Status blinks 3 times. Checked the door it was solid. All fans running. Seems to be winding down though so I shut it off.
Been running fine for weeks on low with blazer pellets. Set to 1. Set to 3 last night because it was going to get cold and it did.
Google search suggests ESP failure and to reset. the plastic smell has me worried. I just replaced the ESP end of last year. I dont see anything plastic burned up.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, only source of heat and its cold out.

 

[SininStyle]

So I reset it and it seems to be burning at idle. Safe to assume the ESP burnt up? If thats the case how do I prevent it from burning up again?
everything seems to be working. I hear and see the auger, I hear the feeder feeding it, all fans are going. Just the flame is very low no matter where I set the temp.

 

[TonyVideo]

My guess is to just clean the esp and reinstall. Burning on 1 all the time makes things dirtier from what I have found. Once a day at least crank it up and get it hot or better yet put it on room temp and let it crank it up periodically but go back down to maintenance burn in manual if you don't want to cycle the ignitor.

 

[SininStyle]

what about the plastic smell? I can't see anything viable from outside the stove. doesnt look burnt. subtle smoke noticable in the early sun beams coming through the window.

 

[TonyVideo]

Maybe from a pellet bag. Has to be plastic from somewhere that has gotten into the hopper.

 

[SininStyle]

cleaned the ESP, no change. its not spotless but i got most of it to shine metal. some black wouldnt come off.

pellet bags are kept in a separate room, no plastic nearby

 

[heat seeker]

I bet that if it burned plastic it didn't do the ESP any good. +1on cleaning the ESP.

Did something fall down onto the vent at the rear of the stove - toy, piece of bag, etc?

I was writing while you posted - pls disregard.

 

[SininStyle]

yeah ive looked all around, the smell had to come from a component. first time ive burned blazers and they run much hotter then previous pellets. possible to hot?

Still idle burning. wont change but the blinking was cleared. I dont know.Just replaced this ESP the end of last season and worked fine until about 5am. So it ran hot for about10 hours before doing whatever it is it did.
All fans are spinning/blowing. Including the one inside behind the ash pan. feed rate just wont increase.

 

[SininStyle]

i suppose a piece of the plastic bag could have come off when filling the hopper. i just blade half the top and pour. So assuming a piece went through and I cleaned the ESP, why isnt it working? does the esp have to be spotless?

 

[TonyVideo]

It will never get too hot at feed rate 4. The stove would shut down first. The ESP measuring exhaust Temps prevents this. If the esp is not working the stove would still shut down as a safety mechanism. It sounds like everything is OK. If you still have blinking lights unplug the stove after everything quits running and unplug it it for a few and see if the lights come back on.

 

[SininStyle]

so i took the ESP out again and shined it up good with some fine sandpaper. it fed really good for a few then it went back to very low feed. assuming the ESP heated up or there is a loose wire on it. what a pain.

where does the prove read from? the tip?

 

[TonyVideo]

So it still blinks?

 

[SininStyle]

nah the blinks stopped soon as i reset it in the beginning. But the feed rate was still very low.
pulled the esp out while it was on and the feed rate increased as you would expect it would. but it dropped right back down once put back in. So its reading but think its either a lose wire or reading incorrectly.
$100 part that I just replaced last year.

 

[johninwi]

not a good way to start the day

plastic in the hopper doesn't explain you smelling it in the house, it should have been exhausted outside
Could a piece of bag gotten between the hopper and the stove?

i'd remove the guards and look it over well, then fire it back up at 3 and go up from there. A flashlight and a dark room will make seeing smoke easier.

where does the probe read from? the tip?

not sure but i'd guess the entire length,

since you changed the esp could you have rearranged a wire or a wire tie allowing it nearer something hot?

 

[TonyVideo]

Feed rate on the panel is at 4? Stove or room temp setting at high? I know it doesn't take much to damage the esp. Maybe connections got reversed?

 

[Golfeur]

Esp the probe is a temperature probe is a thermocouple or rtd probe if it is opposite sign instead of saying that the temperature increases it'll indicate that the temperature down and ca causes the disorder you have.
Excuse me for the text if AC can be difficult to understand because I write in french and I did the translation in English with google.
I like this forum c is my first post.

 

[SininStyle]

feed rate at 4, temp at 4 , everything up and still idle feed rate. hardly anything at the bottom. just enough to keep it light.
I looked over the stove top to bottom inside and out and cannot find anything burnt or out of place. I see no plastic residue or clumps in the burn pot or around the stove.
it has been working as intended off and on for weeks with no issue. the wiring of the ESP looks fine. can only get my face in there so far but i cant smell plastic anywhere.

 

[SininStyle]

So something must have burned up that is not visible. If not -inside- the stove then it must be a fan or something. Dont see how any of them could effect the feed rate or the 3 blinks on the status. that is all controlled by the ESP. I checked the back of the control board and saw no signs of any burning.

 

[johninwi]

if you have a volt/ohm meter this may help, there's some other threads on esp's but to loose one so soon after replacing seems unusaul
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/harman-esp-test.106847/#post-1395800

 

[SininStyle]

pretty sure i replaced a black wire with a black wire last yr.

So the stove temp control doesnt seem to want to do anything but room temp control is feeding correctly. getting some good heat now with room setting

 

[F4jock]

Was awoken this morning by a burnt plastic smell. rand down to see what was going on. Pellet stove was running but it stunk. Status blinks 3 times. Checked the door it was solid. All fans running. Seems to be winding down though so I shut it off.
Been running fine for weeks on low with blazer pellets. Set to 1. Set to 3 last night because it was going to get cold and it did.
Google search suggests ESP failure and to reset. the plastic smell has me worried. I just replaced the ESP end of last year. I dont see anything plastic burned up.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, only source of heat and its cold out.

Suggest you turn to "OFF," switch to room temp, unplug for a minimum of one minute, set temp to something over where room is, plug back in, fire up and watch it. I had a simliar experience a few years back when the stove overheated. Smelled the same as you indicate. Stove was hotter than a two-dollar pistol. Never happened again and no idea why high temp cutout didn't work. All of my problems were solved by replacing the room temp sensor and cleaning the ESP. Not clear what you set to one and three: temp or feed? Are you running in stove temp or room temp?

 

[Harman Lover 007]

pretty sure i replaced a black wire with a black wire last yr.

So the stove temp control doesnt seem to want to do anything but room temp control is feeding correctly. getting some good heat now with room setting

Ok so you didn't tell us what mode you were running it in until now....you are Room Temp mode now and it appears to be running OK? You are now operating off of the room sensing temperature probe that attaches to the back of the stove. When you run in Stove Temp mode you are strictly running off the ESP and the exhaust path temp.

 

[Harman Lover 007]

Suggest you turn to "OFF," switch to room temp, unplug for a minimum of one minute, set temp to something over where room is, plug back in, fire up and watch it. I had a simliar experience a few years back when the stove overheated. Smelled the same as you indicate. Stove was hotter than a two-dollar pistol. Never happened again and no idea why high temp cutout didn't work. All of my problems were solved by replacing the room temp sensor and cleaning the ESP. Not clear what you set to one and three: temp or feed? Are you running in stove temp or room temp?

I think he just told us above that he now running in Room Temp mode and it's working.

 

[Harman Lover 007]

I'm suspicious of his ESP or a burnt component on his control board.

 

[F4jock]

I think he just told us above that he now running in Room Temp mode and it's working.

Yeah. Missed that one. But if it works in Room Temp then QED the ESP and board have to be functional. We're missing some info here.