Harman Quality???

[aweya]

I bought a Harman Advance Pellet Stove a few weeks ago. Last night I'm sitting in the living room watching a movie with the family, stove cranking away, when my daughter says, "The bricks in the stove are crooked and it looks stupid". I look, and sure enough they are. (Never noticed) Now, thats all I'm focused on. I'm anal that way. So this morning I shut the stove down, cleaned the burnpot and vacuumed it out a little and investigated the crooked brick plate. The reason the brick plate is crooked is that the burn pot is crooked. Its off about 1/2 inch over 8 inches. A blind man could feel it with a stick! I bought this stove because its supposed to be one of the best, qualty wise and because it was made in America. I had a few other little things that I took care of myself. One, was the distribution fan whined when it came on. I took that apart and found a guard was vibrating. I took it off and put a slight bend in it and put it back together. Its silent now. The clowns didnt hear this at the factory? Also, the left side door wouldnt come off because one of the tangs was too long by a hair. I took a file to it and now its fine. Does Harman have a QC department or do they just slap them together and send them out the door? I know these are small issues but I paid close to $3000 for this stove. Harman, get your head out of your butt.

Ok, I got the off my chest.

The question: There are 4 bolts holding the burn pot. If I loosen them is it possible to rotate the burn pot level and do I need to seal the burn pot to where it mounts against? Has anyone ever replaced a burn pot that could possibly share some insight?

 

[begreen]

Is it possible something happened during shipping or installation? This should have been take care of by the dealer. Have you contacted them? It probably is a good idea in case something more serious end up the underlying cause.

 

[webbie]

Harman was obviously turning up the assembly lines to full bore in the last 18 months, and I always tend to think "when you put the line into overdrive, things tend to fall off".

I really doubt that they performed the same level of testing as usual when they were months behind.

Perhaps you already heard it here, but Harman got into big trouble from over producing - they pretty much went "plunk", and are supposed to be bought out by a large company (HON office furniture, HNI, also makes Quadrafire, etc.)

So my guess is that they may have let some things slip during the rush with the assumption that the dealers and warranty would take care of it all.

Hopefully someone familiar with exactly the burn pot situation will help you with the technical part. Certainly the dealer should be your first contact, but I know how it is waiting for a repair in-season. It may be as simple as BG says - just shipping movement.

 

[aweya]

I agree, I should call the dealer. Its just a nuisance, someone has to be home and who knows how long I'd have to wait to get someone in. If its just a matter of loosening 4 bolts and then adjusting it, I'd rather take the 10 minutes and do it myself. I just dont want to take it apart blind. I had the service tech here last week because of a shudder and he checked the whole stove out and said it was fine. I'm hoping someone here has had the same issue. Thanks guys!

 

[begreen]

Give the dealer a call and ask if this is something you can address without voiding the warranty. If it's easy, I would imagine the dealer would be glad to walk you through the process.