Harman TL 300

[James04]

Hi I am new to the group. I would like to know if anyone has any experience with this new wood stove from Harman. The TL 300. I have already purchased it. However, I have some reservations about it. First off the efficiency is only 63 percent. This was only found out after purchase when I unpacked it at home. The dealer was unable to tell me and the Harman web site does not list this info. It just hurts me to think that I could be burning up to 10 percent less wood with another stove. The second thing that I am worried about is it being too big. My home is a newly constructed 30x40 two story colonial with an open floor plan (2400 sqft). The stove will be centrally located.My actual heat load on the coldest day of the year is 33K BTU. That would be 2 degree out door temperature. I live in Easter CT. I will see if I can upload the floor plan.

So, what do you think? Will I be burning more wood than another more efficient stove? I know those numbers are not real world. Will I be able to slow the burn down enough as to not over heat the house and still get a clean burn? The dealers don't seem to be too helpful here. I get answers like just build a smaller fire or wouldn't you rather get a pellet stove.

James

 

[James04]

This will be tough to see. Perhaps you can zoom in with a photo software. The stove will be on the first floor. Between the basement door and the archway for the living room.

James

 

[pelletheat]

The efficiency you are referring to, was it the EPA hang tag that by law must go on every wood stove? If so, that is usually very conservative, in most cases by at least 10%. I think you'll be fine.

I was looking at the specifications for the TL300 from the stove brochure on the website, the heating capacity is listed 1500 to 3000 sq. ft. with extremely long burn times and very clean burning with average emissions of 1.1 grams per hour and .8 on low burn.

(broken link removed to http://www.harmanstoves.com/doc/tl300woodstovelitpage2.pdf)

 

[titan]

I'd try not to take those efficiency #'s too seriously.I find some manufacturers post conservative #'s while others feel the need to show overly-optimistic figures.Take solace in the fact that you purchased an EPA-rated stove from an established manufacturer.Your open floor plan and stove placement should allow for easy heating of your home as well.I'm more than a little curious about Harman's top-loaders;please keep us posted on your experience with the TL-300(pics are good too), enjoy,and welcome to the club.
Edit:I see the claimed burn times of 8-17hrs on their site-obviously there are no pessimists in Harman's marketing department!

 

[BrotherBart]

All of the door hang tag efficiency numbers are defaults now. All stoves of the same type get the same number stuck on the tag. No relationship to reality whatsoever.

 

[webbie]

Read the tag carefully - it might have an * on it which states "Not tested for efficiency, the number given is for...."

As BB says, most stoves are NOT tested for efficiency, and even those which are are not tested to a "standard test" for efficiency, as there is none. Grams Per Hour does not really relate to efficiency.....it does relate to burning the wood efficiently, of course, because that means less smoke it put out - but heat exchange to the room is another matter altogether.

Bottom line - that stove installed inside the home with some pipe showing should make you very happy.

I guess no one here really thinks you will be burning any more wood than most other newer stoves - you definitely could have done worse on your choice of a stove.

 

[BrotherBart]

I just took a look at that stove on the website. What a hoss. Top loader, 3 CF firebox, all the bling available you could ever want (or stand), barbecue grill and rotisserie and 1.1 GPH blowing out the stack.

Eat your hearts out Summit boys! The OP just bought one heck of a wood stove

What did they charge your for the TL300?

 

[titan]

It even comes in "Mojave Red"!

 

[James04]

Thank you all for your comments and votes of confidence. The specs are what attracted me to this stove. I originally wanted a cast iron stove for the looks and heat retention. So I was more interested in the Oakwood. However it needs a full 26" to combustibles on the sides. This stove only requires twenty and has the extra long burn time. I did a test firing yesterday with a couple of pieces of 2x4 doug fir that were still on the green side. Once things got hot enough (roaring) and the after burn was kicked in you could see no smoke emissions coming out of the SS chimney. There was a very spooky aspect to it though. When set to a slow burn every 20 or so seconds the gases that built up in the fire box would slowly ignite and dance around for a second or two emitting this low rumbling sound. Scared the heck out of me at first. Is this normal for one of these efficient stoves. I have never operated one before. Kind of looks cool the way the flames danced around in there but the sound of it was ominess for sure. The six or so peices lasted for about 3-4 hours varying from slow burn to full open at times.

Regards,
James

 

[James04]

Brother Bart,

Sorry I didn't answer your question. It cost 2k without the trim or grill. Trim is $250 and the grill is $50. Plus a slate tile insert for another $50. Certainly not cheep. Hence my concerns regarding it being the rite stove for us.

James

 

[BrotherBart]

The rumbling is the afterburner technology that Harman uses. The gases were collecting in the firebox and then blowing back into the afterburner and when they combusted in there that made the roar.

Four hours on six Doug Fir two by fours. Yep. The Summit is in trouble. :lol:

 

[James04]

Wow 113 hits! I had no idea this site was so popular. I am hoping for someone who has this stove to chime in. Would be really interesting to see what they think so far.

James

 

[MishMouse]

I was thinking on purchasing this stove to replace my Drolet Adirondack.
The Adirondack is a good stove but it is a little to small for what I need.

Any more comments on the Harman TL 300 stove?

Also one thing I considered strange about Harman is that there prices are not published.
I was tring to do some comparitive shopping online and everybody refuses to list there price.
Not even a suggested retail.

Other things I was looking for is effeciency ratings vs there other wood stoves,
which is another figure that is strangely missing.

 

[James04]

MishMouse,

The best way to get pricing information is to start calling the Harman dealers in your area. That is part of Harman's business model. Everything through the dealer. You will need the zip codes to your neighboring towns in order to get more than two dealers numbers from the Harman web site. I have found many will quote strait retail and a few will give you a break. As far as the stove goes. It is a real bruiser. I will just say though, If you want a set it and forget it stove you may want to look into one of the catalytic stoves. But if you like technology and fiddling with things to the point of perfection then this is the stove for you. Very long burn times lots of heat and an indoor grill to boot. It took me a long time to be happy with the stove with lots of stalls. But with 24/7 burning and a steep learning curve I am now very happy with the stove. If I where to count my burn times the way some here do. I would say I am getting over 14hrs perhaps 16. However I think just having coals left over to start a new fire is not practical. I consider the burn to be over at stove top temps drop below 300. So then I will say between 10 and twelve hours. This is real not inflated. I am heating a newly built 2400sqft colonial with an open floor plan. First floor typicaly 75-80 deg and second floor 70-75.

James

 

[rbcsp20]

I have a TL300 and have owned it for the past two years. I am happy with the stove but it's a little tricky to learn how to use! The stove is in my basement and heats 2500 square feet. It's is a little hot in the basement but i can keep the upstairs around 77 degrees with very little effort. The stove has a very long burn time if you load it right. Last year I didn't own the "fire gloves" so I just threw wood in the stove and didn't take much time on how I loaded it up. With the gloves this year I can place the wood in the stove w/o burining my hands and I place it in the stove like a puzzle. I get 10 hour burns with no problem and I only turn my stove down to the first Notch on the air lever. I have some small complaints about the stove and here they are: If I turn the airflow to low, I get a "smoke" smell in my house so I never really turn it down very much. The "smokeless" top loader is kinda BS If the stove is not running hot you will get smoke out of the top loader when putting wood in. When it's hot with lots of coals you won't have a problem. When i first bought the stove I wasn't using it right but here is a tip: I found that i have to run the stove with the damper open for about an hour or so unti there is a full bed of coals across the bottom before I close the air damper. Once the coals are there and you close the damper it should run just fine! This stove is great if your looking to heat a large area. I wouldn't recommend this stove if you live in a smaller house. Any questions please feel free to ask. Thanks Bob

 

[ameador1]

I have a TL300 and have owned it for the past two years. I am happy with the stove but it's a little tricky to learn how to use! The stove is in my basement and heats 2500 square feet. It's is a little hot in the basement but i can keep the upstairs around 77 degrees with very little effort. The stove has a very long burn time if you load it right. Last year I didn't own the "fire gloves" so I just threw wood in the stove and didn't take much time on how I loaded it up. With the gloves this year I can place the wood in the stove w/o burining my hands and I place it in the stove like a puzzle. I get 10 hour burns with no problem and I only turn my stove down to the first Notch on the air lever. I have some small complaints about the stove and here they are: If I turn the airflow to low, I get a "smoke" smell in my house so I never really turn it down very much. The "smokeless" top loader is kinda BS If the stove is not running hot you will get smoke out of the top loader when putting wood in. When it's hot with lots of coals you won't have a problem. When i first bought the stove I wasn't using it right but here is a tip: I found that i have to run the stove with the damper open for about an hour or so unti there is a full bed of coals across the bottom before I close the air damper. Once the coals are there and you close the damper it should run just fine! This stove is great if your looking to heat a large area. I wouldn't recommend this stove if you live in a smaller house. Any questions please feel free to ask. Thanks Bob

I think you may have a draft issue. Our TL200 was running great and never gave us any trouble letting smoke come in the house when the top door was opened to load wood - but - we had to have our chimey and stove pipe re-routed (long story). The installers designed a system with too much horizontal run that was also too close to the stove and it REALLY knocked down our draft. We then had all the symptoms you are mentioning. I finally researched the issue enough and repurchased the items I needed and put the system back where it was with upgraded parts that fixed the original reasons it needed to be moved. Now we have our draft back and again, no more smoke in the house. The stove is burning better at low temp settings and can put out enough heat on higher settings when needed. With the low draw I had to open everyting all the way and still could not get enough heat. In fact, I now have sooo much draw that I had to add an additional damper in the stove pipe to help slow it down so it doesn't overfire on its highther settings.

To the OP: I have also found that when you turn this stove down too low after adding a new load of wood that it will do this dancing fire - roar thing. In fact at one time my top loading door seal had gotten damaged and when it did this, that flames would dance a little, then go out for a minute or so. Then smoke would build up in the top of the stove and PUFF! It would re-ignite back into the dancing flames and would actually cause a puff of smoke to come out around the top load door - causing the house to smell like smoke. It took me a few days of the house going through these boughts of smoke smell before I reslized this was happening as the amount of smoke per puff was small an not very noticable. If yours is doing this with a seal in tact it may be causings an even smaller amount of smoke to enter the room and be harder to track down. Anyway, the simple quick fix was just not to turn the stove down as soon after a load and/or just not turn it down quite so low - just a little bit more air flow typically stopped this. This also could be a bit of a draft problem as I only had this problem when our chimney was redirected and had our draft out of wack. Now that it's fixed I can turn it down all the way pretty soon after a re-load with no more of this issue.

This was an old post, but figured in case anyone else saw this thread and had the same problem it might help.

P.s. I think from what I have looked at (web site and physical examination) that the TL300 fixed some (maybe all - I'm still looking and checking) core issues with the TL200. We are having some new problems with the TL200 right now that are looking like $1000 in parts - so I'm considering possibly buying a TL300 to replace it. The TL200 does have nice, long burn times - I have, on a few occasions, had enough embers after 24 hours to start a new fire without starting over from scratch. Overnight runs while putting out pretty good heat is very legitimate. I LOVE the top loader - makes a FULL load possible. If full loading from the top, the Andiron Extensions should really be used. Longer extensions would even be nicer to keep a full load from letting the wood touch the glass (thus blocking the air wash over the glass - and sometimes banging it with the wood). Like I said the TL300 for all practical purposes looks like a TL200 versions 2.0. Very little change other than correcting problems and adding a few nice touches like a visible air flow adjuster - the TL200's was completely under the lip and you had to get on your knees to see where is was. The Afterburner seems to have been modified and made easier to repair/replace, the metal works in front of it (back wall of the wood loading area) has been replaced with fire brick (the metal works seems to be warping in our case - thus the part of the needed repairs), the handle mechanism that opens/closes the top damaper plate and top loading door has been modified (another part of our repair issue). The top loading door has the seal on the door itself instead of on the stove body where it could get damaged by wood being loaded from the top (along with the thin metal track it sat in). Point is, it looks like they may have fixed everything we are now having a problems with in the TL300, while maintaining the apearance and benefits!

 

[summit]

the efficiency tag they have on the glass door outta the packaging is not really accurate. Usually there is an asterisk with the caveat that this is the avg number for similar sized non-cat stoves. The TL300 passed the over 75% test for the fed tax credit. From a cold start, factoring in the heat loss getting the firebox and flue up to temp to a dead cold stop on one load of wood, then yes you might have a 63% efficiency over that burn... but for a continuous run without having to re-heat the firebox/combustion chamber/ flue, reloading onto hot coals and hot firebox you'd see the efficiency # jump up past 75% because the system is up to temp already. Make sense?