Harman XXV Questions: heating, cleaning, and other topcs

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lightyear

Member
Dec 24, 2010
163
Maryland
I got the stove last week and installed it on Thursday. Had it running by Thursday late afternoon. Great heat for teh whole house (we were excited!). I didn't have it on yesterday during the day and when I went home around 4:30 it was 63 in our house. (I have programmed thermostats to a low temp). So, I fire it up, and it took MANY hours for it to feel reasonable downstairs. We went to bed, and I turned it down, and when we woke up, the uptstairs was 64 degrees and downstairs was 66 deg. That didn't seem right to me....


So, if you have this stove or a similar stove, can you please help me with what I should do to optimize my heat. Do I leave it on setting 2 when not home, or keep it at 3 or 4? I want my ton to last, and not burn through, but I also want our house warm (that is why we spent 4K).


What is the better stetting also, the stove setting or the room temp setting...

If you don't mind, I would love someone to PM me their phone number so I can chat with an experienced burner :)
thanks.

I have the fresh air kit, and I need to buy the chimney type of brush, as well as the metal can for ashes to cool off in.
 
We set ours on room temp & then set a comfortable temp, for us that's just below 70 degrees. Our house is a ranch with a great room & cathedral ceilings, the bedrooms are at the other end of the hall. This setting keeps the great room is the low 70s (don't know why it's higher than the temp we've set, but that's OK with us), and the bedrooms stay in the mid-60s. We have the furnace zones set at 64 degrees as a fallback. The fan is set just below high, just so as not to run it at max all the time. So on the dial that's stove temp on top & room temp on the bottom, turn that dial near high, then set the thermostat to the temperature you want (our probe is behind the stove, part way up the wall). This fan setting is what disperses the heat out into the room. The feed rate doesn't matter (that's used for the stove temp setting), but we set it at 2-3. We use a bag to bag & a half/day. We like the room temp (have never tried the stove temp mode) as we seem to be very comfortable in the house with the settings mentioned above. We don't have the outside air kit (often referred to as OAK).

For cleaning supplies, I use an automotive pry bar to scrape the burn pot with & have a little punch to clear the air holes in the burn pot with. I also keep a 1" paint brush to brush down the heat exchanger fins & the inside of the stove. For the vacuum, I cool the stove down before cleaning, then use a shop vac with a HEPA filter & dump the ashes into a small metal trash can.

Hope this info helps to get your started! Despite a few problems with our stove, we do love the XXV stove & the heat it provides. Nothing like being outside shovelling snow, etc., & coming inside to a toasty house! Hope you enjoy yours as well.
 
IF you want a constant 70 degrees no matter what the temp is outside, you need to keep the stove in room temp mode and the dial at 70. If you want to " save " pellets, your going to be cold. You can't have your cake and eat it too. You can keep it in room temp mode at 70 when your home and turn it down to 65 or so to save a bit when your not. I reccomend you extend the supplied thermocouple wire ~ 10-15 feet and move it away from the stove for less fan cycling and more even heating. The absolute only way to use less pellets is to produce less heat, the bare minimum pellet usage is going to be on stove temp setting 1. In room temp mode and igniter on auto, during the early winter and in spring when it's warmer during the day the stove will cycle on and off and you'll save some that way but in the dead of winter it's burn pellets or be cold.

With our old whitfield it ran on stove temp setting 1 and fan speed 3, (no thermostat ) no matter what the temp out side was, and the house fluctuated between 66 and 72, and I usually got about 30 hrs. per bag of pellets. With our new XXV the house is a constant 70-71 degrees and i'm getting exactly 24 hours out of 1 bag when temps stay below freezing, a bag every 2 days when it's warmer during the day and the stove cycles on and off. The difference is ~ 6 hrs / bag of pellets which equates to about 5.6 bags / week compared to 7 bags / week, i'd rather have a consistant 71 degrees without the fluctuations and use an extra 1.5 bags / week to be comfortable all the time.
 
okay, sounds good all,

next question...
the fan setting has no bearing on pellets being burned, just the rate at which the "heated air" will be pushed from the stove?

Am I correct on that? So, I could leave teh fan setting on high while in bed or away from home if I wanted???
 
In room temp mode and igniter on auto, the distribution blower will cycle between high and low depending on the heat the stove calls for no matter if it's set on high, thats why I recommend extending the thermocouple wire and moving it about 10-15 feet away from the stove, less cycling and more even heat. Our stove is in the living room so I keep mine right between high and low and the stove runs longer at medium speed rather than constantly cycling between high and low. I think the only way to have the blower stay on high all the time is in stove temp mode manual ignite ???????? gotta check on that one. ..
 
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