Harmon insert dismal performance.

[Sako7STW]

We bought our house 2 years ago and it has a Harmon insert in it. I had the dealer come and he took it to his shop and have it a complete going through as it was very noisy. It turned out the exaust blower (I think that's what he called it?) Was going out. He showed me how to do a complete cleaning on it after he brought it back.

So now this is our second winter (Wyoming) with this insert and I hate it!! The heat this thing puts out is, well not heat but warm air at best. I have tried every setting I can. It's pathetic.

We replaced a wood stove up stairs last month with a refurbished St. Croix stove and it can cook us out of that room. I have it setup with a thermostat and it is truly a great stove so far. It has showed us how bad a piece of junk that Harmon is.

So here is my question. Harmon is supposed to be one of the best from what I have heard. So what do I need to do to get this thing to put out some real heat?

I was told by my dealer to run an air intake to the out side so I ran one using the hose he provided from isinde the house to out in the garage. It's about 5 feet long. I think this slightly helped but not much.

Any other suggestions?

 

[DAKSY]

What model Harman Insert do you have?

 

[Sako7STW]

It says Accentra

 

[DAKSY]

Did you pull the medallion & the inner plates & clean the heat exchanger?

 

[Sako7STW]

I do it each time I empty the ash pan. Also vacume the entire thing Including that pain in the *** tunel behind the plates.

 

[rickwai]

What color is the ash inside the stove after burning? Grey, brown or black? How big of an area are you trying to heat? Accentra is rated at about 40-43k btus i think? And that is on high.

 

[Peterfield]

I do it each time I empty the ash pan. Also vacume the entire thing Including that pain in the *** tunel behind the plates.

Do you use the flexible brush to push through that tunnel until it appears on the right side?

 

[Sako7STW]

I'm actually color blind to dark brown, black, and blues. They all look black. So if I had a guess it is a greyish with maybe a tint of brown.

Yes I push the brush all the way through it and made a extended attachment for my vacuum that gets in there better. When I clean the exchanger, I use the scraper to get the big stuff first then I use a toilet brush and scrub down the rest and then vacuum it all out.

So my settings that seam to work best is a feed rate about 2.5-3 and the room temp (that controls fan) set at about 1/3 up. If I go any higher then it blows like warm air at best and at that point I am completely wasting pellets. If I go higher on feed rate, I end up with partially burned pellets in the ash pan.

 

[DAKSY]

How clean is your ESP?

 

[Sako7STW]

The level of the home is about 1600sqft but the main area that is heated by this about 750 sqft. I can't even keep that warm at 20degf outside temp. 20 ft away in the hallway that it blows directly towards, the warmest I have ever seen the thermostat that is in that hallway show is 75 and it was 56deg outside.

 

[Sako7STW]

How clean is your ESP?

What is the ESP? Pardon my ignorance

 

[DAKSY]

ESP = exhaust Sensing Probe. It is essentially the BRAINS of your Harman Pellet Stove...
Have you followed these instructions?
http://www.homewarmth.com/pdffiles/accentrainsertcleaninginstructions.pdf

 

[Husky]

I have an accentra 52i insert and it will drive you out of the room on high. I would also suggest taking out the ESP probe and giving it a good wire brushing. Mine got pretty dirty once and I was noticing the heat output was not very good. After cleaning it up it was running good and hot again.

 

[bags]

A buddy of mine heats a big place with the same stove. They are good stoves. You just need to figure out what your problem is and as suggested start with the ESP. It could need a new ESP, but I'd start with a good ESP cleaning. How old is the stove? Also do you have the room temp sensing probe hooked up?

 

[Sako7STW]

Thanks for the link to those instructions. I have never cleaned the ESP and a few other things that showed. Guess I know what I will be doing tonight after work. I would like to think when they took it to the shop they cleaned it but never know.

I don't know how old the stove is. It was in it when we bought the house last year. The room temp probe is hooked up and I have it sitting behind the stove, off to one side.

 

[alternativeheat]

The location of the room probe can be critical to making heat or making too much heat for that matter. If the probe catches direct stove heat it can cause an early cut back in output never heating the house. Do you ever get a good high flame in the fire box ?

 

[Mt Bob]

How is it installed?Is there a block off plate in the chimney,sealed?Does the flue pipe go to top of chimney?

 

[Sako7STW]

Ok, so I just got done cleaning it and the probe looked a little dirty. I guess I don't know how dirty is dirty. I thought it would be alot worse. Just got it fired up and we will see how it does.

I don't know if it has a block plate or not. I do know the flue pipe goes all the way up

 

[Sako7STW]

Well not seeing much result. Here is a picture of the fire box. Seams like a good amount of flames. However, it seams more orange in color indicating to me a not very hot fire. Much darker color than the St. Croix upstairs and actually more flame than the St. Croix.

 

[Peterfield]

Well not seeing much result. Here is a picture of the fire box. Seams like a good amount of flames. However, it seams more orange in color indicating to me a not very hot fire. Much darker color than the St. Croix upstairs and actually more flame than the St. Croix.

That's looks like a very lazy flame. The one time my Accentra flame looked like that, the space under the burnpot was loaded with ash. Once cleaned out, the flame was almost white and I had the four fingers of fire reaching to the top of the back plates.

 

[Sako7STW]

I will double check that tomorrow night after I get back home. I also disconnected the air intake hose from out in the garage just to see the difference. Not seeing any but the room feels draftier again so I am going to hook that back up as well

 

[Sako7STW]

Do your flames go out towards the window instead of up? Our shoot streight to the glass. Also as you can see the glass gets blackened up really quick. Bad seal maybe??

 

[alternativeheat]

It looks like the photo was taken with the door open, which knocks the flame right down if so. Just saying that if the door was open when you took the photo it can't represent the running flame pattern well.

 

[Sako7STW]

Nope, door was shut. There was suut on the glass I was trying to get around and I wanted to show the coals as well.

 

[alternativeheat]

When is the last time the full venting all the way to the top has been cleaned ?