I posted here in the forum back in November re. our new Harmon XXV making a high-pitched screeching noise. I am posting again to follow up re. the final resolution of that problem...
When the screeching noise problems first occurred in November (stove purchased in October), the dealer came right out to try and fix it. After the dealer's several attempts to repair the stove were unsuccessful, the dealer and Harmon have replaced our XXV - the new stove was installed a few days ago. So far it is quiet - yay.
I understand that ours was not an isolated problem. In our case, I feel that all parties have dealt in good faith - Harmon, the local dealer (whose privacy I will respect) and us - - we were more than patient and again, we allowed them several opportunities to repair the faulty stove. I think that that the dealer and Harmon's reps ultimately believe that the screeching noise came from a flaw in the machining of the auger. Again, I heard that there are several Harmon stoves in the Maritimes that had this problem, and I am told it was not just the model XXV.
That noise issue aside, we like the way the XXV looks and heats. It doesn't gobble pellets. And the fans/motors must be efficient as claimed - our electrical bill didn't change much.
At the very most we have used about 1.5 bags of pellets over a 24-hour period, and those rare occasions were on a couple of cold windy days earlier in Dec. I work from home so the stove is going all day and I keep the living space/first floor of the house in the high 60's... based on a tip I read here, on colder days I used the ceiling fan to draw the warm air throughout the living space and that is quite effective. Also I hung a heavy curtain at the top of the stairs to close off 2d floor. We turn it down to low 60s at night too.
We do fear with the unfortunate news of so many sawmills closing in Eastern Canada that the price of pellets will go up. But energy costs are soaring all over and we'd rather burn wood than oil any day.
Our drafty old house is on a windswept hill, with imperfect insulation and so it gets cold. All in all the Harmon XXV does a nice job of keeping us warm.
My 2 cents worth? In retrospect and in light of the issue we had, I would have more seriously considered other brands. I know "looks aren't everything," but a big reason we went with XXV was the style. The stove is in our dining room (on the north side of the house by the way - I read that is best location if possible), and the other stoves would look too mod and boxy for our house. Enviro didn't have a stove with the right look except for Empress which was too small for our needs. If I didn't care so much about looks we might have gone with a comparably sized stove from Jamestown, Enviro or Magnum Countryside's multifuel stove.
Other reasons we went with Harmon was cuz it's reputed to be best of breed, and cuz of it's "patented auger technology" and cuz it seemed to require less frequent cleaning. I don't find any of those factors to be as compelling after the purchase. For example - we clean it ever couple/few days anyway just to keep it running most effeiciently.
I want to reiterate that we were satisfied with the outcome and responsiveness from the dealer and from the people at Harmon. When I finally called Harmon directly - at the dealer's request - regarding the screeching noise, within several hours I received a call back telling me they would replace the stove. To me that says here is a company that does what's right by the customer. We wished they'd arranged for some free pellets or something to make up for all the headaches and downtime/oil burned, but the fact that they replaced the stove is enough, ultimately.
One thing we wished we'd done sooner was have a generator or battery backup for the stove! We lost power for a few days earlier in December and we weren't prepared at all... Brrrr!
When the screeching noise problems first occurred in November (stove purchased in October), the dealer came right out to try and fix it. After the dealer's several attempts to repair the stove were unsuccessful, the dealer and Harmon have replaced our XXV - the new stove was installed a few days ago. So far it is quiet - yay.
I understand that ours was not an isolated problem. In our case, I feel that all parties have dealt in good faith - Harmon, the local dealer (whose privacy I will respect) and us - - we were more than patient and again, we allowed them several opportunities to repair the faulty stove. I think that that the dealer and Harmon's reps ultimately believe that the screeching noise came from a flaw in the machining of the auger. Again, I heard that there are several Harmon stoves in the Maritimes that had this problem, and I am told it was not just the model XXV.
That noise issue aside, we like the way the XXV looks and heats. It doesn't gobble pellets. And the fans/motors must be efficient as claimed - our electrical bill didn't change much.
At the very most we have used about 1.5 bags of pellets over a 24-hour period, and those rare occasions were on a couple of cold windy days earlier in Dec. I work from home so the stove is going all day and I keep the living space/first floor of the house in the high 60's... based on a tip I read here, on colder days I used the ceiling fan to draw the warm air throughout the living space and that is quite effective. Also I hung a heavy curtain at the top of the stairs to close off 2d floor. We turn it down to low 60s at night too.
We do fear with the unfortunate news of so many sawmills closing in Eastern Canada that the price of pellets will go up. But energy costs are soaring all over and we'd rather burn wood than oil any day.
Our drafty old house is on a windswept hill, with imperfect insulation and so it gets cold. All in all the Harmon XXV does a nice job of keeping us warm.
My 2 cents worth? In retrospect and in light of the issue we had, I would have more seriously considered other brands. I know "looks aren't everything," but a big reason we went with XXV was the style. The stove is in our dining room (on the north side of the house by the way - I read that is best location if possible), and the other stoves would look too mod and boxy for our house. Enviro didn't have a stove with the right look except for Empress which was too small for our needs. If I didn't care so much about looks we might have gone with a comparably sized stove from Jamestown, Enviro or Magnum Countryside's multifuel stove.
Other reasons we went with Harmon was cuz it's reputed to be best of breed, and cuz of it's "patented auger technology" and cuz it seemed to require less frequent cleaning. I don't find any of those factors to be as compelling after the purchase. For example - we clean it ever couple/few days anyway just to keep it running most effeiciently.
I want to reiterate that we were satisfied with the outcome and responsiveness from the dealer and from the people at Harmon. When I finally called Harmon directly - at the dealer's request - regarding the screeching noise, within several hours I received a call back telling me they would replace the stove. To me that says here is a company that does what's right by the customer. We wished they'd arranged for some free pellets or something to make up for all the headaches and downtime/oil burned, but the fact that they replaced the stove is enough, ultimately.
One thing we wished we'd done sooner was have a generator or battery backup for the stove! We lost power for a few days earlier in December and we weren't prepared at all... Brrrr!
