Harmon XXV squeal, is this a common problem?

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Sep 20, 2010
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Northern New Jersey
Wife and I are still trying to decide on a pellet stove. We have narrowed it down to the Harmon XXV, Enviro M55 cast and the Quadra-fire Mt. Vernon. The question we have about the Harmon XXV is there seems to be alot of complaints about a squealing noise from the auger. Is this a common problem with this stove? I know that is something that would drive me insane. Any feedback would on this problem or our choice of stoves would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Kevin
 
You'll get all kinds of answers on this but if properly maintained I think the answer is NO.

I ran more than 10 tons thru my harman before I had any sort of noises and they were entirly due to me getting lazy on cleaning last season. A good cleaning an and I've been noise free since.
 
mascoma said:
You'll get all kinds of answers on this but if properly maintained I think the answer is NO.

X2

My P68 does not squeel, neither does my g/f's XXV...and she is not as much a fanatic about cleaning as I am.

Using better grade pellets may help us as well...less carbon buildup in burnpot
 
I agree with the others the general answer is NO.
Squealing around the auger will happen when there is too much build up of carbon
in the tube that needs to be cleaned out.

EDIT: Going on winter #5 with my XXV and have no complaints
 
Thanks for the reply.
The dealer that I went to sells Harmon and Enviro. He is more preferential to the Harmon. He said they are easier to work on. He also said cleaning is once a week because it is bottom fed and pushes out the ash into the pan. Lastly you don't get fly ash from the pellets dropping like you do with top fed stoves. Seems reasonable but are these reasons to buy one stove over another?
 
Sounds like the same comments I got , except for the fly-ash comment.....I still get fly ash. Maybe not as much, but I have not used a top fed, so I dont know.

As far as working on and cleaning, IMHO, my P68 "toilet bowl" is easier to work on and clean than the nice looking XXV. :lol:

Can't go wrong with either brand.......go with what you like, are comfortable with on upkeep and is in your budget.
 
From time to time....my XXV can develop a squeal from the auger. Seems to be when the stove is really blasting, you can get some carbon build-up at the bottom of the burn pot. If it builds up enough the auger will rub against it and squeal a bit. Scraping the burn pot daily takes care of it. I have also had a phantom squeal that come around every once in a while....again from the auger, last year I ended up putting some powdered graphite in the hopper and it went away. With that said, I love my stove, very easy to maintain and looks great as well. I would purchase one again if need be, and recommend Harman stoves to all my friends.
 
I did a search on Youtube to see the flame pattern of the XXV. That is when I came upon the squealing problem.
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The video I found on cleaning the Enviro M55 looks pretty straight forward, it doesn't appear to be too complicated.
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i get an occasional auger squeal...but NOTHING like that amount of noise...
 
That auger noise sounds exactly like the noise that I had in my boiler a couple weeks ago. I had to remove the auger motor, split the gear box housing and lube the needle bearings, the needle bearing in one of the halves was dry, no grease at all. The only way to lube these bearings is to remove the screws that hold the housing halves together.Oh well, just one more thing I will add to my list to do once a year.
 
squeal is usually carbon from crap pellets burned on low 24/7. easy enough to clean, or get the crossover tube to eliminate alltogether. Some A.C.S. on the crap pellet goes a long way,too.
 
My Accentra squels every time I tried to burn Southern States, Statesman. For me, it depends on the pellets!
 
That may or may not be the same as what we had last year.
I narrowed it down to the drive end of the auger. Had the cover off.
When the noise would start, I lightly pushed on the shaft and was able to
change the pitch and make it stop.
I carefully sprayed a small amount of WD-40 into the area where the noise was coming from.
Not sure if there is a bushing in that location. I should have looked at the parts breakdown.
It hasn't come back. I also called the dealer we bought the stove from and
ran this by their tech. He had done the same thing so was OK with what I had done.

The stove has run extremly well and I would recommend Harman as an option.

Hope this helps
 
It sounds like the Harmon is particular to the pellets used. The Enviro users say that the M55 will burn anything without a problem.
 
Must be an issue with these units, because my brand new(Build date Nov '09) unit is making this squeal on only its first day of use. I am using New England premium pellets, not exactly enjoying the squeal.
 
Kevin C said:
I did a search on Youtube to see the flame pattern of the XXV. That is when I came upon the squealing problem.
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Hey, thats my video from a couple years ago. They couldn't make the noise go away on that stove, so they finally took it back and gave me a replacement. I think that was one of the first direct drive XXV's that I got. The replacement stove was a chain drive unit and it works excellent, no complaints.
On some of the XXV's that had the extra holes in the burn pot near the auger tube were more prone to excessive carbon builup near the auger tube causing a squealing noise.

I really like the XXV, the heat it puts out and the way it looks......... :-)
 
How many others with new XXV's installed have this rubbing/squealing sound? Its pretty annoying, and metal on metal rubbing sounds aren't usually a good noise. I'll call the dealer in the morning, because for the price of this thing, it shouldn't have this trouble. I am more upset that it seems like a trend over many years, yet its still a problem? Lazy engineering?
 
Motor replaced by dealer, squeal is now gone! :-)
 
I also have had the squeal since since the install in Nov 10. I was thinking in the spring of replacing the motor/auger as its under warranty. The one thing I have found is in my daily cleaning of the burn pot I spray a little WD-40 right at the auger at the throat of burn pot. Then I don't get a squeal for about 10hrs. The squeal as describe earlier is like metal on metal. The carbon is at a minimal since I clean it daily. Just looking for your thoughts on this? The XXV to is awesome stove!!!!!!!
Take care all and have a great super bowl day. AK
 
XXV-AK said:
I also have had the squeal since since the install in Nov 10. I was thinking in the spring of replacing the motor/auger as its under warranty. The one thing I have found is in my daily cleaning of the burn pot I spray a little WD-40 right at the auger at the throat of burn pot. Then I don't get a squeal for about 10hrs. The squeal as describe earlier is like metal on metal. The carbon is at a minimal since I clean it daily. Just looking for your thoughts on this? The XXV to is awesome stove!!!!!!!
Take care all and have a great super bowl day. AK


Check your burn pot and see if you have the 5 holes right next to the auger tube, if so that could be creating the carbon at the end of the auger tube.
 
I'm a new member and a new Harman XXV owner. So far, the stoves been great except for the pellet auger which sounds like an old BBQ rotisserie. I've had the dealer take a look and it's supposed to be "normal". I don't doubt it but my home's much quieter than his showroom and I'm now tuned to the rotisserie noise.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!
Burt the Newbie
 
my 2 cents....I really like the M55...it might be a hair more effort required to clean all the guts, but that unit is quiet,quiet,quiet, throws insane heat, and is built very well. I'm very familiar with both the Enviro and Harman lines and the M55 is one of the few stoves I think can really outclass the XXV.....the faux doors on the face are a nice touch too.
 
Dealer replaced auger motor on my P38+ for squeal, after about a months use. If the auger assembly on the XXV is the same as mine then the BBQ noise you hear is "normal". It was not that noticeable in the show room either..
 
99% of the time the squeel is caused by people that neglect to scrape their burnpot so the auger tip digs into the carbon buildup. The other 1% would be a bad auger motor or the auger is not aligned correctly in the auger tube.
 
You know, the more I read these threads about the Harman auger motor squeal noise and grinding noise, the more I'm convinced that it's similar to squeaks and rattles in cars. Some people are just more sensitive to noises than others. What some people would describe as an annoying sound, another person would barely notice. Same noise - just different people hearing (or not hearing) the sound differently.

My Harman Advance has that irritating grinding, rotisserie-like noise. I went back to my dealer's showroom where they have an XXV burning near the door. I confirmed that it is a bit quieter than my Advance, but the sound is similar. The dealer is going to swap out my auger motor soon, whether that fixes it or not remains to be seen. With the many threads commenting on auger noise, I have to wonder why Harman doesn't at least try to shield their cabinets or maybe just shield the auger motor better against noise transmission. Maybe they can't make the noise go away, but they could at least try to make it less noticeable.
 
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