I am Pellet burning again. The year before last I broke my pellet stove by running it on a generator and then overloading the generator enough to brown out the pellet stove (Had forgotten it was even running then).
Well I didn't have enough money to get it fixed, and because of finances I ended up having to use my hot air furnace last year...It ended up costing me $1300.00 in fuel oil. So I started saving to have money to get it fixed.
I called the place I bought it from to have it fixed and unsurprisingly there was a month long lead time to get a technician out to get it fixed...its End of September..go figure
...
I was still using up the last of the fuel oil for the last 2 weeks and..it sucked the fuel oil tank dry.
I guess it was time to fix the stove if I can.. I'm an Electronics tech and have worked with 120VAC power for years so I would be able to read the wiring diagram etc...had their been one available.
Trouble Is I have a Harmon and they don't make parts or schematics available to anyone except certified Harman dealers.
I browsed here onto the Hearth's Pellet Mill to start finding info on ways to fix it. While searching here I see an Ad for Pellet Stove parts Parts for Harmans and others...
I had already determined that my PcBoard in my Harmon is burnt up.. Brown outs do that.
I removed the board previously when it died to check the fuse and it was fine. There were no other fuses inside the stove that I could see. My Pc Board for the stove is no longer made I see from thne Ad. and if I want to get a replacement for it, it has to be replaced with the newer model PC Board. It happens that the the new board comes with a Kit to install it ..including a new wiring harness for the Board. The old one had a ton of wires, all going to spade lugs.
I ordered the kit and it had a fairly good instruction sheet with pictures included. The only thing I needed was in the way of tools.. I needed metal aviation snips( tin snips) to cut the hole out for the new board. Thaat was the part I was most weary of doing..but it turned out very ok. It good that it was my stove and Im not doing it for someone else,,,My tin snipping abilities were not great. But it worked.
I then had to follow the Wiring diagram to wire in the new PCBoard. Very tine and hard to see...But Magnifying Glasses are needed at my age now for anything smaller than a package of Steamed vegitables.
Redoing the Plug and rewiring was pretty simple really...they had replacement lugs for a few of the built in wiring ,,instructions said replace the male plug with a female plug..using the included Female lug.
All I can say is Harman is great. After seeing how it was built and to what degree their installation kit went towards towards doing the job was great, inside the stove it had 3 main sections ..the Distribution blower
and it had a line cord attached..and on the end of it were the 3 lugs for ground, neutral and power . they plug write in the harness wiring...It could not have been any easier.
So after a few hours of work on my living room floor for me and my Parrot who insists on helping in every task that needs to be done. So after he bit the instructions a few times We got it done and I held my breath and plugged it in, No booms or smoke or anything. The New PCBoard turned on and it has a status lite blinking 3 blinks saying my ESP wasn't working. The plug for it turned out to kind of fell apart when I plugged it in. I reseated the wires back inside of the plug..replugged it in..and it held. I turned it back on and
all lights apear to be working the all motors were working..new board had lights on each of the 3 sections and their status.. So I put my pellet stove back in place..and poured some pellets in the burn pot and started a fire.
And then sat there nervously waiting for 'Proof of Fire' by means of auger coming on and pushing pellets ..I swear its taking long minutes to get there and it felt like it was 10 minutes and then boom The auger turns on and its pushing pellets and few minutes later the distribution fan turns on and I know then that all is good and I'm back into the Pellet heat club.
Now the Point of all this blathering on about a pellet stove and my own self grandizing story is...
IF you can afford it ...buy a Harmon. They do (Most) things right.
Now I need to cancel my Repair appointment.
Well I didn't have enough money to get it fixed, and because of finances I ended up having to use my hot air furnace last year...It ended up costing me $1300.00 in fuel oil. So I started saving to have money to get it fixed.
I called the place I bought it from to have it fixed and unsurprisingly there was a month long lead time to get a technician out to get it fixed...its End of September..go figure
... I was still using up the last of the fuel oil for the last 2 weeks and..it sucked the fuel oil tank dry.
I guess it was time to fix the stove if I can.. I'm an Electronics tech and have worked with 120VAC power for years so I would be able to read the wiring diagram etc...had their been one available.
Trouble Is I have a Harmon and they don't make parts or schematics available to anyone except certified Harman dealers.
I browsed here onto the Hearth's Pellet Mill to start finding info on ways to fix it. While searching here I see an Ad for Pellet Stove parts Parts for Harmans and others...
I had already determined that my PcBoard in my Harmon is burnt up.. Brown outs do that.
I removed the board previously when it died to check the fuse and it was fine. There were no other fuses inside the stove that I could see. My Pc Board for the stove is no longer made I see from thne Ad. and if I want to get a replacement for it, it has to be replaced with the newer model PC Board. It happens that the the new board comes with a Kit to install it ..including a new wiring harness for the Board. The old one had a ton of wires, all going to spade lugs.
I ordered the kit and it had a fairly good instruction sheet with pictures included. The only thing I needed was in the way of tools.. I needed metal aviation snips( tin snips) to cut the hole out for the new board. Thaat was the part I was most weary of doing..but it turned out very ok. It good that it was my stove and Im not doing it for someone else,,,My tin snipping abilities were not great. But it worked.
I then had to follow the Wiring diagram to wire in the new PCBoard. Very tine and hard to see...But Magnifying Glasses are needed at my age now for anything smaller than a package of Steamed vegitables.
Redoing the Plug and rewiring was pretty simple really...they had replacement lugs for a few of the built in wiring ,,instructions said replace the male plug with a female plug..using the included Female lug.
All I can say is Harman is great. After seeing how it was built and to what degree their installation kit went towards towards doing the job was great, inside the stove it had 3 main sections ..the Distribution blower
and it had a line cord attached..and on the end of it were the 3 lugs for ground, neutral and power . they plug write in the harness wiring...It could not have been any easier.
So after a few hours of work on my living room floor for me and my Parrot who insists on helping in every task that needs to be done. So after he bit the instructions a few times We got it done and I held my breath and plugged it in, No booms or smoke or anything. The New PCBoard turned on and it has a status lite blinking 3 blinks saying my ESP wasn't working. The plug for it turned out to kind of fell apart when I plugged it in. I reseated the wires back inside of the plug..replugged it in..and it held. I turned it back on and
all lights apear to be working the all motors were working..new board had lights on each of the 3 sections and their status.. So I put my pellet stove back in place..and poured some pellets in the burn pot and started a fire.
And then sat there nervously waiting for 'Proof of Fire' by means of auger coming on and pushing pellets ..I swear its taking long minutes to get there and it felt like it was 10 minutes and then boom The auger turns on and its pushing pellets and few minutes later the distribution fan turns on and I know then that all is good and I'm back into the Pellet heat club.
Now the Point of all this blathering on about a pellet stove and my own self grandizing story is...
IF you can afford it ...buy a Harmon. They do (Most) things right.
Now I need to cancel my Repair appointment.
