My Accentra is making noises!

[Hammerjoe]

Before I start opening the stove or call the dearler I want to see if anyone else has this kind of problem?

My Accentra installed this past march is now making a high pitch squeal when the feeder is on.

The problem is that it is doesnt do it all the time.

It did this all day, and just now all I did was to move the pellets inside the hopper (it is half full) and the noise stopped???

I can't make any sense of this...

Anyone experienced anythign similar?

 

[GVA]

Is the squeal coming from the auger side or the gear motor side?
What kind of pellets do you have? Do you have lots of fines? Bottom of the burnpot clean? How many bags have you burned so far?
Last major cleaning?
That's step one.

 

[HarryBack]

yea, more info. I would isolate WHERE actually the noise is coming from first, and yes, this means you'll need to pull the cover off of the back....two pieces, each held on by two screws. Sometimes the noises only happen when the stove i scool, sometimes hot, and Im guessing since its November, your is doing it while its hot. Pull the panels off, get a flashlight, and start the stove. Let it warm up, and dont go sticking your hands near the electrical connections white its running. Wait till it gets hot, wait for the squeel. Then peek in back and see if you can find some common denominator. Maybe it squeels when the cam bearing is at 2:00 only....probably a pillow block bearing. Maybe it squeels all the time? Maybe the auger motor or a bearing. Maybe your fines container is chock full of fines, causing undue strain on the slide arm assembly.....clean that out. Maybe your burnpot is so full of hard clinkers its throwing the auger into a slight bind, therefore binding the rear bearing. Maybe you have a bad gearbox....which due to the age of the stove, its covered under warrantee. The most important thing you can do before you call the stove company is make sure there is no heavy clinker accumulation in the burnpot, and clean out the fines chamber. If either of these are cuasing the squeel, it'll cost you. Otherwise, its most likely covered under Harman's 3/6 year Gold Warrantee. Good Luck, and let us know what happens.

 

[Hammerjoe]

Thanks for the sugestions... I will open the back and see what I can find... Where is this fines container located?

I scrapped the burnpot yesterday afternoon.

Overall it must have burned maybe 50 bags so far since march.

I did a throughly cleaning this summer.

Today the stove is not making any noise...
It makes troubleshooting much harder.

 

[GVA]

Door is located between gearmotor and the back of the stove, it's about 3" by 5" with a wingnut in the middle.
(broken link removed)
try this link for detailed instructions on cleaning

 

[GVA]

Sorry heres an update the accentra has 2 wingnuts top and bottom on the slide plate cover, see page 4 of the link I showed you.

 

[Hammerjoe]

The back of my accentra doesnt look like that at all and tha plate only has one wingnut, and the plate is a pita to remove.

My question is how would those fines sitting at the bottom of the container make the machine squeal??

 

[GVA]

The back of my accentra doesnt look like that at all and tha plate only has one wingnut, and the plate is a pita to remove.

My question is how would those fines sitting at the bottom of the container make the machine squeal??

It may or may not make it squeal, it's just something to check since we don't have a particular area to look at yet.
Ok here it goes about a month ago something kinda similar happened to me it was a new thing to me. There are several things to look for but in my case it was a bad bag of pellets dumped in....... I pulled out about 2 1/2 cups of fines at the bottom of my hopper (not much in the slide plate cleanout by the way) But this was enough to put a strain on the auger from turning (who knows how many made it to the auger).
The fines that made their way down to the auger tube helped to hold back the pellets from feeding causing an undue strain on the motor.
The sound you are hearing It's may be hard to describe but I can't tell you where to look if you don't give me more info.
If it is the auger binding on fines and pellets in the tube it will sound like a corkscrew going into the cork on a wine bottle but only amplified quite a bit (or the twisting removal of such cork from the bottle) it's the only way that I can describe this. It's not a mettalic squeal.
If it doesn't make any sense what I'm talking about then you need to do what HB says and watch the auger sprocket, Cam, and chain tension, motor mount for movement, etc..... when is the noise happening.
I have kinda realized that it is better to hold back on info till the owner checks the stoves main areas like burnpots etc. You still need to say what kind of pellets and the amout of fines per bag, other wise we will be going around for days on things to check.

 

[HarryBack]

The back of my accentra doesnt look like that at all and tha plate only has one wingnut, and the plate is a pita to remove.

My question is how would those fines sitting at the bottom of the container make the machine squeal??

Fines in that chamber, when they accumulate to the point that the chamber fills, cause the feeder arm which drives the slide plate to bind....eventually to the point where the stove will mo longer feed. Ive taken these covers off and seen the chamber so packed, not a grain of sawdust fell out thwn the cover was pulled off...it was just jammed in there....just and idea. Im really only suggesting things to check so when or if the serviceman comes and finds nothing wrong other than poor maintenance, we avoid the typical argument which goes something like this.....

serviceperson: "well, sir, the reason your pellet stove wont feed is because the fines chamber is completely packed with sawdust...that really needs to be cleaned out every couple of months. Unfortunately, this isnt covered under warrantee, and the total cost of my work today is $75.00.."

stoveowner: "WHAT!?"

serviceperson: "yes, this isnt covered under the warrantee because you failed to adequately clean the fines chamber"

stoveowner: "LISTEN HERE: I just paid your company $3000 two years ago for this stove! Im NOT gonna pay this! etc"

well, you get the picture.......

check it, if everything appears ok, go ahead and call for service

 

[BrotherBart]

Here is the whole owner maintenance drill, with pictures, for the Accentra:


(broken link removed to http://www.harmanstoves.com/maintenance/accentracleaninginstructions.pdf)

 

[GVA]

Here is the whole owner maintenance drill, with pictures, for the Accentra:


(broken link removed to http://www.harmanstoves.com/maintenance/accentracleaninginstructions.pdf)

That's the same on the homewarmth site
95% of pellet stove problems are cleaning related, so I'm beginning to wonder why the stove companies aren't just adding the full cleaning procedures to the manuals.

 

[BrotherBart]

Here is the whole owner maintenance drill, with pictures, for the Accentra:


(broken link removed to http://www.harmanstoves.com/maintenance/accentracleaninginstructions.pdf)

That's the same on the homewarmth site
95% of pellet stove problems are cleaning related, so I'm beginning to wonder why the stove companies aren't just adding the full cleaning procedures to the manuals.

I know. I just gave him that one so he can say "I did it just like Harman said to do it.".

Gotta go. My wood stove isn't making any funny noises and that worries me.

 

[Hammerjoe]

The back of my accentra doesnt look like that at all and tha plate only has one wingnut, and the plate is a pita to remove.

My question is how would those fines sitting at the bottom of the container make the machine squeal??

I have kinda realized that it is better to hold back on info till the owner checks the stoves main areas like burnpots etc. You still need to say what kind of pellets and the amout of fines per bag, other wise we will be going around for days on things to check.

It is not making any noises since yesterday, so I am guessing it might be because of sawdust in the feeder system that is putting a strain on the mechanism!

The pellets I am using are : http://www.comfycozypellets.com/

It from a local manufacturing plant, altough they charge the same as the ones that came from elsewhere?!?

I also checked the fine conatiner, there a just a small amount in it, a swipe with the vacuum and it was done...

 

[GVA]

Here is the whole owner maintenance drill, with pictures, for the Accentra:


(broken link removed to http://www.harmanstoves.com/maintenance/accentracleaninginstructions.pdf)

That's the same on the homewarmth site
95% of pellet stove problems are cleaning related, so I'm beginning to wonder why the stove companies aren't just adding the full cleaning procedures to the manuals.

I know. I just gave him that one so he can say "I did it just like Harman said to do it.".

Gotta go. My wood stove isn't making any funny noises and that worries me.

Yeah well most stoves are pretty quiet when they are new, give it time. :lol: (just kidding)

 

[begreen]

I know. I just gave him that one so he can say "I did it just like Harman said to do it.".

Gotta go. My wood stove isn't making any funny noises and that worries me.

:lol: Maybe it needs more beans BB.

 

[iceman]

Before I start opening the stove or call the dearler I want to see if anyone else has this kind of problem?

My Accentra installed this past march is now making a high pitch squeal when the feeder is on.

The problem is that it is doesnt do it all the time.

It did this all day, and just now all I did was to move the pellets inside the hopper (it is half full) and the noise stopped???

I can't make any sense of this...

Anyone experienced anythign similar?

I have one and it was making noises sometimes.... i found out that if I press down on the top it would stop ...... check the leveling of it
Mine was level on everyside but one and that was off by a little.... i slide a penny under one side and no more noises

 

[Hammerjoe]

Geez, I hope it is something more serious than that.