My Furnace kicked on last nite.. wth?

[Tonyray]

Woke up around 3AM this morning to a familiar smell.
The smell of the heat of the Oil Furnace Hot water circulating in the baseboards which some get the 1st Time it circulates after being off for 6 months a year. .[In our case, not since last March..].
we use the furnace for DHW but referring to the stagnant water that just sits in the sealed heating pipes.
Anyways, this ain't supposed to happen since Our Harman P61 send enough heat up the steps
to the 2nd floor Bedrooms and Bath that we don't have to use the 2nd floor thermostat..
Came downstairs and it felt chilly. Themometer in the room was about 68 degrees....Usually it stays 72-73 degrees all the time.
Stove had big flame but kinda lazy.. Lot of Big fluffy Ash balls on the front of the burnpot.
... took a minute to figure it out.. duh..

I used the last 2 tons of Energex Hardwoods yesterday and dumped the 1st bag of a Ton of
O'Malley's in the evening....
well, O'malley's tend to be on the longer side of pellets and my feed rate has been #3 all winter.
Room temp/Manual..
Raised the feed to 4, went back to bed and asked the wife how it felt when she came down at 7 this morning.
said it felt same as always.
Size Does matter when it comes to Pellets...
Yes I have a Harman and I would think it would adjust it's feed rate to longer or shorter pellets but maybe since there was still a 1/4 bag or more of Energex pellets in the hopper mixed in with the O'malley's it took a time out.
either way, back to normal room temps..

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

It did however you set the limit too low and the stove said hey I no can feed more my owner said so.

 

[fmsm]

Woke up around 3AM this morning to a familiar smell.

Raised the feed to 4, went back to bed and asked the wife how it felt when she came down at 7 this morning.
said it felt same as always.
Size Does matter when it comes to Pellets...
Yes I have a Harman and I would think it would adjust it's feed rate to longer or shorter pellets but maybe since there was still a 1/4 bag or more of Energex pellets in the hopper mixed in with the O'malley's it took a time out.
either way, back to normal room temps..

Wait, you're saying bigger isn't better?..............

 

[LordmetalZ28]

I also had feed problems cause omalleys pellet length

 

[Tonyray]

asked the wife how it felt when she came down at 7 this morning.
said it felt same as always.
Size Does matter when it comes to "Pellets"...

Egads just read that paragrapgh again..

 

[Tonyray]

It did however you set the limit too low and the stove said hey I no can feed more my owner said so.

yes I think that is what happened.
I have thrown a few renegade Bags here and there from HD and pretty sure they have been comparativly within the same size as the Energex...
The O'malley's Do have some Longees in the mix.... Good Heat though..

 

[alternativeheat]

Tony, what you need to do with your P61 is set your feed rate somewhere between 4-4.5 and take the foolish knob off the stove. Have the wife hide it on you.

 

[ttdberg]

Agreed. While 3 will work fine for the best of pellets, as soon as you throw a bag of lesser / longer / not so hot pellets in the hopper, and the stove needs more fuel to achieve the same temp you were previously enjoying with 3...well, you know the rest. Set it at 4 and walk away.

 

[Tonyray]

Agreed. While 3 will work fine for the best of pellets, as soon as you throw a bag of lesser / longer / not so hot pellets in the hopper, and the stove needs more fuel to achieve the same temp you were previously enjoying with 3...well, you know the rest. Set it at 4 and walk away.

Well, Along with the O'Malley's I still have 2 tons of the Energex Golden pellets which are the opposite..
more on the smaller side...
so your claiming that even staying on 4 or so the smaller Energex pellets [or any smaller pellets] won't get devoured faster due to the Harman feed rate technology.

 

[hyfire]

Can you put the p61 on a Thermostat?

 

[the pony boy]

Having same issue with cheat rivers. Some of the pellets are 4 to 5 times longer than the presto logs and barefoots I been using this year. The stove struggles to keep the house at 71 where the others maintain 74-75 easy.

 

[alternativeheat]

Can you put the p61 on a Thermostat?

It can be put on a thermostat, course the room probe and dial basically amounts to the same thing.

 

[Tonyray]

Can you put the p61 on a Thermostat?

P61 has it's own Thermostat probe which Get's used in Room Mode.
I just need to raise the Pellet feed rate a bit more as my "Harme's" have explained to compensate for longer pellets..

 

[boo boo]

That's a strange one. If your room temp was calling for heat on 3 your stove should have been feeding for 30 continues seconds per minute until it was satisfied and ramped down from there. On 4 it only added 10 seconds per minute but still ramps down after it hits temp

 

[Tonyray]

That's a strange one. If your room temp was calling for heat on 3 your stove should have been feeding for 30 continues seconds per minute until it was satisfied and ramped down from there. On 4 it only added 10 seconds per minute but still ramps down after it hits temp

yeah.. sounds wierd but I guess that Minus 10 seconds combined with longer pellets [taking up more space in the burnpot] alone all night probably kept the temperature down..
maybe the set temp was Never Satisfied.
and, I may have had it set to 70 degrees instead of 73 where we usually keep it. was not too cold that evening and night.

 

[boo boo]

Other than being long how are the O`malleys burning. I haven't seen them up here

 

[lagger]

I also had feed problems cause omalleys pellet length

the Timber Heats have a good amount of longer pellets.. so adjust your feed accordingly

 

[LordmetalZ28]

the Timber Heats have a good amount of longer pellets.. so adjust your feed accordingly

Thanks for the Info. Ill throw the bags down the stairs a few times and bust them up.

 

[lagger]

Thanks for the Info. Ill throw the bags down the stairs a few times and bust them up.

don't know which is worse tons of dust or long pellets

 

[Tonyray]

Other than being long how are the O`malleys burning. I haven't seen them up here

O'Malley's give good heat....
medium ash but a bit on the heavy side.
The ash balls up in the burnpot front but doesn't mess up the flame any.
get's pushed off by the pellets.