New to this forum. Thanks for all the useful info on here.
Installed a new Harman P68 pellet stove to replace my worn out Rika. Heard good things about the Harman so went that direction.
I am a licensed Plumber with over 40 years in the Plumbing/Heating and Pipefitting industry from small residential to commercial and industrial work. About 13 years ago I was installing Rika pellet stoves on the side of my regular work so I am familiar with codes and install practices.
Anyway here's the issue.
Stove seems to operate as intended until about 45 minutes into the cycle when the smell appears. This is when the pellets are still burning but the flame is real small at the back of the pot where the auger is. The Distribution and Combustion motors are still on at this point. I waited the whole cycle this morning and the smell only appeared for a few seconds and then was gone. Came down an hour or so later and the stove was going through another cycle at about the same point where the flame was almost gone and then the smoke smell came back much stronger and lasted for just less than 1 minute.
We have very sensitive smoke detectors in the area but they do not go off.
Have been fighting this for about 2 weeks now. When I installed the stove the door did not seem to be latching as tight as I thought it should have but I turned it on and ran it for a few days that way and there was a lot of the smoke smell. Not enough to trigger alarms though,
Did the dollar bill test on door and could pull the bill out between two fingers in the scissor position. I was kind of amazed that it left the factory like that. Installed new 3/8" Rutland gasket and door was much-much tighter and that help reduce the smell considerably with most of the smell gone other than what I describe above. I also went and got some silicone tape to put on the 4 joints to eliminate that factor so I knew it was somewhere else.
The stove is located in a corner. Coming out the back of the stove I have 4" x 3" tee with C/O on it and the pipe rises for 2 feet and 90's horizontal out the side wall. The 3" OA inlet is 15" below the exhaust.
To eliminate another possible issue I then pulled the OA piping off and drew air from inside the room to make sure I wasn't bringing in smoke through the OA inlet.
I'm not sure where to go next other than the ash door but that seems to latch pretty good. Not as tight as I have the main door but fairly snug.
I am running in Room Temp mode with the feed rate at #4. Temps outside are already in single digits at night and the stove seems to be doing its job other than the occasional smoke smell. It's strange that for the most part the smell is only for a few seconds and at most 1 minute and after the stove shuts down you cannot smell any lingering smoke. Kind of discouraged though after spending that much money for one of the best stove out there.
Kind of at a loss where to go next so I figured the experience of those on this site may be able to point me to something else to check. Sorry for the long post but wanted to get all the details in there.
Thanks and hopefully someone has an idea.
Installed a new Harman P68 pellet stove to replace my worn out Rika. Heard good things about the Harman so went that direction.
I am a licensed Plumber with over 40 years in the Plumbing/Heating and Pipefitting industry from small residential to commercial and industrial work. About 13 years ago I was installing Rika pellet stoves on the side of my regular work so I am familiar with codes and install practices.
Anyway here's the issue.
Stove seems to operate as intended until about 45 minutes into the cycle when the smell appears. This is when the pellets are still burning but the flame is real small at the back of the pot where the auger is. The Distribution and Combustion motors are still on at this point. I waited the whole cycle this morning and the smell only appeared for a few seconds and then was gone. Came down an hour or so later and the stove was going through another cycle at about the same point where the flame was almost gone and then the smoke smell came back much stronger and lasted for just less than 1 minute.
We have very sensitive smoke detectors in the area but they do not go off.
Have been fighting this for about 2 weeks now. When I installed the stove the door did not seem to be latching as tight as I thought it should have but I turned it on and ran it for a few days that way and there was a lot of the smoke smell. Not enough to trigger alarms though,
Did the dollar bill test on door and could pull the bill out between two fingers in the scissor position. I was kind of amazed that it left the factory like that. Installed new 3/8" Rutland gasket and door was much-much tighter and that help reduce the smell considerably with most of the smell gone other than what I describe above. I also went and got some silicone tape to put on the 4 joints to eliminate that factor so I knew it was somewhere else.
The stove is located in a corner. Coming out the back of the stove I have 4" x 3" tee with C/O on it and the pipe rises for 2 feet and 90's horizontal out the side wall. The 3" OA inlet is 15" below the exhaust.
To eliminate another possible issue I then pulled the OA piping off and drew air from inside the room to make sure I wasn't bringing in smoke through the OA inlet.
I'm not sure where to go next other than the ash door but that seems to latch pretty good. Not as tight as I have the main door but fairly snug.
I am running in Room Temp mode with the feed rate at #4. Temps outside are already in single digits at night and the stove seems to be doing its job other than the occasional smoke smell. It's strange that for the most part the smell is only for a few seconds and at most 1 minute and after the stove shuts down you cannot smell any lingering smoke. Kind of discouraged though after spending that much money for one of the best stove out there.
Kind of at a loss where to go next so I figured the experience of those on this site may be able to point me to something else to check. Sorry for the long post but wanted to get all the details in there.
Thanks and hopefully someone has an idea.
