New Harman PB105 installed, up and running!

[Pellet_Dog]

Hello everyone,

I just joined the forum as a proud new owner of a Harman PB105 pellet boiler and thought I'd share some pics of my install along with some information on how its been working out for me.

A little background info: I live in northeast PA and bought my current house last summer, a 2500 ft^2 two story colonial with an electric heat pump central air. December last year the heat pump compressor dies so I get it replaced with a newer more efficient model. The new heat pump works great if it is 30 degrees or warmer out but when it gets colder than that it has to run 24/7 to barely maintain 68 in the house. Throw in the high winds of living on top of a hill and on comes the electric resistance coils, which pretty much negates the efficiency of the heat pump. So I began to look into a wood heat source to supplement the heat pump in the coldest parts of winter. To keep it short I pretty much decided on pellets due to their availability here, ease of transport and handling and it would be the easiest for my wife to keep running when I am gone on business for a week. The basement already had an unused flue so putting a pellet stove down there would be easy to vent. I decided to go the route of a pellet boiler and tie it into the central air with a water to air heat exchanger. I also could heat the household hot water with it and the pool in the summer which was a big selling point with the wife! From what was available nearby and the models offered my best bet looked to be with the Harman PB105 boiler as it met the heating requirements I was looking for and the dealer was pretty close to me.

I've been following the forum for a couple months now reading up on other owners experiences with the PB105 and this gave me a great deal of knowledge about its issues (burn pot, igniter) and how to get get it running good with dip switch and feed rate settings. So I took the plunge and ordered it up taking a chance with the burn pot hoping that it would get fixed soon. When it came in I was expecting an updated model with the pressure ignition and all but nope, I got one from early 2009, with a 13 fin iginiter! Oh well at least it had the newer control board for what that's worth. The temperature gauge was reading 100 degrees or so at room temperature so I unscrewed the clear cover, grabbed the needle and turned it clockwise until it hit the bottom out post, lifted it over the post and kept moving it until it jumped, kind of like a gear slipping a tooth. I moved it back over the post to its normal range and viola! it read about 68 degrees!

Anyway it took a while but I got it all wired, vented and plumbed up, checked the draft, and got a few bags of Lignetics, Barefoots and Instant Heat to try out. I filled it up with water, pellets and fired her up! It was a little smokey at first but the fire was going in a couple minutes and it cleared right up. The vent pipe connections and elbow needed some aluminum tape and silicone to seal it up good. Didn't take too long to warm the boiler up to temperature and I turned up the thermostat to call for heat and turn on the circulator and central blower. Boy did this thing put out the heat!!

I've had it running over a week now on manual mode. I tried auto mode for a bit but didn't really like all the starting and stopping of the fire; it seemed to produce more black marks inside the boiler as well. As long as it stays cold out the manual mode should be fine. I've had the feed rate at 4 which seems to be working good and the max water at 155 but the average water temperature is around 180. Overall everything has been working great. I've been stocking up on Lignetics since they've been 185 a ton this past week (up to 4 tons now) and have been burning about 2 to 2.5 bags a day depending on how cold it is out keeping the house at 70 pretty much all day and night.

Enjoy the pictures and if there is anything I forgot to mention I will post it. I look forward to sharing my experience with this boiler in the future and will let you know if (when?) my burn pot bubbles and cracks! Hopefully I can apply some of my engineering knowledge and help get this problem solved!

 

[imacman]

Pellet Dog, welcome to the forum!

Glad you used it to learn about the boiler before taking the plunge. Thanks for posting the pics....that's a VERY nice install...very neat & orderly on the piping. Keep us up-to-date on how it runs....there a few other PB105 burners on here, and there are also others who are considering getting one in the future.

Again, nice job, and enjoy the heat!!

 

[krooser]

I like seeing that boiler up and running...

 

[jtakeman]

Welcome pellet dog, Looks like a nice and neat install. You done good!

Enjoy the warmth!

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Looking great there Pellet_Dog.

Remember to keep up with the cleaning and you'll have plenty of warm winter days for years to come.

 

[SmokingAndPoking]

Looks awesome! Great work.

 

[Pellet_Dog]

Thanks for the welcomes.

A half-ton through her so far and still running strong. I will shut down in a week or two after the first ton and give everything a thorough cleaning from the hopper to the blower and everything in between. I definitely understand that keeping this appliance clean is critical to its life and performance. Daily I have been pushing the ash build up out of the burn pot and scraping it the best I can through the firebox door. It's kind of tough to do with the tool Harman supplied as it is a bit too long and hits the heat exchanger tubes. Also you can't really see inside the burn pot so I just go by feel the best I can while acting quickly because that flame goes out fast when you start scraping and disturbing it but it lights right back up once the door is closed. Also I pull the heat exchanger tube clean-outs a couple times a day but they only seem to knock the dust off the top of them and doesn't touch the bottom.

Also I forgot to mention I am not running the outdoor temperature sensor or outside air kit for those who are wondering.

Keep those fires roaring!

 

[imacman]

....Also I forgot to mention I am not running the outdoor temperature sensor or outside air kit for those who are wondering.

Just wondering, since i know very little about the harman pellet boilers....are the outdoor temp sensor & OAK optional installs? Why didn't you use them?

 

[Pellet_Dog]

Yes both are optional. If this were a traditional pellet stove on a living floor of the house I would have used the outdoor air kit. But down in the basement I have those leaky perm entry steel doors and left a window cracked to allow fresh air to the boiler.

As for the temperature sensor, it is supposed to lower the water temperature of the boiler as it gets warmer out and increase it up to the maximum setting when it gets to 20 or below. For now I am running in manual mode with max setting of 155 while the actual water temperature ranges from about 155 during a long call for heat to maybe 190 during an idle period. This setting seems to be working pretty good as it keeps the temperature from creeping too high into the overheat zone (210) which would happen sooner if I set the max temperature higher. I don't think the outdoor sensor would help much in manual mode because if it gets warmer out, the water temperature setting will be lowered but there will also be less of a call for heat to take the heat out of the boiler while it is still burning on low and heating the water. I think the sensor makes more sense for the auto mode. If the weather gets warm enough outside that the house is too warm or the boiler triggers the overheat zone frequently I would probably put the boiler on auto or just shut it down and use the heat pump and give it a good cleaning! Time will tell what works best this first year will be a learning experience for sure.

 

[Skippydo]

Welcome Pellet-Dog....Like your install..neatness goes a long way, and does make a great difference.
I like your big window, the PF100 window is much smaller.
This is my 3rd year with the PF100, and we stay nice and warm, always running on manual, love the heat from
the pellets.
I have been very fortunate, as I would put it, for my burn pot, along with my sons (who also bought a PF100 at the
same time) we have had no problems with the burn pot bubbling and cracking....(knock on wood)....where is the wife?? haha
Again, good lluck, you seem to have everything under control.

 

[exoilburner]

Welcome again Pellet_Dog. Thanks for the good write-up and the pictures.

 

[stephenmoore]

Hello pellet Dog, Congrats on the new boiler. Just curious if you have the new style, upgraded igniter , or the simple older one ? Did you say you are running in manual mode ? If so, wondering why. Good luck with your boiler.

 

[stephenmoore]

Never Mind pellet dog, I missed your first post and you have answered my questions. I agree with you on the manual mode, I ran mine both ways and never noticed any difference in npellet consumtion running in manual.

 

[morsnow]

looks like a great set up. I see you mentioned heating your pool. I am debating buying a harmon to heat my house and pool(in the summer). I was curious how much thought you have given this and if you know how you are going to do this. plans? do you think the heat generated in the basement will make the house to warm in the summer?

 

[Pellet_Dog]

Yes I got the old 13 fin igniter. My build sheet that came with the boiler had 2/2009 on it I believe. While performing the first ton cleaning last weekend I did notice that the back side of the burnpot underneath the hopper has the threaded bung welded to it where the air injected igniter would thread in. Looks like I just missed out. Also I noticed from the newer parts diagram Harman went from a 6 to 10 RPM auger motor a few hundred units after mine. I wonder why?

As for running on manual, my main reasoning for this is to reduce the starting and stopping cycles that would occur in auto mode and its effects. This will definitely extend the life of the igniter and hopefully lengthen the life of the burn pot by reducing the heat/cool cycles that may be contributing to the hump/crack failures others have seen. Also when there is a call for heat the boiler is already fired up and just has to ramp up the feed to get the fire going strong to meed the demand instead of ignite and wait for the firebox get up to temperature while the water temp continues to drop. My wife also does not like the little bit of smoke smell that leaks out during startup. I think I need more silicone at the stove adapter when I clean the venting after the next ton. It was a pretty sloppy fit for some reason.

For the pool hookup I plan on continuing the 1" PEX through the basement wall and then insulate it underground and over to the pool pump and connect to the pool through a water to water heat exchanger. Right now I am thinking I will only run the boiler on the weekend to heat the pool, when it is most likely to be used, and keeping the solar cover on at night and during the week will be enough to keep the water temperature up. I have all the pipes pretty well insulated so the boiler doesn't really add much heat to the basement. If anything it should help to remove some dampness in the summer.

Some thoughts and observations after going through my first ton:

I think I was over ambitous with my burnpot cleaning. The burnpot was filling up with ash and I thought most of the ash was supposed to fly out from the airflow through the holes but the Lignetics ash might be a little too heay for that. So everyday I thought it would be best to push the ash into the pan and scrape the pot while I was in there. Well when I cleaned out the igniter compartment under the burn pot it was packed full of ash! I think most of this got there from me cleaning the pot everyday and I was actually pushing ash through the holes and down into the bottom when scraping and pushing the ash out. I'm not sure it would have been able to start automatically there was hardly any room for air to flow over the ignitor or it would have taken a longer time. I can see how this would lead to a shorter igniter life span. The holes in the burnpot weren't even clogged, the ash vacuumed right out; just a little slag by the auger.

So for this ton I am going to refrain from the daily burn pot cleaning until the flame quality decreases and let the bottom feed burnpot design do its job and push the ash over the edge on its own. Its only been a few days since I fired up the boiler since the warm spell and cleaning but I haven't opened the door since. The burn pot is full of ash, but I can see the clumps hanging off the edge so I know they are slowly getting pushed out. The ash also seems to contain the flame, pushing upwards towards the heat exchanger tubes like a torch. The flame burns nice at idle. Lots of blue around the base and nice and bright. Ash is light grey on the inside of the firebox and the cleanout handles are nice and whitish. So I know this is burning clean unlike at startup when I get some black deposits. The ash in the burnpot is a dark gray and kind of clumps together but easily falls apart if you touch it. I think this is just the byproduct of the pellets I'm burning. The ash does move out of the burn pot pretty good when there is a call for heat and the feed is ramped up and the fan speed increases. Also I woud have to think that by running on manual and when idling the flyash has a better chance of settling in ash pan and not getting sucked up into the heat exchangers and combustion blower.

The one drawback to manual mode is more work has to be done to prevent the boiler from overheating and shutting down during times of no call for heat. I just rewired how my thermostat controls the boiler this weekend in an attempt to find the balance between overheating the house to keep the boiler cool and having the boiler overheat. I think this fine line is where pellet consumption is optimized in the manual mode. I have my honeywell IAQ stat set to circulate mode which runs the central air blower 35% of the time. This keeps the whole house pretty much the same temperature upstairs and down since I only have one zone. I wired up a transformer and relay to turn on the water circulator when the boiler's overheat zone is energized at 210 degrees. This is enough to stabilize the boiler from overheating to 220 until the house fan turns on any excess heat is put into the house. This has been working good keeping the house around the set temperature and not overheating it. The boiler temp maintains 205-215 degrees during the day when it is warmer out and doesn't overheat and shut down. I feel it is working nice and efficiently in this way. Of course when the temperatures get up into the uper 40's or higher it will probably make more sense to shut down the boiler and run the heat pump since that is pretty efficient at those temperatures. Initially it looks like pellet consumption has gone down from about 2.3 bags before to closer to 2 or less but I need more days to avarage this over and it is too dependant on the outside temperature.

All in all my experience so far has been great. Cleaning this thing was a messy job though, I couldn't see doing a complete teardown more than once a ton. The ash pan wasn't even half full either! Heat transfer to the water is definietly a little better when everything is nice and clean.

My electric bill this December was over $200 less than last year, it was colder out, and we kept the house warmer without setback at night so this guy is definitely doing the job! The savings should be even more when I hook up the water heater to the boiler. I really love this thing!

Well enough writing for now, almost maxed out the allowable characters for a post!

 

[stephenmoore]

Hey Pellet Dog,
After three years of running my 105 I would have to say the igniter housing area fills with flyash no matter what. I did the same as you when I first got mine up and running in 2007. Then I stopped and didn't really notice much difference. Now I just vacuum in there every month when I clean my ash pan etc.

 

[Skippydo]

Pllet_Dog:
Like your info on the burn pot ash. I have the PF100 has noted before in post, but was cleaning off the ash from the burn
pot twice a day. After your explination, will just keep an eye on it.
With that resolved, just have to set up the schedule for the maid to come in and clean the PF100. But I am only going to
show her once.
Thanks again for the detail. Very helpful.

 

[daver1980]

Hi Pellet Dog,

I just received my PB105 last week and in a separate box that Harman shipped to the dealer is a PB105 Pressure Ignition Retro kit. Just wondering if that is something that you received as well?

 

[Pellet_Dog]

I just received my PB105 last week and in a separate box that Harman shipped to the dealer is a PB105 Pressure Ignition Retro kit. Just wondering if that is something that you received as well?

Nope I did not receive the retro kit. Maybe my dealer got it and kept it? My boiler was put together just before the new ignition system, February 2009. The burnpot on the hopper side does have the threaded weldment where the new ignitor would go. If I were to upgrade I would probably just buy the tempco unit and air pump and install it myself because I think the setup is a lot of money from Harman.

 

[dmaclaren]

I do like the larger window on the PB105 compared to my PF100

 

[ghangac]

Pellet_Dog

Call your Dealer and tell them that you want the PB-105 Pressure Ignition Retro-Fit Kit from Harmen. Sounds like that you purchased your unit in November/December time frame. Harmen wanted to get rid of all their old stock units, and was supplying the Retro-Kit with every unit (Free of Charge), so that the it would brought up to the current level of production. I installed one of the Retro Kits for a customer back in September of 2010, that was supplied with the PB-105.

Lets us know how you make out.

Greg

 

[exoilburner]

Pellet_Dog

Call your Dealer and tell them that you want the PB-105 Pressure Ignition Retro-Fit Kit from Harmen. Sounds like that you purchased your unit in November/December time frame. Harmen wanted to get rid of all their old stock units, and was supplying the Retro-Kit with every unit (Free of Charge), so that the it would brought up to the current level of production. I installed one of the Retro Kits for a customer back in September of 2010, that was supplied with the PB-105.

Lets us know how you make out.

Greg

What does Harmon charge for the Pressure Ignition Retro-Fit Kit?

 

[Pellet_Dog]

Yes I ordered it in the end of October and it came in early November. I was disappointed to say the least that I got one of the older serial numbered boilers with the old 13 fin ignitor after reading of people getting their boilers with the newer ignition system for most of last year. I will contact them and ask if I can have the ignition retro kit as other people getting their boilers the same time as me have.

On a side note do you know why Harman went to a 10 RPM auger motor at about the same time as they upgraded the ignition system?

 

[ghangac]

Pellet_Dog,

Not sure why they went with the 10RPM motor. They also changed the Pusher Arm Weldment to match the 10 rpm motor, and changed the Feeder Slide Plate.


exoilburner,

I do not know the price of the Retro Kit.

 

[wil lanfear]

Yes I ordered it in the end of October and it came in early November. I was disappointed to say the least that I got one of the older serial numbered boilers with the old 13 fin ignitor after reading of people getting their boilers with the newer ignition system for most of last year. I will contact them and ask if I can have the ignition retro kit as other people getting their boilers the same time as me have.

On a side note do you know why Harman went to a 10 RPM auger motor at about the same time as they upgraded the ignition system?

When the retro kit was installed in my boiler in an effort to correct the "burnpot bubble issue," the 10 RPM auger came with the kit. Does your boiler have the 10 RPM auger without the pressure ignition?