I have had my stove for 7 years. It has worked like a charm...until now. I got lazy flames, very slow feed rate and it seemed like none of the controls would work. Long story short, I got zero help from the dealer I bought it from, as they got the same from the Harman "expert". And it took 3 weeks. I spent the $366 on a new board and ESP probe as they said the new board couldn't read the old probe. Temps here are below freezing, I have the stove set at #4 feed rate, room temp. at 70F and it is in room temp mode. The new board came with dip switch settings that did not match the originals on the old board. I did see a thread here that said to set the new ones the same as the old ones but the dealer advised I follow the instructions that came with the board. My stove lights and pumps out the heat and shuts down. Has been doing it all day. Also, when it is starting after the burn pot has the required amount of pellets, (after cleaning) the feed motor "burps" every 15 seconds. It never did that before and as usual, I got no answer from Harman. At the settings I have it on, it should light, stay lit and keep the room temp. within a couple of degrees but it keeps cycling off and on. Any suggestions as to what to do next?
New P61A board & ESP dipswitch settings
- Thread starter NeedleDodger
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So what color wire does the ESP have? It should be red. When the stove shuts down, is your status light on and are you getting any blinks? If so how many blinks?. I'm suspicious of your room temp probe. Will the stove operate in Stove Temp Mode?
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the -05886 boards have changed throughout the years....I think E revision boards are now shipping in new units. All new boards are shipped with instructions....did you read them, especially given the dipswitch settings? They most certainly ARE NOT the same, as the new boards fit a variety of stoves, and the dipswitch settings are different for certain stoves AND probes. As for the probe, relatively cheap, and maybe a good idea to change it when you change the board if you haven't put a DDM on it to ascertain if its working right. Gotta get those dip settings right, and just copying your old settings to a new board is most certainly the WRONG way to do it.
Thank you so much for replying so quickly.
The ESP wire is black. The status light goes out when it shuts down. No blinks. Stove runs in stove temp mode. The dip switches were set as per the instructions that came with the new board. Instructions say #5 must be off for any ESP other than red. The old board kept the stove running on low and at the set temp. even when the flame was orange and blue. The board AND the probe are new.
There is a fellow in town who fixes circuit boards. Any chance that new potentiometers will correct the problem with the old board?
The ESP wire is black. The status light goes out when it shuts down. No blinks. Stove runs in stove temp mode. The dip switches were set as per the instructions that came with the new board. Instructions say #5 must be off for any ESP other than red. The old board kept the stove running on low and at the set temp. even when the flame was orange and blue. The board AND the probe are new.
There is a fellow in town who fixes circuit boards. Any chance that new potentiometers will correct the problem with the old board?
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Did it work fine in stove temp mode prior to swapping out the board? If your issue is only in room temp mode, then as I said earlier, you probably have a bad room sensor.
I never used the stove temp mode. I like the automatic mode because the temp here can change 25 or 30 degrees overnight. The old board kept the temp. steady even when it started acting up so I presume that the room sensor was working properly. If I use stove temp., it just gets hotter and hotter in here. Right now the outside temp. is around freezing. When it comes on, the room temp is 64.8F, then it just blasts the heat to 67.1F and shuts off. It should be backing off to the low output and maintaining temp. The P61A is designed to burn between 0 and 61,000 BTU's. This one seems to have suddenly forgotten how to cycle down to 2,000 or thereabouts. It comes on at 60 thou. and stays there long enough to get the room temp up 2.3 degrees, exactly 15 minutes then shuts down. It stays off for an hour and starts again. It has been doing this for a full day now.
Can't get anyone on the phone at the dealership. No help there. The stove comes on for 15 minutes every hour then it turns off. The dip switches are set as per supplied instructions. Natural gas is cheaper and requires less maintenance not to mention, a new unit is much cheaper than a Harman pellet stove and costs less per year to run. I put the old board back in an hour ago and it's now doing what it's supposed to do... keeping the temp at a steady 69 degrees.Considering the igniter runs for 15-20 minutes every time the stove comes on, that's 6-8 hours a day...I imagine a new one is pricey too, not to mention my hydro bill. It's burning dirty so I'll just clean it every five bags instead of ten. It appears that I just cannot afford pellet heat..
P.S. I am a woman, I live alone and I am short but I am neither blind nor stupid. I have maintained my unit for 7 years. I had a Danson stove for 2 years before this one. It has been my only heat source here in Northern Canada where the temp. goes down to -40 every year. I have answered all of your questions clearly and accurately. Now I'll answer my own question...sounds like you got a faulty board NeedleDodger. You should take it back to the dealership and get a refund.
P.S. I am a woman, I live alone and I am short but I am neither blind nor stupid. I have maintained my unit for 7 years. I had a Danson stove for 2 years before this one. It has been my only heat source here in Northern Canada where the temp. goes down to -40 every year. I have answered all of your questions clearly and accurately. Now I'll answer my own question...sounds like you got a faulty board NeedleDodger. You should take it back to the dealership and get a refund.
If you have the switch on the board in auto and not manual, the stove is going to shut down when it satisfies the demand. That is how it works. If you want it to go to maintenance burn, you need to have the switch in manual, then the stove will maintain what you have and throttle up as necessary to keep your set temp.
Listen, we are all here to help. It doesn't matter to us if you are male or female. There are MANY women on this site that participate and have a wealth of knowledge. Copping an attitude probably wont help. Some of your info in your posts was confusing, even to experienced Harman owners. I'll make a couple of more comments. If your igniter is "on" 15-20 minutes every time the stove comes on, THAT is a problem. They cost about $70 here in the US. If you put the old board back in and it's running fine, then obviously something else was wrong in the first place. Could have been the ESP. Could be something else.
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just trying to help, kiddo. I'm a dealer, I get absolutely ZERO income for coming and attempting to help folks here, and of course at the busiest time of year. I can tell you that its EXTREMELY common that folks don't set the settings correctly, and who knows, maybe you're one of them, or maybe you're not. Being as it can be pretty difficult to fix or diagnose a stove over the internet, we all do the best we can....sometimes we can help, sometimes we cant.
Anyhow, good luck, this thread isn't constructive (anymore), and I don't see it going anywhere constructive. Have a good day.
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