New Pellet Stove Owner - Harman P68 - Pellet Suggestions?

[bdaoust]

Hello! I just bought my first house and it came with a Harman P68 Pellet Stove. I'm pretty impressed with it. A couple of questions:

• What pellets would be the best to burn? There were a few bags of the CleanFire Pacific there and they seem good. Ash is low, but they are a pricey pellet.
• How much is a reasonable price for a professional cleaning. Do you all get a professional cleaning once a year like you would with a furnace?
• I'm noticing a slow squeaking sound now and then. What should I look at to correct this?

Thanks in advance!
-Brian

 

[jrsdws]

Congats on the house...and the stove!

My understanding is the Harman units burn pretty much any qualty of pellet. I suggest you buy a bag or three of a couple of readily available brands and see what you like that fits your budget.

I think you should download the manual and cruise the forum here and dive into cleaning that stove yourself. You'll appreciate it more and it'll save you lots of money for pellets.

Hard to target the squeaking. If it's slow, perhaps it's just the auger? You'll have to try to target this to get help. Full maintenance (oil motors, etc.) might take care of that.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[newf lover]

Welcome! I think you hit on a couple issues where you will get a lot of different opinions. First of all, some people like buying cheaper pellets and don't mind the high ash. I don't know where you are and what pellets are available. I'm not rich, but I'd rather spend more money on pellets and clean the stove less. If you do a search here on the name of any pellets that are available to you, I think you'll find at least a few posts about that pellet. The P68 should be able to burn just about anything, but when I was burning NEWP, there was so much ash it sometimes snuffed the fire right out.
The stove is easy to clean, but if you're not handy and aren't comfortable taking fans out to clean, definitely hire someone. You can pay anywhere from $150 up to clean it. If you do a search on Google, you will see several cleaning videos, but I don't recall seeing any where they remove the auger or fans to clean. Some people think it's crazy to pay someone to clean it; I do because neither my husband or myself are particularly handy and would just end up screwing things up.
As far as the squeak, again, I would do a search here. By the way, you can't oil any motors that I know of on this stove. It could be carbon buildup at the mouth of the auger, could be fines built up in the auger or the fines box, or a motor going. Start by cleaning it thoroughly and see if that does the trick. Also, if you don't have the manual, download it and read it about 30 times!

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

The noise could also be some terrible gunk on the slide plate that gets opened to drop pellets.

 

[subsailor]

My money is on carbon buildup aound the mouth of the auger. A long flatbladed screwdriver and a hammer can take care of that in a couple of minutes.

 

[TheMightyMoe]

Hello! I just bought my first house and it came with a Harman P68 Pellet Stove. I'm pretty impressed with it. A couple of questions:

• What pellets would be the best to burn? There were a few bags of the CleanFire Pacific there and they seem good. Ash is low, but they are a pricey pellet.
• How much is a reasonable price for a professional cleaning. Do you all get a professional cleaning once a year like you would with a furnace?
• I'm noticing a slow squeaking sound now and then. What should I look at to correct this?

Thanks in advance!

-Brian

Google the Harman web page and read the manual throughly.

Try all the pellets you can find, and use what you feel is the best. Can't go wrong with this answer.

Varies. A extensive cleaning should be done 1-2 a year. You can do this yourself, it is easy.

The squeaking issue is a variety of things (I searched and read EVERY squeaky Harman post in this forum) The most common fixes were extensive cleaning of auger / stove / replacing auger/motor.

 

[SXIPro]

The noise could also be some terrible gunk on the slide plate that gets opened to drop pellets.

This would be my guess as well. If it was the auger It would squeek pretty damn often. When I get the "once in a blue moon" squeek it's always the slide plate. Usually happens to me when the box the slide plate is in gets full of fines.

 

[will711]

First off Welcome Brian. You come to the right place to get real world answers . I agree with sub sailor on the squeal being a carbon build up in the throat of the burn pot follow his instructions. Also do what the mighty moe says go to harman web page all kinds of good info there.

I would also check out your local harman stove dealers to see who is going to be able to provide you with service.

As far as what pellets to burn Harman's will eat anything you put in the hopper but as newf lover stated some brands create more ash , if you put your location in your profile we can help better guide you to quality pellets.

Enjoy & Happy Burning!

Will

 

[Glenn Jefferson]

Same question here... I just got a P68, I'm near Providence, RI.. what do you guys recommend for pellets for the P68? More expensive pellets burn hotter and cleaner right and have a higher efficiency right?

 

[bdaoust]

Thanks everyone for the great replies. I'm burning Heartland Pellets now and like them a lot. Happy Holidays to all!