P35i question.

[John Fortier]

You all knew I would be back sooner than later. Temp probe question. This one has me baffled. Stove is set at feed 3, manual ignite , room temp fan on highest. Set temp to 65 when I left for work got home to house at 74. Probe was pulled as far as it will go( 4' )around the corner and about 1' off the floor. I have messed around since it has been installed and room temp just does not seem to work.
Second part, I started at feed 4 and lowered because I get puffy clouds an inch or so tall in front of the burning pellets, it is about an inch away from the edge. TIA.

 

[fmsm]

Is your probe touching an outside wall? Somehow it must be calling for heat. Are you able to measure the temperature at the probe? Where is the probe as opposed to the 74 degree reading you are quoting?

 

[John Fortier]

The probe is 1' away from the stove. Thermometer at the probe reads the 72 (or so) mark. We are at 74 in the house and still full burn. Stove is set around 68. It is not near an outside wall. When I turn the temp down it takes until 55 to shut. Let it completely go thru shut down. Turned temp dial up very slowly and it clicked on around 72 house was at 70.

 

[John Fortier]

Thermo is 10 feet to the right of stove approx., 5' off the floor. Probe is 2" off the floor 2' from stove 13' from thermo, left of stove.. Hallway thermo (oil) is in hall 5' from other thermo 5' off floor and 74.

 

[fmsm]

Try stove temp, it may take a little tweaking until you hit your temp but I find this better in the colder weather.

 

[Bioburner]

I am a bit confused in that your first you said you had the igniter on manual. Stove should not turn off but go to idle and temps may rise as the stove continues to run and is prevented from going into a full shut down. 1 foot off the floor can be very drafty and probe may be sensing a cooler current and is more responsive then the thermometer.

 

[John Fortier]

Will do...fmsm...Question..my glass gets dirty within 24 hour and I get 1" cotton balls of ash on either side of burn pot..could this be from lack of air intake?

 

[MuchoBueno]

My temp probe is pulled out approx 3 to 4 inches from the front left of the stove and it's very accurate. I leave it on room temp and from my radio shack thermometer and the wall tstat it shows accuracy within 1 to 2 degrees. Did you try leaving in room temp MANUAL? You probably know this but in case, leaving it on manual will throttle the stove down to maintenance when it reaches your set temp where the Auto mode will shut down the stove and make temp fluctuations more pronounced.

 

[John Fortier]

Bio..I did go over to manual and would not mind an idle. Where the probe is I have a thermometer and it reads close to 70. Stove temp is set to 72. House is at 74. I really think it is me and need to add wire to the probe. Other question is why is glass dirty within 24 hour and the cotton balls of ash on the burnpot? Sorry, stove never goes into idle unless I turn the temp down.

 

[Bioburner]

Your correct in that the probe needs to be moved. I have a remote probe from a temperature gauge taped to my probe end and know what the stoves probe is reading at a glance. I dont have experience with Harman pot burners yet. I get a pretty good glass clouding on about the upper third of glass in a day or so but that's where it stays.

 

[MuchoBueno]

The thermometer close to the probe reads close to 70 and the stove is set to 72. If that thermometer is acurate then the stove hasn't reached idle temp. Did you try setting the stove lower? Most thermometers and tstats are not as accurate as they claim to be, I presume Harmans is not 100% precise also.

 

[John Fortier]

Mucho, I set the stove to 65 when I left for work this morning, got in from work and the house was 74.

 

[Big papa]

Mucho, I set the stove to 65 when I left for work this morning, got in from work and the house was 74.

John I extended my probe to where my furnace t-stat is in the hall,once there I just adjusted the stove to match the temp on the furnace t-stat in room temp manual ya better belive it holds the set temp to one degree.once I got things dialed in I have never had to touch it again.probe placement is important,finding a spot where theirs no draft or interference of any kind to the probe.

 

[MuchoBueno]

Bio is right. You probably have to play with the probe, settings etc. Btw I should be the last person here trying to diagnose anything as I'm a total Harman rookie myself.

Edit:I'm a total pellet stove rookie in general

 

[Big papa]

Mucho, I set the stove to 65 when I left for work this morning, got in from work and the house was 74.

Also on room temp auto the temperature swing is much greater than room temp manual.just make sure you flip to manual after you find a good place for the probe

 

[fmsm]

Will do...fmsm...Question..my glass gets dirty within 24 hour and I get 1" cotton balls of ash on either side of burn pot..could this be from lack of air intake?

I find 2 things with the glass. Ash will stick easily if not polished with something such as Rutland Glass Cleaner. That being said if you are getting black soot on your glass it the burn (pellets, dirty stove, or settings) and that needs to be addressed. I do realize your stove is new but it could be a venting/intake issue. Was the venting cleaned thoroughly before the stove swap?

The "cotton balls" you are speaking of, are they like the ash at the end of a cigar? If so that is normal for some pellets.

 

[alternativeheat]

The ash situation is normal depending on pellets. Some pellets contain more ash than others and all various pellets will form ash of varying degrees of content ( I.E. look different). In any event just take the provided Harman tool that came with the stove and scrape it off the pot ( I do mine twice a day). Some very good and usually softer wood pellets will produce next to no ash build up on the pot. Also take that opportunity when scraping the pot to liberally scrape under the hot coals breaking loose any carbon that might have formed on the pot. Again some pellets build more carbon than others, some next to none at all. What you are describing is perfectly normal though. Click on this video about the Accentra ( all I'm looking for is that you see them scrape the pot and clean the glass to which all Harmans are the same). https://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=A0LEVjuQNb5UejIA6TclnIlQ;_ylu=X3oDMTB0ZjNuMHJ1BHNlYwNzYwRjb2xvA2JmMQR2dGlkA1lIUzAwM18x?p=harman pellet stove daily maintenance&tnr=21&vid=E88B0FB888BA94007113E88B0FB888BA94007113&l=382&turl=http://ts1.mm.bing.net/th?id=UN.608004323994567728&pid=15.1&rurl=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BSApxQin5o&sigr=11bc0j9kp&tt=b&teat=Harman Accentra Pellet Stove - Maintenance&sigt=11anmavoe&back=https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=Harman+Pellet+stove+daily+maintenance+video&hsimp=yhs-001&hspart=mozilla&ei=UTF-8&sigb=13n1mp98h&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-001

The room probe, and even according to the Harman manual that came with your stove, tells you to not place it near the floor. They say to mount it or place it about 5' off the floor actually. Also not in the air stream of the stove. Near the floor picks up the coolest air in the house and makes the stove work hard, possibly never cycling off or down. In that event the house overshoots the temp setting at the stove. If the probe is In the air stream of the stove, this makes the stove shut down and possibly never bringing the room up to temp. I personally do not have an insert but I taped my probe to the back off my P61a, it's on the hopper as high as I can get it with the probe itself sticking out stove right about 5 ". It keeps my house about 1 deg warmer than the the setting at teh stove as read from the house thermostat.. This position in theory is allowing the probe to read returning air to be run through the convection blower. Around fireplaces though you have to be careful of air leaks around molding etc ( I just sealed up some of those in my house). But I think initially you could do worse than placing the probe above and to the side of your stove someplace between 3 and 5 ft off the floor. At least so you can get a feel for how it works. Later you can extend it to another location. But all of us Harman owners who have messed with that probe can tell you it works when placed right.

 

[John Fortier]

Thanks all, going to splice wire to extend the probe. Yes ash looks like the end of a nice Cobana

 

[bogieb]

Manual ignite means the stove never goes out - even if the sun heats the area to 80.

Probe location should probably be at least 2-3' off floor, the lower down, the colder. Just a foot difference in elevation can cause a huge difference between thermometer readings.

 

[alternativeheat]

Thanks all, going to splice wire to extend the probe. Yes ash looks like the end of a nice Cobana

Some pellets will build two huge cheeks of ash in the corners, some a fine line across the burn pot, some a banana shaped and sized line across the pot and the best of the best in the ash department will leave basically nothing. In any case just scrape it off now and then. I don't even bother turning the stove down when I do it unless it's in a really high burn state and super hot. It takes just seconds to do and a little longer if some carbon has built on the pot..

The ugliest pellets I ever burned left things of ash that looked like worms or strings hanging off the pot. The best I've ever used, the ash was pretty much blown off the pot by the normal running of the stove..

 

[John Fortier]

One more..manual says 18 gauge wire ( speaker wire ) what would be best wire to pick up and where?

 

[Bioburner]

I would go with simple furnace thermostat single strand duplex wire. Most home improvement stores have it prepacked and by the foot bulk.

 

[alternativeheat]

One more..manual says 18 gauge wire ( speaker wire ) what would be best wire to pick up and where?

Single strand thermostat wire is what I bought at the hardware store. I haven't hooked it up but I have it at least !

 

[John Fortier]

Going to snip the thermostat wire off the stat used for the Thelin...give it a go tonight

 

[fmsm]

Try stove temp