Good Morning All...
Over the past couple of nights, I've run into some issues with my P68. To give a little background, I have been running my stove in "room temp" mode, keep the temperature dial between 70 and 75, feed rate has always been about 3.5 and never adjusted, and igniter is switched from auto to manual, after the stove is started (stove is only turned off for cleanings) to allow it to idle (without flame going out) when not calling for heat.
Even with the insanely cold Winter we've had (many single digit and below zero overnights), my stove has always maintained 68-70 on the first floor and 71-73 on the second floor, with zero issues, and without me touching a single setting on the stove. Even though those temperatures are a bit warm for me to sleep, I do not turn them down overnight (to keep the wife happy). Two mornings ago, I woke up to a very cold house and my furnace kicked on (I leave my home thermostat set to 62 degrees). My stove was still on, but just seemed to have a lazy flame and didn't feel terribly hot when I was standing in front of it. When the P68 is ramped up, it's impossible to stand in front of it, because it's simply way too hot, so something seemed off to me. Incidentally, I should probably mention that the stove was just cleaned about a week ago, so that isn't an issue. I called my dealer, who mentioned that my vent pipe (my stove is a corner installation, with a Duravent Plus pipe directly out the back and 18 inches out) could be clogged. I trudged through the snow to check it. Although it wasn't blocked, there was plenty of junk that I was able to get out of it. I fired the stove back up, and it seemed to go right back to maintaining it's usual temperatures (again...I didn't adjust any dials). It went back to being impossible to stand in front of, because of how hot it was, so I assumed everything was okay.
I woke up yesterday morning to the very same cold house, with the stove still on and very lazy flame. Once again, I could stand directly in front of the stove, because the heat wasn't all that intense. I ended up shutting the stove down completely to see if the exhaust port next to the blower fan (in back of the ash pan) was jammed up from me pushing a brush in from the outside (seemed like a logical theory to me). Everything looked clear to me. I still took the opportunity to use the reverse end of my shop vac to blow out whatever was in there. I looked out the window and sure enough, some junk definitely blew out. In the interim, I called my dealer, who said he was going to send a tech by my house. I fired the stove back up, and the operation seemed to be back to normal. The tech came out, and ran his diagnostics (it's a computer Harman gives them to diagnose issues). According to him, everything was "normal". I told him that something simply wasn't right. He decided to go ahead and replace the ESP Probe, even though the computer said it was fine. He said that sometimes, that could still be the issue. He left my house at 3 yesterday afternoon. The stove went back to maintaining the same temperatures (in spite of being in the single digits outside) from the time he left, until I went to bed at 11:30 last night. I woke up at 3am, because the stove sounded like it was idling and I didn't see the raging orange glow outside in the hallway that I usually see. I checked the second floor thermostat and it wasn't as cold, but was down to 65 degrees. I checked the first floor and it was down to 64. I came down stairs to adjust the dial. I turned the feed rate up to 5, I turned the temperature from about 72 all the way up (I believe 85 is the max) and went back to bed. I woke up to 67 degrees upstairs and still 64 on the first floor. I'm at a loss here.
The stove is only 4 months old, so still under warranty. I'm just not sure what to do next. It almost sounds like the fan isn't as loud as it usually is when the stove is ramped up and trying to get up to temperature. I apologize for the very lengthy post. I just didn't want to leave out any details. I'm hoping someone has run into this, so I might be able to give my dealer some direction when I call them this morning. I welcome any and all theories.
John
Over the past couple of nights, I've run into some issues with my P68. To give a little background, I have been running my stove in "room temp" mode, keep the temperature dial between 70 and 75, feed rate has always been about 3.5 and never adjusted, and igniter is switched from auto to manual, after the stove is started (stove is only turned off for cleanings) to allow it to idle (without flame going out) when not calling for heat.
Even with the insanely cold Winter we've had (many single digit and below zero overnights), my stove has always maintained 68-70 on the first floor and 71-73 on the second floor, with zero issues, and without me touching a single setting on the stove. Even though those temperatures are a bit warm for me to sleep, I do not turn them down overnight (to keep the wife happy). Two mornings ago, I woke up to a very cold house and my furnace kicked on (I leave my home thermostat set to 62 degrees). My stove was still on, but just seemed to have a lazy flame and didn't feel terribly hot when I was standing in front of it. When the P68 is ramped up, it's impossible to stand in front of it, because it's simply way too hot, so something seemed off to me. Incidentally, I should probably mention that the stove was just cleaned about a week ago, so that isn't an issue. I called my dealer, who mentioned that my vent pipe (my stove is a corner installation, with a Duravent Plus pipe directly out the back and 18 inches out) could be clogged. I trudged through the snow to check it. Although it wasn't blocked, there was plenty of junk that I was able to get out of it. I fired the stove back up, and it seemed to go right back to maintaining it's usual temperatures (again...I didn't adjust any dials). It went back to being impossible to stand in front of, because of how hot it was, so I assumed everything was okay.
I woke up yesterday morning to the very same cold house, with the stove still on and very lazy flame. Once again, I could stand directly in front of the stove, because the heat wasn't all that intense. I ended up shutting the stove down completely to see if the exhaust port next to the blower fan (in back of the ash pan) was jammed up from me pushing a brush in from the outside (seemed like a logical theory to me). Everything looked clear to me. I still took the opportunity to use the reverse end of my shop vac to blow out whatever was in there. I looked out the window and sure enough, some junk definitely blew out. In the interim, I called my dealer, who said he was going to send a tech by my house. I fired the stove back up, and the operation seemed to be back to normal. The tech came out, and ran his diagnostics (it's a computer Harman gives them to diagnose issues). According to him, everything was "normal". I told him that something simply wasn't right. He decided to go ahead and replace the ESP Probe, even though the computer said it was fine. He said that sometimes, that could still be the issue. He left my house at 3 yesterday afternoon. The stove went back to maintaining the same temperatures (in spite of being in the single digits outside) from the time he left, until I went to bed at 11:30 last night. I woke up at 3am, because the stove sounded like it was idling and I didn't see the raging orange glow outside in the hallway that I usually see. I checked the second floor thermostat and it wasn't as cold, but was down to 65 degrees. I checked the first floor and it was down to 64. I came down stairs to adjust the dial. I turned the feed rate up to 5, I turned the temperature from about 72 all the way up (I believe 85 is the max) and went back to bed. I woke up to 67 degrees upstairs and still 64 on the first floor. I'm at a loss here.
The stove is only 4 months old, so still under warranty. I'm just not sure what to do next. It almost sounds like the fan isn't as loud as it usually is when the stove is ramped up and trying to get up to temperature. I apologize for the very lengthy post. I just didn't want to leave out any details. I'm hoping someone has run into this, so I might be able to give my dealer some direction when I call them this morning. I welcome any and all theories.
John
Last edited:
