Pictures of Harman P43 Burn Pot Critiques Needed.

[MaineiacMoose]

Hello fellas,

I have been getting into the cold weather here in Maine and I have what seems to be a ton of ash. I have emptied my ash can about 4 times in a ton and a quarter of pellets. I have been using the Walmart MWP pellets for the first ton and now I have moved into the Natures Own pellets from Lowes. I have 1 tons of each left and I don't know if it is the stove or the pellets that are causing the buildup.

Any feed back would be great as I am a Pellet Stove Newbie.
Thanks Maineiac

 

[jackman]

My 2 cents...it's the pellets.

 

[bogieb]

Pellets. I was getting that with this year's Currans (left overs from last year didn't do that). Switched to straight Maine's Choice (from Walmart) and there is a ton of difference in clean time and ash produced. Since I bought 3 tons of Currans (off my experience last year), I mix in the MC to help reduce the amounts & weight of the ash.

 

[F4jock]

Agree. I've tried both those brands over the years and would not use them again unless I had no other choice. HD has Blazers and Do-It Lignetics, at least around here. Try to find some of those.

 

[bags]

I don't have near that much ash ever so far. I'd say pellets also. Makes sense. It's obviously burning the pellets but the pellets are leaving you a bunch of ghosts.

 

[Harman Lover 007]

You bought a Harman. It will burn any pellet you put in it. Some have more ash than others. You do scrape the burnpot daily, yes?

 

[Bioburner]

It's the $%@&*& pellets. Just some more workout for your arm taking out the ash and vacuuming the stove. Could be worse, could a different stove and have to clean out the stove everyday.

 

[gfreek]

Burn what you have.. Looks like my stove burning GS..

 

[Luv2burnPellets]

Buy a half dozen bags of the best pellets you can find. Use up all of the remaining pellets in the hopper. Clean your stove thoroughly, including the fines box and igniter chamber, exhaust flue and esp probe. Burn thru the half dozen bags of superpellets. You will now be able to compare pellets and ash volume and if the added costs are worth the extra price. Like BStrong said, your Harman will burn anything.

 

[MaineiacMoose]

Thanks for all the replys.

It sounds like it is a combination of me not scraping the pot every day and some meh pellets causing the mess. The flame is plenty lively and stands right up into the heat exchanger so I am guessing its not a burn issue.

I did just do the feed setup for the first time and I have it set at 6 and it is easily an inch from the end of the pot. I was pretty surprised that it would not spill pellets over.

 

[alternativeheat]

Thanks for all the replys.

It sounds like it is a combination of me not scraping the pot every day and some meh pellets causing the mess. The flame is plenty lively and stands right up into the heat exchanger so I am guessing its not a burn issue.

I did just do the feed setup for the first time and I have it set at 6 and it is easily an inch from the end of the pot. I was pretty surprised that it would not spill pellets over.

Unless your stove is running full out to heat your house I doubt you need it set on feed rate 6 and probably not then either. If so you probably are the only person in the forum running a Harman on feed rate 6. Most of us run them someplace around 4 ( mine currently is set to 4.25 roughly).

That said, where you set the feed rate within rational reasons probably will have little to do with the amount of ash you see in your stove, not to any substantial degree.. Natures Own in particular I have banned from putting in my P61, the only pellet I ever used that filled my ash pan in less than a week. Green Supremes are no where near as ashy and they are ashy pellets too.

I scrape my burn pot twice a day, it only takes seconds to do and I don't like the Harman speed bump building up. When you use ashy pellets like you have you will see a clearer flame at the base when you scrape the pot. That's probably something that just makes me feel good but I like feeling good ! Scrape right under the fire and dig the carbon ships, if there are any, off the pot under the coals. The flame will look like it went out but seconds after you close the door it will re establish.

Here in New England we seem to be stuck with a bunch or ashy pellets for some reason but now and then the box stores bring some pearl or diamonds in, like those Blazers already mentioned. American Wood Fiber all White Pine is another very good and hot pellet.. Any Douglas Fir will be hot and clean. And it's not that a Harman won't burn the crap pellets, it will, it's the mess you have to deal with.

 

[bogieb]

Buy a half dozen bags of the best pellets you can find. Use up all of the remaining pellets in the hopper. Clean your stove thoroughly, including the fines box and igniter chamber, exhaust flue and esp probe. Burn thru the half dozen bags of superpellets. You will now be able to compare pellets and ash volume and if the added costs are worth the extra price. Like BStrong said, your Harman will burn anything.

Heck, I wouldn't bother with the cleanout - just dlet her run out of the Currans, scrape the burn pot, then put in the other brand and start her up to see what she does. That way the cleaning doesn't affect a thing.

I know with this year's Currans I have to scrape the burn pot twice a day, last year's Currans only needed once a day. With the Maine's Choice, it is once every 24-36 hours. When I mix the Currans and MC, it can go 24 hours, but is still pretty nasty so I usually stay at twice a day.

Went on vacation for the Holidays and made sure to have the pet sitter use only the Maine's Choice since he was coming in only once per day.

 

[F4jock]

All the feed rate pot does is allow the stove to feed for some fraction of a minute IF the electronics call for it. For example, if your feed is set to 4 the stove will max out at 40 seconds feed BUT only if the electronics call for it. Time your auger light. If you have decent pellets I'll bet it doesn't feed more than ten seconds per minute. I'm running Blazers with an OAK and, with 9f outside I'm feeding seven seconds with the dial set at 4. It could feed up to 40 seconds at that setting if the stove asked for it

 

[DOLLARBILL]

Being from Maine my 1st year I bought MWP never have again! try a couple bags of the good stuff Cubex Okies just to name a few you'll switch its worth the extra $$$ good luck

 

[bmanMA]

watch out for clogged igniter finz with those crappy pellets. Harman will burn anything but it may not light them after a couple of tons of crap.

 

[Tonyray]

watch out for clogged igniter finz with those crappy pellets. Harman will burn anything but it may not light them after a couple of tons of crap.

Good Tip...
My take from the OP's Picture was how lumpy looking the ash was besides the amount....
I'm sure the Igniter compartment will get filled up with dry sandy ash pretty quick..
I burned over a Ton of Stove Chows from HD last winter and as ashy as they are they we're nothing like the MWP's.

 

[Tonyray]

Unless your stove is running full out to heat your house I doubt you need it set on feed rate 6 and probably not then either. If so you probably are the only person in the forum running a Harman on feed rate 6. Most of us run them someplace around 4 ( mine currently is set to 4.25 roughly).

That said, where you set the feed rate within rational reasons probably will have little to do with the amount of ash you see in your stove, not to any substantial degree.. Natures Own in particular I have banned from putting in my P61, the only pellet I ever used that filled my ash pan in less than a week. Green Supremes are no where near as ashy and they are ashy pellets too.

I scrape my burn pot twice a day, it only takes seconds to do and I don't like the Harman speed bump building up. When you use ashy pellets like you have you will see a clearer flame at the base when you scrape the pot. That's probably something that just makes me feel good but I like feeling good ! Scrape right under the fire and dig the carbon ships, if there are any, off the pot under the coals. The flame will look like it went out but seconds after you close the door it will re establish.

Here in New England we seem to be stuck with a bunch or ashy pellets for some reason but now and then the box stores bring some pearl or diamonds in, like those Blazers already mentioned. American Wood Fiber all White Pine is another very good and hot pellet.. Any Douglas Fir will be hot and clean. And it's not that a Harman won't burn the crap pellets, it will, it's the mess you have to deal with.

Excellent tips..
I always said that WWW.hearth.com should be stamped on the inside hopper lid of all Harman Pellet Stoves.

 

[shtrdave]

Mine looks the same way most of the time, I am burning Appalachian Wood Pellets now and when I switch to the Hamers in a few days it will still look very similar. I have went through almost a ton and emptied the ash pan once and cleaned the stove.

I shut mine down and clean it once a month, by the time a month of burning is up the pan is full or close to it.