Power outage with Harman p61a

[mepellet]

Stove was left in room temp manual when I left for work this morning. Apparently we lost power for about an hour this morning. What am I going to go home to tonight? Besides the oil monster running because temps dipped in the house? Haha. Luckily it's unseasonably warm and sunny. I've never started the stove in manual mode before. If I had I would probably know what to expect.

 

[lbcynya]

...What am I going to go home to tonight? ...I've never started the stove in manual mode before. If I had I would probably know what to expect.

Not sure what you are looking for? Why start in manual mode? I've tried that before (for fun), not as easy as one would think, but doable with practice. Take a few minutes to scrape out the pot while it's cold, turn the stove off, then turn the dial back to your normal operating position, flip the igniter switch from manual to auto and back to manual...good to go. Depending on your "natural draft" you probably leaked some smoke into the house. If not, that's a bonus.

 

[mepellet]

Just curious if I will go home to a burnpot overflowing with unburned pellets because the stove tried to restart without using the ingitor. Maybe the auger will not start running though in a manual start until the esp senses heat? Like I said, I have never stated in manual mode so I do not know how the stove handles startup.

Few weeks ago I got home to find the glass was cloudy all over. Stove was running. Come to find out we had lost power for about 20 minutes. Somehow the stove restarted itself. On the plus side there was no smoke smell in the house.

 

[chken]

You sound like an ideal candidate for a 1500VA UPS. Should run your stove for several hours.

 

[mepellet]

Knock on wood we have only list power about 4 or 5 times in the 5 years we have lived here. None were storm related. All were power station equipment failure or vehicle accidents knocking down utility poles. Maybe someday I'll get a ups but many more important things that I need to put my money into right now.

 

[mepellet]

Well got home and smelt a very faint smell of smoke. Wife couldn't smell it when she got home half hour after me. Stove was off and burnpot was full of half burnt pellets. Scraped the burnpot and decided to take a good look at the vent termination outside before firing it back up since the stove was off. Noticed a thin layer of creosote on the last foot or so of the venting. Probably about 1/16". Last time I did the vent cleaning was just after we had a power outage for about 20 minutes and I noticed roughly the same amount of creosote buildup in the same location. Never seen it before. Wonder if the power outages had anything to do with the little buildup? Smoldering pellets causing this? Not sure. Will need to keep an eye on it.

Well anyway, I did a quick vent cleaning and used some wet paper towels to clean up the thin creosote buildup. Fired the stove back up and got the really bright and active flames that I always get after doing a vent cleaning. Back in business. Don't think the oil monster even had to turn on because it was so warm outside.