UPDATE XXV not burning right

[tdzimmer]

Here's my original post:
Hi Everyone,

This is a great forum. I hope someone can help me. I have a Harman XXV that is 3 years old. I also have a Harman p-38. I’m having problems with the xxv. It is burning a lot of pellets and not throwing very much heat. In fact, I am already through 3 tons this year alone. I complained to the dealer the first year, he said it was the pellets. I have tried 5 different brands now with no change. Last year he came out and said it was dirty. After a $70 cleaning, it still did not burn any better. I replaced the esp last year, no change. I have tried the feed rate at any setting from 1-6, no change. I played with the draft, tried room temp and stove temp, nothing. Does anyone know a good service person in SE wisconsin? My dealer is not good at all. Any ideas? I have my p-38 upstairs, it uses 1/3 the pellets and cranks out 2 times the heat. This is very frustrating to spend this much money and have a dealer that won’t help.

 

[tdzimmer]

UPDATE from today:
Had the service guy out yesterday. He checked the draft, it was too low. He raised the draft and hooked the computer up to the stove. What we found was that the stove is burning properly. It looked like the esp probe was steady at 500 degrees max. To me it looks like the esp probe is bumping on the high end restricting the heat output. It appears I just cannot get the heat out of this stove, it is producing the heat but going out the vent pipe. Any ideas? I placed a fan on the floor blowing cold air to the stove. The service man also recommended going to 4” pipe. If I can’t get this to work, may sell the stove and go back to a p-series steel stove.

 

[rickwa]

exhaust temp seems quite high. does the room fan seem like it is moving the air thru the stove

 

[tdzimmer]

Nope, and that has been my complaint from Day 1. But both techs that looked at it says it is operating as it should. It just does not seem to have the cfm to move the air out of the stove.

 

[rickwa]

does the dealer have one on the showroom floor that he can plug in and compare? if yuo plug it in and turn to test it will kick the fan to high.

 

[tdzimmer]

Well, I finally gave up on this stove. Had it back again this past summer. My theory is it is burning fine, but the cast iron is not allowing the heat to escape. I have it for sale in the classifieds for $1900, otherwise I'm trading it in Saturday on a p-68. My P-38 upstairs puts out more heat hands down than this xxv and uses a lot less pellets. Nice stove, just not doing what I need it to do. I believe the steel Harmans let out more heat than the cast iron models.

 

[rickwa]

p-68 is a real workhorse

 

[maglite67]

That stove is at high limit it should be throwing tons of heat. there is a high low switch for the fan make sure it's on high it's inside where the door flips out. make sure your on room temp and not stove temp manual. if it doesn't throw the heat something is wrong with it. I had one that the wire on the combustion blower neg was on the common post and the common on the neg post wired wrong from the factory. That stove did what it wanted. once it was off the vent back in the shop we found it after we got shocked.

 

[tdzimmer]

Maglite, that was my thought from day one and I told both dealers that this thing is bumping off the high limit. Fan switch is on high tried running this thing on manual and auto with no change. For example, Monday night 4 degrees out side. Upstairs stove heat checked with laser p-35 temp was 375 degrees stove set on 3. XXV dowstairs on manual setting 6 only putting out 275 degrees. Upstairs stove using 1 bag per day, downstairs xxv using 2.5 bags per day. Upstairs temp 75 degrees, downstairs 65 with the help of the furnace. P-35 wins!

 

[Lousyweather]

possibly a off-spec distribution fan? Anyone change that out for the fun of it, just to see?

 

[Jim H.]

just a stupid question, you haven't mentioned whether or not you changed the temp dial....you mentioned feed rate but not the temp....also, where is your probe? When my xxv is either 1st turning on or having to regroup in catching up with the temp settings, I can not keep my hand in front of the air feed for very long....it gets that hot. Now when it is just keeping the temp @ 75 or so it is more of an even heat until it starts getting real cold out and it has to keep up....hope this makes sense....

 

[maglite67]

check to make sure the glass isn't loose or gasket isn't missing. Is it burning brown or black? also make sure the ash pan is closing and theres no ash building up causing an air leak. about 80% of the xxv gasket has pulled out of the glass or not sealed tight. still doesn't make sense why we are at 500 over temp is 480 room fan should be on high @ 380 to prevent an over heat.