Want to buy a Harman Exception Wood Stove

[Garrett]

I curently have a 1970's Fisher insert that i converted to a freestanding stove it has a 8'' stack and uses about 5 cords in the winter to heat my 1700 sq ft home. I considdered a pellet stove but after figuring cost of pellets vs cutting my own wood I sided with a less expensive fuel of wood. Is this a good quality efficent stove and has anyone liked its performance. Current cost $2500 in NW WA

 

[begreen]

Welcome ghong. The TL-300 has some folks happily using it here. Hopefully MishMouse will see this soon. It's a serious heater and should reduce wood consumption by maybe half from the old Fisher. What neck of the woods in WA are you?

 

[Garrett]

Camano Island
Is this Harman Exception able to throttle down to a idle heat level. And does it have a practical burn time? I normaly start a fire in the afternoon and let burn thourgh out the morning.

 

[begreen]

Howdy neighbor. Your a bit north and in the convergence zone, but close to the same temps we see.

Modern EPA stoves burn completely differently then the smoke dragons of yesteryear. As opposed to load her up and it smolder for 12 hrs. there is a different burn cycle, somewhat controlled by how one uses the stove. A modern stove has a reburn stage (secondary combustion) where the unburnt gases are reburned for a more complete and clean burn. This produces a lot of heat pretty soon after the wood gets hot. Then one is in a long glide path of burning the coals until they are exhausted to ash.

The Exception is reported to have nice long burn times of ~12 hrs. on hardwood as long as there is proper draft for the stove and dry wood to burn. With our softwoods I would take a couple hours off of that. PM Mishmouse for the day to day operation and low idle capabilities.

 

[stanleyjohn]

welcome gehong! I bought the Harman exception wood stove at the end of last winter and got to use it 4 times.My home is a 1600 sq ft colonial and so far it has done a good job on heating both floors!The fan is abit noisy at the higher speeds but i have heard thats pretty common with many other stove insert brands also.The Harman is a down draft stove that does its secondary burn in a back chamber vs tubes on the top that many other stove brands have.It may take alittle time to master a downdraft stove like a Harman but when you do!you will have very long burn times before refueling is needed.Harman is a very reliable stove!I'm alittle surprised that there dont seem to be more Harman owners on this forum than there is.

 

[biggins08]

I too run an exception insert and agree with the above!

 

[MishMouse]

I currently have a 1970's Fisher insert that i converted to a freestanding stove it has a 8'' stack and uses about 5 cords in the winter to heat my 1700 sq ft home. I considered a pellet stove but after figuring cost of pellets vs cutting my own wood I sided with a less expensive fuel of wood. Is this a good quality efficient stove and has anyone liked its performance. Current cost $2500 in NW WA

If you are looking at a TL-200 for 2.5K your dealing is giving you the short end you should be able to get that stove for around 1K less then the TL-300. When I was looking at stoves I could have bought the TL-200 for 1.4K with all the trimmings (gold door, fireplace attachment, grill etc.) But instead I went for the TL-300 due to its bigger box, better designed chamber, and larger ash box. Here is a link to something I posted on Harman stoves: https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/6822/

One of the main things you should consider when purchasing any stove from any dealer is how good the dealer is. They will be the ones supporting you most manufactures do not do support well if at all. My dealer is the main reason why I chose the TL-300 over QudraFire 5700 or Isle Royal.

Ok, as for the TL-300 I can obtain 10-12 hour burn times with this stove on low with stove top temps above 400. The main issue I have found is that it takes a little learning to get the feel of this downdraft stove to obtain the extended burn times especially from a cold start. Due to the size and weight of the stove it takes a while for the afterburn chamber to properly activate and you may even get some stalls. Due a search on TL300 and TL-300 in this forum and you should be able to find my posts along with others that own this stove.

 

[Garrett]

mouse what type of wood are you burning in MN?

 

[MishMouse]

Mainly Oak, Birtch and Popal and other odds and ends wood that I find laying around.