The Pelletstove Corner

Yeah, the Harman ignitors are a problem and I’ve heard that “new and improved” ones should be available the end of April. This is a problem that the manufacturer is well aware of and working on.

It’s a shame because I think Harman makes an excellent pelletstove. I have recommended them to many of my customers and actually gave them and their local dealer a bit of free advertisement last winter.

When you say the “ignitor won’t work” I read that as different from “the ignitor fails to light the pellets”. If you put the stove in a demand mode, pellets feed into the burnpot but fail to light yet the bottom side of the burnpot is hot to the touch (careful- don’t burn yourself) then most likely you simply need to clean the burnpot. Make sure all the holes are clear. Use the “T” of the cleaning tool provided with the stove instead of the spade end. If the ignitor truly has failed call the dealer and have them replace it for you.

How Harman deals with this problem is important to me and will effect my opinion of them. Harman should send out a letter to all effected stove owners informing them of the ignitor problem and directing them to contact their dealer for the free factory upgrade.

Harman should not wait for the ignitors to fail prior to replacement, nor should their dealers, both should act in a proactive instead of reactive manner in resolving this issue. Luckly, the Harman stoves that utilize the automatic ignitor also function in a manual mode so although the owner is inconvenienced a bit, the stove is operational.

Both the Profile 20 and 30 models required a factory upgrade kit. These stoves use an optical eye that actually “looks” down into the burnpot to make sure the fire is burning at the end of the start-up cycle. The eye was originally placed where it could not get a good enough view of the burnpot. To determine if the optical eye relocation kit has been installed, open the hopper lid and look for a fist sized and shaped box attached to the top of the auger shaft cover. If its not there contact your retailer and request the upgrade, don’t let them try and charge you for the kit, it should be free and the factory was offering a $50.00 payment to the installer.

If you already have the upgrade and you are still getting the fault indicator (blinking light) then you should make sure the amber plastic eye lens is free of soot. I have gone on several service calls where other techs have replaced control boards and/or disconnected the thermostats to no avail.

Take a little mirror and light source and look up the feed tube. Do you see an amber piece of plastic up there? It’s about an inch by inch and a half rectangle. Is it sooty? You might try cleaning it through the feed tube, a damp rag over a bottle brush perhaps. If you need to remove the lens from the stove to clean it here is how I do it:

Before you do anything Unplug the Stove.

On the freestanding models access to the lens is easier than on the inserts which will need to be removed from the fireplace and have the top of the hopper removed. but, once your looking down into the pellet free hopper you simply remove the three 11/32’s nuts that hold the top and side (its one piece) of the optical eye box in place, remove the nuts (11/32’s again) that hold the lens retainer in place, clean the lens with a damp clean cloth and re-assemble.

Let me know if you still get the fault light.

Pelletstoves emit so little particulate matter that they are exempt from all woodsmoke advisory programs that I am aware of. A properly running pelletstove emits no visible smoke. The electrical energy required to run a pelletstove is about equal to a 100 watt lightbulb. And, no trees are being cut simply to make the pellet fuel as pellets are made from wood by-product. I recommend you try and buy pellets from your closest pellet mill so the energy and pollution associated with transportation is as minimal as possible. My favorite pellets are Goldenfire pellets made close by in Brownsville, Oregon. They are a 100% fir pellet.

So, yes, pelletstoves are indeed a environmentally friendly and economical source of heat.

In a negative pressure system you have a fan downstream of the fire sucking (think vacuum cleaner) and in a positive pressure system you have a fan upstream of the fire blowing (think hair dryer). Most stoves are negative pressure systems. In a negative pressure system if there is a leak infront of the fan the stove draws from the room into the stove and out the vent. Preferable to a positive pressure system which would leak from the stove into the house. Negative pressure systems typically have an air-wash feature which allows a stream of air to leak in and create a curtain of air between the glass (neoceram) and the fire. This keeps the glass cleaner longer. In a negative pressure system the fan blades are in contact with the combustion byproducts and need to be cleaned regularly, also another fan is required to circulate room air through the convection system. In a positive pressure system you often have only one fan pushing air through both the combustion and the convection systems and because this fan is upstream it is not subjected to the heat and particulate matter of the negative pressure system fan.

I would much rather have a negative pressure pelletstove simply because I believe the benefit of having a stove that, if it leaks around the door, leaks into the stove and not into the house outweighs the cost of the required extra room air fan.

I want to clarify one thing here- I negative pressure system can leak into the house, but it can only do so at or downstream of the exhaust fan. A positive pressure system can leak into the house any and everywhere.

Yes, you can indeed have a flue fire in a pelletstove. Several factors can create this scary event. Improper air to fuel ratio (a continued lazy flame), constantly running the stove on low, poor quality pellets and failure to properly maintain your stove are all things that can result in a flue fire. These are things though that you can easily correct. Other factors may include a restrictive venting configuration or a venting system that in uninsulated. We recommend insulated pipe be used on all installations, including fireplace insert installations. Insulated pipe keeps the flue gasses from cooling, condensing and glazing.