# Harman 5 blink error



## Lineman30 (Dec 21, 2012)

I came home this evening to my Accentra giving me a 5 blink error.  I was wondering what would cause that to happen.  There were no pellets in the burn pot so that makes me think it didnt push in any at start up.  Not quit sure but i know what it says in the manual that it has failed to light in a 36 min period. Any Ideas?????


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## Don2222 (Dec 21, 2012)

Hello

Usually 5 Blinks (In Igniter Auto. Mode Only): Indicates that
the unit has failed to light within the 36 minute start
cycle.

To reset - Turn Mode Selector to "OFF", then turn
to either mode again."

This means either there are no pellets in the hopper or your igniter is not working.


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## Lineman30 (Dec 21, 2012)

well...I turned it to off and then to on and the feed motor worked and the stove fired up.  So the ignitor worked as well as the feed motor  and the hopper is half full....


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## Don2222 (Dec 21, 2012)

Hello

Sounds like it is time to service the auger, shaft and motor! See what I did to this Harman here.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads...on-a-harman-pellet-stove.100068/#post-1281938


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## Lineman30 (Dec 21, 2012)

dont really think its that as well....i regreased the motor last year, pulled my auger and cleaned the auger tube at the end of the season last year.....so i find it kinda strange....i'm a clean freak with my stove,,,


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## Don2222 (Dec 21, 2012)

Lineman30 said:


> dont really think its that as well....i regreased the motor last year, pulled my auger and cleaned the auger tube at the end of the season last year.....so i find it kinda strange....i'm a clean freak with my stove,,,


 
If the auger motor is old and a little tired, a brand new one may prevent that from happening. In a similar comparison, I cleaned and serviced an Englander's augers and chutes. It did make it better but the problem was not entirely fixed until I replaced the tired auger motor. That is my experience.


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## MSmith66 (Dec 22, 2012)

Lineman30 said:


> dont really think its that as well....i regreased the motor last year, pulled my auger and cleaned the auger tube at the end of the season last year.....so i find it kinda strange....i'm a clean freak with my stove,,,


Do you clean out under the burn pot? It is possible that ash has gotten between the fins on the igniter and no allowing air to pass through the fins, making it harder for the pellet to ignite. If you do clean under the burn pot, you may have to "TAP" on the igniter to shake the ash out of the fins. Let us know>


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## Lineman30 (Dec 22, 2012)

yes i cleaned out under the burn pot every cleaning...bout 20 bags or so.....the thing is that the burn pot was empty with out any unburnt pellets.  So it was calling for heat but it never feed any pellet into the burn pot.  So i could have had a jam of some sort or low draft or a vac leak somewhere...


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## kinsmanstoves (Dec 22, 2012)

Clean the hopper and feeder assy.  With no unburnt pellets in the burn pot it was not an igniter issue.

Eric


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## SteveB (Dec 22, 2012)

Happened to me one time. I think I figured out what happened, could be wrong but not sure why else it happened only once (to a new stove). I scraped the burn pot good while the fire was out and the combustion blower was off. I think I might've loaded the burn pot right at the end of the auger with carbon and the ignitor couldn't heat the pellets enough to light the fire. I cleaned it all out with the vacuum and haven't had the problem since then but now I always scrape the pot with the fire burning. A possibility Eric? Let me know what you all think. This seems to be a different situation from Lineman30's. I think I had unburned pellets in the pot but can't remember for sure now.


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## kinsmanstoves (Dec 22, 2012)

could be pellets bridging or to much of a build up in the feeder assy.


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## Lousyweather (Dec 22, 2012)

the key here is no pellets in the burn pot......so, its not the igniter, as said above. There are no pellets in the burn pot to ignite. A bridge or clump in the hopper? yea, maybe.....those are the obvious ones. What about a fines container thats full (in the rear of the stove)? How about the bolt which attaches the feeder to the auger shaft loose (causing the feeder to work, but not engage the auger)? How about a shot gear in the feed motor itself (feeder motor runs, but output shaft sometimes doesnt engage)? The gear missing a few teeth can be a pain, because sometimes it will work, sometimes it wont.
Its an '06, so still has the chain drive.....is the chain still on the sprockets?


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## Ejectr (Dec 22, 2012)

I had the same 5 blink situation happen to me on my Harman PF100 furnace.  No pellets in the burn pot.  I reset the error and it's been running ever since.  Probably a pellet bridge.  I banged on the hopper bottom and the auger bottom before I reset the error.

Sun spots...


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## Lineman30 (Dec 22, 2012)

after some thought im thinking its a bridging of some pellets...I had two brands of pellets in the hopper.  I had greenways and Ozark Oaks.  The greenways are small and Ozark Oaks are longer but not to extreme.  So maybe that could have been the problem.  Time will only tell.....


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## TheMightyMoe (Dec 22, 2012)

My guess is hopper lid was a little open, and hopper closed switch was stopping auger from turning. You closed it, after you checked why it failed, and bam it started working.


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## subsailor (Dec 22, 2012)

TheMightyMoe said:


> My guess is hopper lid was a little open, and hopper closed switch was stopping auger from turning. You closed it, after you checked why it failed, and bam it started working.


 
Had that happen to me yesterday. Opened the hopper when I got home to check the pellet level. 10 minutes later I noticed the fire was going out even though I was in room temp manual. Tried stove temp, nothing changed. Opened the hopper lid again and closed it and the stove started feeding. Lesson learned.


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## Lineman30 (Dec 22, 2012)

well...my accentra doesnt have a hopper switch.  so can rule that out and the hopper lid was shut closed.  I left that morning with the stove running.  Came home and the house was warm so it just recently had shut down.


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## TheMightyMoe (Dec 22, 2012)

Lineman30 said:


> well...my accentra doesnt have a hopper switch. so can rule that out and the hopper lid was shut closed. I left that morning with the stove running. Came home and the house was warm so it just recently had shut down.


 
Dang! You've owned it for a while, so I assume you emptied your fine box. Everythings been mentioned me thinks.


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## kinsmanstoves (Dec 23, 2012)

Aliens


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## Bioburner (Dec 23, 2012)

Snoopy pellet pigs


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## rickwai (Dec 23, 2012)

Has all the pellets been removed out of the hopper. Could be a ink pen down on top of the slide plate like i found in a stove last week.


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## Melissa220 (Dec 23, 2012)

I have gotten a 5-blink on my stove several times.  All due to the fact that my hopper was empty.   Since there were no pellets to feed, there was nothing for the igniter to ignite.  Turned the stove off, added pellets, turned to test to feed pellets into the auger and burn pot, reset the feed rate, turned the stove on and voila....no issues until the next time I ran out of pellets.

Sometimes the simple answer is the true answer.   .


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## mikkeeh (Dec 24, 2012)

Could the seal around the hopper lid be leaking??? or the hopper lid not down tight?   Wouldnt that defeat the vacuum switch and shut down the auger?


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## Lousyweather (Dec 24, 2012)

Melissa220 said:


> I have gotten a 5-blink on my stove several times. All due to the fact that my hopper was empty. Since there were no pellets to feed, there was nothing for the igniter to ignite. Turned the stove off, added pellets, turned to test to feed pellets into the auger and burn pot, reset the feed rate, turned the stove on and voila....no issues until the next time I ran out of pellets.
> 
> Sometimes the simple answer is the true answer.  .


 
yea, those are great....

Stove owner...calling dealer:  "My stove wont run, Ive tried EVERYTHING....come fix it"
Tech:...after driving 30 miles one way: "oh...your bin is empty....."(fills bin, stove starts)
Tech: "that'll be $75 for the service call"
Owner: "WHAT? Preposterous! Im not paying you for doing THAT...."
Tech:


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## minnow (Dec 24, 2012)

I've had the same thing happen to me several times with our 2005  Accentra Insert for the past couple of years. Prior to that the stove lit every time. I actually changed out the ignitor this past fall and thought I had the problem solved but about three weeks ago came home to a cold house and an ash pan loaded with unburnt pellets. I think in my case it's a variety of issues.  Sometimes there is a build up of carbon at the bottom of the pot which insulates the ignitor heat from setting off the pellets and I think sometimes it's a electrical glitch with either the ignitor or the main board as I can reset the stove to clear away the five blink code and the stove will automatically light up right after the restart. I've had the ignitor fail to light after a good through cleaning so the carbon buildup is not the sole cause of my problem.   I've also gingerly put my fingers down in the burn pot to see how hot the ignitor gets after one of the misfire events and it's very warm but no where near hot enough to get the pellets to ignite. I've seen this with both the old and new ignitor so I think changing out the ignitor was not a real fix. Now that we are in the cold season, after the stove lights up, I change the ignitor setting from auto to manual which keeps the stove from shutting down so I don't have to worry about a cold house.  I'm into the 6th year with this stove and since it's used as the primary source of heat for the house, it goes 24/7 for six months and a little less than that during the shoulder season so I guess it's getting tired.


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