# Harman pf100



## greeningreene (Aug 8, 2010)

I am building a house and am looking at installing a Harman pf100 pellet furnace instead of an oil furnace.  The house is approximately 3,000sqft.  Is this feasible?  I have been quoted $3500 for the unit including the upgraded 1500cfm blower.  Is the standard 3-speed 1000cfm blower sufficient?  I also plan on having a pellet stove in the main living area as a back-up.  Any advice is welcome...


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## smoke show (Aug 8, 2010)

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/53294/
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/50429/
4 pages worth of hits if ya search pf100.


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## SmokeyTheBear (Aug 9, 2010)

You also might want to verify that if you need financing in order to build that house you'll be able to get it installing a pellet device as the primary heating system.  Not all lenders will allow that, then there are insurance concerns along the same line as well.


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## jtakeman (Aug 9, 2010)

As STB say's. Some lenders might not like the idea. If approved. Being a large 3000 sqft house. I would opt for the 1500 CFM blower. That's a lot of house to circulate heat about. 1000 CFM would be better suited for a 2000 to 2500 sqft house.

From what I hear about the heat these monster produce, The pellet stove might just be for looks.


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## smwilliamson (Aug 9, 2010)

j-takeman said:
			
		

> As STB say's. Some lenders might not like the idea. If approved. Being a large 3000 sqft house. I would opt for the 1500 CFM blower. That's a lot of house to circulate heat about. 1000 CFM would be better suited for a 2000 to 2500 sqft house.
> 
> From what I hear about the heat these monster produce, The pellet stove might just be for looks.



Wainwright Bank and Trust will lend for this type of situation. They are socially progressive and use LEED building and Green initiatives as their mission.

https://www.wainwrightbank.com/html/personal/index.html


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## wil lanfear (Aug 9, 2010)

My advice is to go to the link below and read  all of the posts. I just replaced the burnpot in my pb105, I've lost count but I believe it is number 12. I have been told by my dealer that I would have the new heat resistant stainless steel burnpot by the beginning of the heating season, this is what Harman has told him to tell me. The pf100 and the pb105 have this issue with the burnpots so beware. My dealer has been great about replacing the burnpots, Harman has been great providing them, but......... its time to fix the issue once in for all, maybe this new burnpot will do just that. 


https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/53004/


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## kinsmanstoves (Aug 9, 2010)

greeningreene said:
			
		

> I am building a house and am looking at installing a Harman pf100 pellet furnace instead of an oil furnace.  The house is approximately 3,000sqft.  Is this feasible?  I have been quoted $3500 for the unit including the upgraded 1500cfm blower.  Is the standard 3-speed 1000cfm blower sufficient?  I also plan on having a pellet stove in the main living area as a back-up.  Any advice is welcome...



That is a great price for the unit.  What will be the installed price?

Suggested is $3,999.00 for the unit and $449 for the 1450 cfm blower.

Eric


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## hossthehermit (Aug 9, 2010)

Then again, you might consider the St. Croix Revolution


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## Dbbitt (Dec 23, 2010)

This unit is a great source of heat however there are some things to consider. check with your homeowners insurance to see if in fact the will endorse this as your primary heating unit. mine initially would not, howerver after installing a heatpump, Central Air system they would continue my policy. Funny thing though i had the pf100 for three years as my only heat source and it never completely failed, but the heat pump failed the first year of use. back to the furnace.. the ignitors seem to be an ongoing issue i have replace several sometimes 2 in a season. thay are about $100 a pop so you may want to keep one on hand if you dont wish to run  the PF 100 in manual mode. also the burn pot has issues with warping and cracking causing startup issues. you may also want to look into a bulk feeding system as having to tend to it daily may get old. harman made a 1500 lb hopper to attach to the unit requiring only to fill it every several weeks so you can do a fill and clean service at the same time.

Most insurance companies do not know what a pellet furnace is so make sure they understand it is not a stove. It took me several phone calles to Travelers Ins. to get an underwriter to understand that this is a centrle heating system. After having it in the home functioning for 3 years the wanted to know if it was inspected and installed professionally. I argued that if it was here for three years and you insured me for that time nad i never filed a claim what difference does the install make. the place didn't burn down in that time it probably wouldnt happen because of the install.


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## dmaclaren (Dec 23, 2010)

I gave the PF100.  I have the 2000crm blower.  I am currently heating my 50x24 unfinished basement (didn't hook up the return yet) so that's 3 floors of that roughly 3600 sqft.

I have had the house at 70 - 72 and its in manual mode.  This unit will kick on to vent out the heat buildup from the manual mode which helps keep the house heat even throughout the day and it kicks on less. 

We have not been in the teens yet since I started it up this past weekend.  The last 3 bags I put in took me to 39 hours.  House was 72 most of yesterday and I turned it down last night to 65-66

So, that's great considering the unfinished basement.


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## Dbbitt (Dec 23, 2010)

This unit will produce lots of heat but there are alot of variables  that will effect the performance of the unit. outside temp, how tight the home is. my home is an old ballon constucted hon with little insulation i live in Eastern PA it has been  in the 20's a lot this month and i have set the unit to manual mode keeping the house at 70 or more all day only burning about 2 to 2.5 bags of hard wood premium pellets. keep in mind yo can tweek the feed settings to your pellets meaning that if you are calling for heat and go to the unit while it is in demand for heat look at where the flame is burning if the flame is in the pot and not at the edge you may increase the feed. then check it again in a few minutes. yo want to adjust it so the feed rate will fill the pot without pushung the red hot pellets into the ash bin. this setting will get you the Maximum BTU from you unit if it is called for. setting it lower will give you heat but will also have longer run cycles. Yo will have to adjust this when changing brand of pellets. The electronics in this unit seems to base all decisions on temp input and output  and computing rate of change thus adjusting feed rate.


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## dmaclaren (Dec 23, 2010)

Dbbitt, what SQFT are you heating?


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## Dbbitt (Dec 23, 2010)

about 1400 sf but keep in mind it is an old uninsullated home. when i was using oil 4 years ago $3.39 per gal i spent $2300 per season now i spend between $1200 and $1800 per season at 70 to 73 deg  vs 68 deg with oil


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## summit (Dec 24, 2010)

wil said:
			
		

> My advice is to go to the link below and read  all of the posts. I just replaced the burnpot in my pb105, I've lost count but I believe it is number 12. I have been told by my dealer that I would have the new heat resistant stainless steel burnpot by the beginning of the heating season, this is what Harman has told him to tell me. The pf100 and the pb105 have this issue with the burnpots so beware. My dealer has been great about replacing the burnpots, Harman has been great providing them, but......... its time to fix the issue once in for all, maybe this new burnpot will do just that.
> 
> 
> https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/53004/




sounds like some really crappy pellets with lots of non-wood material in them.


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## Ejectr (Oct 24, 2011)

Dbbitt said:
			
		

> This unit will produce lots of heat but there are alot of variables  that will effect the performance of the unit. outside temp, how tight the home is. my home is an old ballon constucted hon with little insulation i live in Eastern PA it has been  in the 20's a lot this month and i have set the unit to manual mode keeping the house at 70 or more all day only burning about 2 to 2.5 bags of hard wood premium pellets. keep in mind yo can tweek the feed settings to your pellets meaning that if you are calling for heat and go to the unit while it is in demand for heat look at where the flame is burning if the flame is in the pot and not at the edge you may increase the feed. then check it again in a few minutes. yo want to adjust it so the feed rate will fill the pot without pushung the red hot pellets into the ash bin. this setting will get you the Maximum BTU from you unit if it is called for. setting it lower will give you heat but will also have longer run cycles. Yo will have to adjust this when changing brand of pellets. The electronics in this unit seems to base all decisions on temp input and output  and computing rate of change thus adjusting feed rate.



I tried adjusting my feed rate to get it to burn on the edge and all that happened is the flame got more intense, but the location of the flame didn't move out of the pot nearer the edge.  I went all the way up to the max setting of 6 and still couldn't get it to the edge.  Also, the users manual says making the fire too hot  by adjusting the feed rate higher could cause you to waste fuel by over shooting the thermostat's setting.  Even at the max setting of 6, there was minimal hot coal type of pellets being blown in to the ash bucket.


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## wil lanfear (Oct 24, 2011)

summit said:
			
		

> wil said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I wish this were that simple, it would be an easy fix, in fact using better quality pellets causes the bubble to form in a shorter period of time. A better quality pellet burns hotter, creates more heat in the combustion area. My dealer has mentioned to me that for the past month Harman has been testing a PB-105, checking temps within the combustion area to see if they can determine what is causing this issue with the burnpots. The testing has shown that the pellets that were used, the temps ranged from 700*F  to 1200*F  depending on which pellets were being used. I suspect the temps could be higher yet using a good softwood pellet. The stainless steel that is now being used to manufacture these burnpots is rated at 1100* heat resistant, IMHO,(Harmans too) the reason that the burnpots are failing. My dealer told me that Harman will be using a different steel alloy trying to correct the issue.


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