Question about my Harman Accentra 2 "burn pot"

[from France]

Hello,

I have a question about my Harman Accentra 2 "burn pot". On mine, there are holes on the bottom of the burn pot, I mean where pellets are 'travelling' from the screw to the ash box, and there are holes on the top of the burn pot above the srew. Do you have such holes on the top of the burn pot in the USA ?
In R4 and R7 release of Harman's manuals there are only holes on the bottom of the "burn pot" on the pictures, do you ever saw or heard about that specific model (for France, Europe...) ?

About Accentra "FS", what means this "FS" (Fire Stove ?) ? Is it connected with the direct drive of the srew, or is it still Accentra 2 for the direct drive ?
I think it is now Accentra 2 (chain and direct drive) because in the past another design was Accentra 1, or Accentra [nothing] ?
Last question is about the approx date of Accentra direct drive on the US market ?

Thanks a lot, and excuse-me for my poor american language...

 

[ivanhoe]

salut,
FS est pour free standing. le mien il n'y a pas de trous en haut. envoie une photo!

 

[pkitfox]

We have an Accentra-2 FS (free standing). The holes you describe on you burn pot sound just like what We have on our Accentra. In our manual, on page 23, you can see the holes on the top of the burn pot in Fig. 39 and 40. We also have the holes on the bottom near the auger screw. I am not too sure the stove would burn very good without those bottom holes. It seems like lots of air is coming out of them. I think my manual is for R5. I don't know about dates that the drive was modified? I didn't know there was such a think as Accentra 2. When we bought our stove, I just thought it was an Accentra.

 

[GVA]

Lousyweather would know the specifics on any drive modifications to the FS but to My knowledge the Free standing has always been chain drive.... The Accentra insert has direct drive....
the XXV has been changed however from chain to direct drive...

now for the holes in the burnpot you need all of them for proper airflow to your stove...
the combustion blower creates a negative pressure or vacuum inside the stove (or fire box)
air is thus drawn in through the fresh air intake on the back of the stove (the small pipe with the flapper in it)
the air then splits and about 75% of it goes through the holes in the burnpot, into the fire box, along the heat exchangers, through the combustion blower, and out the exhaust...
the other 25% is pulled through the airwash holes by the same combustion blower...
some holes have been added near the auger in recent years.....
From what I remember there are four (maybe 5) complete rows from the top of the burnpot down towards the auger.... near the auger there were less holes (in the older ones) I believe groups of 4 holes in 2 rows near the outer edges of the burnpot....

again lousyweather would know the specifics...........I haven't seen a burnpot in 18 months But hope this helps answer your question...

 

[MSmith66]

The 3 or 4 holes at the auger help with the carbon build up in that area. The older model harmans do not have these holes and carbon would build up and was hard for the owner to remove.
As for the Accentra models the older stoves are chain driven the newer models are now direct drive and a smaller auger box, in back of stove,helps with the smoke in hopper issue.

 

[from France]

Thank you for the answers,

Attached is a picture of the burn pot (200kb), is it the same in the USA ?
The top part with the holes seems to be welded afterwards ?

Concerning Accentra-2 manuals, R7 ("R7" on first page) is there (! 11,36Mb !) :
(broken link removed to http://www.harmanstoves.com/doc/Accentra) Manual_R7.pdf

You can see the direct drive on Fig. 20, Pages 21, 24...
and Burn pot on Fig.39 that is different from mine !

 

[Lousyweather]

Bonjour!

Alot of good info here! I believe the only difference between a Accentra FS sold in the US and an Accentra FS sold in France is that the French model has electronics to run on DC, while the US models run on AC.

As for the drives. There are new drives in ALL of the older chain-drive models....the newer drive mechanisms are called UL (Ultralight), and there are two flavors: Direct Drive and Indirect Drive. Basically, no more chain drive on the most modern units. No, you cant pull (easily) an old drive off and stick a new one on either! The direct drive is in Accentra Inserts, P61, P61a, P38, P68, PF100. The Indirect drive is in the Accentra, Advance, and the XXV.

Those little holes were once put there to introduce air to the front of the auger to eliminate carbon accumulation (it helps), and to alleviate the "sticky stove" syndrome, that happened with a few rare units (didnt help this). New instructions say to seal them up with furnace cement in tech work (with sticky stoves), so, Im thinking they werent found to be much help.

 

[ivanhoe]

so i see they got rid of the flame guide. hopefully it improves the cleaning tasks.

 

[from France]

Can you please precise what means "sticky stove", as I can't understand in other posts :
is it a deposit of something : solid, condensate,... ? where : front glass, walls, burn pot,... ?

 

[timjk69]

I've thought about drilling another row or two of holes towards the auger in my Accentra burnpot. I think it could use the extra air.

Tim