Abusing my Harman Accentra

[tmiraglia]

Is anyone else out there abusing their Harman? I only scrape my burn pot when I get a chance to cool the stove down. Well it's been so cold I can't remember the last time I scraped it. Maybe a month? I've been burning these softwood "Freedom Fuel" pellets. They create TONS of ash. But the burnpot was not so bad, even after weeks and weeks! I guess I'm just a bad person.

 

[tmiraglia]

By "not cleaning" I mean removing the ashes from the ash pan only. Before this last run, my cleaning routine was as follows:
1. Weekly shut stove down, scrape the burn pot thoroughly, including hammer-and-screwdriver chiseling the hard stuff. Then I would brush excess ash off the heat exchanger cover panels and from a couple of spots it tends to build up, clean the glass, and empty the ash pan. 2. Monthly I would remove the heat exchanger cover panels, brush the ash off the exchangers, and clean the two long vents with the long necked brush that comes with the stove. 3. yearly take the stove apart and do the recommended cleaning (probably should be done twice a year).

For the past 4-5 weeks, I don't think I did anything other than remove the ash. I scraped the burnpot and I was stunned to find that it was relatively clean. I don't know if was the softwood pellets or the fact I had been running the stove on full blast the last several days, or a combination. I expected it to be a mess. I realize I could be losing some efficiency, but I think it's somewhat noteworthy of this Harman to be able to run pretty well without much attention.

 

[crausch]

I think it is the nature of the Harman bottom feed setup. Even though I clean my burn pot every couple days (scraping out anything caked to the sides or near the auger opening, I certainly could go longer also. I have had no clinkers, the build up on the sides is very minimal and the ash will just continue to push over the front. With the pellets I am burning, I think I could go a week or so also. I just choose not to, but thats just me.

 

[tmiraglia]

Update: I had the time to do a thorough cleaning today. The heat exchangers were really caked with ash, so I should be picking up some efficiency. Flame looks great again. Still, my hat is off to the Harman, as it was able to go a long time without my maintenance. I wouldn't recommend it, of course.

 

[Dougsey]

I give my burnpot a quick scape every two days and do a complete shutdown clean every 4-6 weeks.

She's been running constant since Dec 14 and the only thing I've done is the two day scrapings. Haven't even emptied the ash pan.

I don't consider this to be abuse, either. The Harmans require much less maintenace that a lot of other stoves.

 

[KPWright]

The Invincible has a similar burn pot I think. I scrape it lightly about every two days while it is still burning just to keep the combustion air holes clear. I cool it down and scrape, chisel and curse about every week to 10 days when I'm burning non-stop. I think in 4 to 5 weeks the pellets would have a hard time making it out of the auger between the mountainous carbon chunks growing on the sides of the pot!! 5 to 6 weeks is probably about right to disassemble, clean out the tubes and the vent, vacuum out the firebox, etc. although I can usually judge that better looking at the flame than the calendar.

 

[investor7952]

For some reason my Harmon Accentra Insert runs great for 3 days great heat.Then the 4th runs like crap room temp 4 degrees colder.I scrape the pot do a quick clean on exchnger and plates and good fro 3-4 more days. I am burning firside ultras. I have a chance to buy 12 tons of Patterson Pellets for 225 a ton.
8600 BTUs .5% ash .I dont know of anyone who has used these.They are a softwood and the company is out of Texas.
Here is there site http://pattersonwp.com/home.html.
Please let me know if anyone has head of them and if anyone has the same thing as I mentioned above about performance after 3-4 days

 

[mark d fellows]

Cool, I find it very interesting to see just how long you can go on these things.