Condensation on inside of hopper lid?

[Lucerry]

the one kind of bunny that isn't cute and cuddly.....sneaky sneaky.

Yes! And I am finding a LOT of dust bunnies. (Three cats and 1 dog will do that quick). I've been in there with a wire brush, some small paintbrushes, etc. I cleaned a lot of crap out of the distribution fan.

For my next question in the process: how do I take the exterior cover off the upper part of the back of the stove? This is the piece about the "rear insulated sheets", and for the life of me I can't figure out how to get that off! I can see a bunch of dust in there that I want to get out!

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Vacuum nozzle or compressed air.

Does the fan actually turn?

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

You only want to clean the squirrel cage out along with the blowers cooling fan blades and motor. Should not need to remove anything since the room blower has to be open to get air to send through the plumbing.

Ain't pets wonderful?

I never find cat fur in mine and I have an old grey tom cat.

 

[Lucerry]

Vacuum nozzle or compressed air.

Does the fan actually turn?

Are you saying I can't get that piece off?

The fan turns on its own, yes.

 

[heat seeker]

Way back in the days the memory was actually magnetic non volatile core memory and people got useful work done with very little of that expensive memory. Microsoft wouldn't even be able to fit their smallest Windows routine into such a machine.

I remember core memory, and when 2K was a lot of memory. Just dating myself, I guess. Call me a dinosaur. I worked on DEC PDP8s back when.

Back to the thread now.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Are you saying I can't get that piece off?

The fan turns on its own, yes.

No just that you shouldn't remove it and should not need to.

Playing with insulation on a stove is as bad as playing directly with the fire using bare hands.

One slip and the stove needs to see a real stove doctor. That is part of the protection against bad things happening and allowing the clearances to combustibles to be significantly less than that of a wood stove.

ETA: The last party that was working on a vintage pellet stove that did remove insulation wound up burning up his controller, and his blower motors. He was warned not to fire the stove up without putting the insulation back . Oops.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

I remember core memory, and when 2K was a lot of memory. Just dating myself, I guess. Call me a dinosaur. I worked on DEC PDP8s back when.

Back to the thread now.

I worked on a PDP 8i that was the controller for a Periphonics Audio Response System and CRT based Proof Of Deposit Repair system. The PDP 8i was exactly like an IBM2400 series tape drive on the computer system.

Many old 'saurs and I were friends.

 

[SteveB]

Off the thread a little longer, I remember core memory, 8" floppys, mag tape drives, a PDP that booted from paper tape (took a very long time). Worked on PDP-8s, 11/23 Q-bus and 11/44 UniBus machines. Decnet, etc. Was at DECs headquarters once. Used a couple VAXs but never worked on one.

Sorry, now back to our regularly-scheduled program.....

 

[Lucerry]

Well. This is something I apparently have never cleaned before! Took me forever to get to it! I'm not sure that this was causing all my problems, but I imagine it certainly wasn't helping things!

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Well. This is something I apparently have never cleaned before! Took me forever to get to it! I'm not sure that this was causing all my problems, but I imagine it certainly wasn't helping things!

Eventually it would cause problems.

Now you know why we harp on cleaning, and more cleaning, and even more cleaning.

Dust may protect the furniture but any of it, ash, or other stuff inside a pellet eater is not gonna help at all.

 

[heat seeker]

My stove doesn't have a place for fines to collect. How do the fines get in these places? Through the auger bearing, or what?

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

My stove doesn't have a place for fines to collect. How do the fines get in these places? Through the auger bearing, or what?

Different feed system, this is actually a good thing provided you know about it and the need to clean it, but you know that is in the manual (that paper thingy with pages of words, that no one seems to ever read).

 

[MCPO]

I would not feel right about the stove untill I pulled the auger and inspected the tube right up into the hopper for evidence of a gummy buildup .It`s really a simple procedure.

 

[zrtmatos]

Well. This is something I apparently have never cleaned before! Took me forever to get to it! I'm not sure that this was causing all my problems, but I imagine it certainly wasn't helping things!

I just picked up a used Accentra from 2006. What is this a picture of? I want to make sure mine is not full of this!

Does anyone know?

 

[kykel]

Different feed system, this is actually a good thing provided you know about it and the need to clean it, but you know that is in the manual (that paper thingy with pages of words, that no one seems to ever read).

Its more fun getting the info here. Who wants to read a paper thingy that doesnt even talk back to you.​

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Its more fun getting the info here. Who wants to read a paper thingy that doesnt even talk back to you.​

Well since you folks are playing with fire it would be in your best interest to read the manual, but then again I might be wrong.

Lets see we have raw, lukewarm, warm, quite warm, medium done, well done , and burnt to a crisp. Your choice you are running your dragon, not I.

 

[rickwai]

Well. This is something I apparently have never cleaned before! Took me forever to get to it! I'm not sure that this was causing all my problems, but I imagine it certainly wasn't helping things!

Where your control panel folds into the stove there is a rocker switch that says hi/lo. That is for dist. fan. Is your switch set on low? No need to remove esp probe to clean. You can see it in exhaust tunnel from inside stove just brush it off when you clean tunnel out w/ your vent brush. It dont need pulled and cleaned w/ alcohol or paper towel, it is a temperature sensor. If it has a thin discoloring on it, that will not affect its function.

 

[Lousyweather]

Where your control panel folds into the stove there is a rocker switch that says hi/lo. That is for dist. fan. Is your switch set on low? No need to remove esp probe to clean. You can see it in exhaust tunnel from inside stove just brush it off when you clean tunnel out w/ your vent brush. It dont need pulled and cleaned w/ alcohol or paper towel, it is a temperature sensor. If it has a thin discoloring on it, that will not affect its function.

this rocker was in place for a few years- a couple years ago, Harman did away with the hi/lo rocker switch. Dont panic if you dont have one.

 

[Lucerry]

Where your control panel folds into the stove there is a rocker switch that says hi/lo. That is for dist. fan. Is your switch set on low? No need to remove esp probe to clean. You can see it in exhaust tunnel from inside stove just brush it off when you clean tunnel out w/ your vent brush. It dont need pulled and cleaned w/ alcohol or paper towel, it is a temperature sensor. If it has a thin discoloring on it, that will not affect its function.

There is a hi lo switch, which has always been set to hi.

This is so perplexing. Stove starts up fine, fire is hot and healthy looking, auger appears to be working fine, etc. And there are no status lights blinking or anything on t he control panel. But the distribution blower is not working. I can peer in the bottom while it's on and I can see that it's not turning. Wouldn't there be angry status lights if the stove could sense that it wasn't working?

Someone else earlier suggested seeing if I could feel the fan blowing when I turned the feeder knob to test, and the answer is NO, I can't feel the fan blowing when it's in test mode.

Any suggestions?

 

[Lucerry]

I just picked up a used Accentra from 2006. What is this a picture of? I want to make sure mine is not full of this!

Does anyone know?

It's from the feeder chamber. Like I mentioned it took awhile for me to get to it. It's not as simple as it looks on pg 23 of this online manual: (broken link removed to http://hearthnhome.com/downloads/installManuals/Accentra.pdf) .

I've owned the stove for 2.5 yrs now and hadn't cleaned it out. Glad I found it, but seems like it will still work for awhile even if you don't get to it all the time!

(Oh, and I think this stove is from 2005)

 

[Lucerry]

put the feed adjuster knob to test...can you now feel the fan blowing out the front?

No, I don't feel it when it's in test mode. Any thoughts/suggestions?

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

There is a hi lo switch, which has always been set to hi.

This is so perplexing. Stove starts up fine, fire is hot and healthy looking, auger appears to be working fine, etc. And there are no status lights blinking or anything on t he control panel. But the distribution blower is not working. I can peer in the bottom while it's on and I can see that it's not turning. Wouldn't there be angry status lights if the stove could sense that it wasn't working?

Someone else earlier suggested seeing if I could feel the fan blowing when I turned the feeder knob to test, and the answer is NO, I can't feel the fan blowing when it's in test mode.

Any suggestions?

Well it sounds like the distribution blower is out of it.

Maybe a fuse is blown.

How are you at disconnecting electrical wires and playing with that wonderful but deadly electricity available at a wall outlet?

I'll let the Harman folks do the talking.

 

[Lucerry]

FIXED!

Decided to call a hardware store 45 min away with my suspicions. They suggested it was probably the distribution motor/fan, and had a replacement on hand.

30 min after getting back with it, we have a fire and a healthy sounding distribution fan and a great working stove!

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[Bioburner]

Have a warm night. Your cheating on the oil company again

 

[SwineFlue]

Did this solve the condensation problem?