Harman Accentra Insert Loud "Humming" Noise

[Mia44]

Hi everyone! New to the forum. Need some help! We've been living in our home for 10 years now, and using our Harman Accentra pellet stove (it was already in the home)with no problems until this year. Have it professionally cleaned yearly, and clean it out about once a month myself(pull everything out of the inside and ashvac all and slots on the sides. Been burning same brand of pellets every year as well. This year it started to make this loud humming (the only way I can describe it) that goes right into your skull! I found a video that described cleaning out dog hair from the distribution fan underneath, and as we and the previous owners have dogs we gave it a shot. Pulled stove out,tipped forward and cleaned the fins. They were dirty,but not full of hair as I suspected. (I've never seen the stove cleaners do this by the way) Gave everything a good vacuum while I was inside the fireplace hole. Put everything back,even did the test run before putting stove back in place. Sounded good. Started it that night, same loud humming, and now the distribution fan is rattling!! Grrrrr! So I took some videos. The first one is without the humming, just the distribution fan rattling. Second video has the loud humming sound. I know we're going to have to replace the distribution fan, but is that what's making the humming sound too? Really appreciate any help on this! The noise is driving us crazy! Thank you!!

 

[Rascus]

Can you run the distribution fan and exhaust fan separately from each other? I am not familiar with this exact stove, but if you can get them to spin without the rest of the machine running, it would be easier to nail down each noise individually. If you haven't had the exhaust fan cleaned yet this season, there may be build up on it creating vibration, which could cause a hum. It could also be a bearing on either fan. Either way, controlling each individually would be a huge advantage for you to diagnose both issues!

My distribution fan makes a little bearing noise at lower speed, so I just make sure it runs above that resonance point until the season is over and I can pull it apart LOL.

 

[Dataman]

Had my Distro Fan do that. Couple of screws rubbing on fan housing. Only way to find it was pull the fan. I had spare on hand. Still sitting in garage 7 years later. Red (High Temp) silicon on anything that could rub too. Shorter screws. Fixed.

 

[Mia44]

Can you run the distribution fan and exhaust fan separately from each other? I am not familiar with this exact stove, but if you can get them to spin without the rest of the machine running, it would be easier to nail down each noise individually. If you haven't had the exhaust fan cleaned yet this season, there may be build up on it creating vibration, which could cause a hum. It could also be a bearing on either fan. Either way, controlling each individually would be a huge advantage for you to diagnose both issues!

My distribution fan makes a little bearing noise at lower speed, so I just make sure it runs above that resonance point until the season is over and I can pull it apart LOL.

Thank you for replying! I did clean everything off when I had it pulled out. The exhaust fan did have a bit of dust on it. The stove has a test mode where it runs each part separately. I've done that and can here the rattling from the distribution fan, but not the humming.It only seems to makes the humming noise when there's a fire going. We thought we could just ignore it😁, but some nights it's really loud and I end up shutting it down. Thanks again!!

 

[Mia44]

Had my Distro Fan do that. Couple of screws rubbing on fan housing. Only way to find it was pull the fan. I had spare on hand. Still sitting in garage 7 years later. Red (High Temp) silicon on anything that could rub too. Shorter screws. Fixed.

Thanks for replying! I'm going to have to replace the distribution fan for sure.

 

[Rascus]

Thank you for replying! I did clean everything off when I had it pulled out. The exhaust fan did have a bit of dust on it. The stove has a test mode where it runs each part separately. I've done that and can here the rattling from the distribution fan, but not the humming.It only seems to makes the humming noise when there's a fire going. We thought we could just ignore it😁, but some nights it's really loud and I end up shutting it down. Thanks again!!

When I say clean the exhaust fan, I do mean the interior parts. Did you take it apart and clean the inside of it, or just the outside?

When you have a fire going, can you shut the distro fan off to see if the humming is coming from the exhaust fan?

 

[Mia44]

I didn't take the fan apart,but vacuumed off the fan blades using a skinny vacuum attachment and then used qtips to wipe off what was left on the blades. (I wasn't sure how to take it apart) I shut off the stove last night because it was so loud,and let it burn down, which also stops the distribution fan. The exhaust fan was the only one running,and it was still making the noise.

 

[Rascus]

I didn't take the fan apart,but vacuumed off the fan blades using a skinny vacuum attachment and then used qtips to wipe off what was left on the blades. (I wasn't sure how to take it apart) I shut off the stove last night because it was so loud,and let it burn down, which also stops the distribution fan. The exhaust fan was the only one running,and it was still making the noise.

I'm trying to say you need to get internal with your exhaust fan and see if there is any junk on those blades in there. Give that whole exhaust fan chamber a really good cleaning. There's no possible way to clean the exhaust fan without taking it off the machine.

If there is any junk in there it can cause an imbalance on the fan and cause wobble/vibration.

If it is totally clean and you are still getting noise, I would get a new fan put on there or look into getting the bearing replaced.

 

[Mia44]

Awesome! I'll give it a go! Thanks so much for the advice! I really appreciate it!!