Harman metal OAK pipe--looking for leftovers--2ft

[bags]

I had to make a run back to my dealer 45-50 minutes away to return a jacked up thru the wall kit (Harman). Was not to thrilled about that so I didn't want to feel like it was a wasted trip and diesel fuel in my truck. So I grabbed a ton of pellets while I was there and the dealer cut me a break on them for my inconvenience. WIN WIN! You could grab some pellets if they sell them and have some. The backup parts is a go as well.

Does the "close" shop have what you need? Probably already checked, huh? Many wood use OAKS.

 

[ian105]

yup already checked, they had 2" and 3" flex same that lowes had. Chalk it up to a harman nuance.
Such as life. Itching to get this done so I can get it fired up. I only saw it burn for 10 minutes or so in the house I bought it from so hoping nothing else crops up.

I visited the shop last winter during one of the bitter cold spells and spent some time standing in front of one of their harman display units...made me miss the feeling of real heat. They are also the area blaze king dealer....so they got the good stuff.

 

[bags]

My Harman thru wall uses 3" OAK for some reason. Might be a larger kit for the P68. It can take 3" or 4" exhaust vent pipe also. Looks like you are caught in the middle. Thought you would get lucky when Tim had some.

 

[ian105]

They just called me back. They don't stock it. unbelievable. They can order it but the gal didn't know how it was priced. They better not try to make me buy the entire 25' roll.

 

[ian105]

Just emailed eric @ kinsman stoves to see if he stocks this.

Also called a harman shop that is kinda on my way to Chicago, going there later this week. Said since everything was changed over to 3" he wasn't sure, but was familiar with the prior size. He was going to see what he could do and was going to check to see if they had any hanging around

 

[ian105]

The Saga continues. Harman no longer sells 2 2/8 rigid flex pipe. Dealer cant get it, apparently no one manufactures it anymore. They apparently do sell an adapter to 3", which would be fine if Problem is that I need an adapter at both ends, for a 2' run. Who would have thought this would turn into such a problem.
Called the inspector and he wont pass it without the OAK, its required in michigan apparently.

I know someone on here has to have a small piece of 2 3/8 left! help!

 

[festerw]

Walker Exhaust #46975 comes in 6 foot lengths and is a 2.5" ID once you clamp it down it should be good.

Advance Auto or O'Reilly Auto should have it.

 

[bags]

It is not a big deal as I stated way up there in the thread earlier. Adapters, reducers, and what not.............. ((It is a FRESH air,,, INTAKE!)) .......Exhaust......MUCH MORE CRITICAL. Hook it up. At this point I am about to send you a roll of duct tape (NOT APPROVED) and it will get the job done as long as you have a paper towel or single ply wipe tube around. Go get what you need, get some pellets, or keep looking for the 2-3/8" which doesn't exist. 2",3", or 4" for OAK. Band clamps work wonders,,,, 3" flex crushes down and tight.

 

[ian105]

Stopped by a local muffler shop this morning. Had them make me up an adapter to slide over the intake collar on the stove and inside of the flex. Used the existing 2 3/8 flex I had to get to the thimble. An 8" adapter got me to the total length I needed.

I know band clamps and 3" would have 'worked', but I would have had to look at the crushed up flex on the wall thimble. Wanted to keep it clean.

Will silicone the adapter to the stove tonight.

 

[bags]

Ian, I was just giving you a little grief and teasing. That is an interesting solution. Glad you will have the OAK hooked up and sometimes you need some creativity. I don't see why there would be any problem with what you have done. The flex is thin and not as durable as piping like you had the shop fab. Saved you a trip and likely didn't cost much more. Get that bad boy fired up! More pics please. I'd like to see your industrious solution.

And remember....... Duct tape fixes everything. LOL! We call it Kentucky chrome.... Glad you did a clean install. I'm anal like that too. You could wipe off any residual oils on the pipe you had made and spray it with some black to match too. I didn't like the shiny cheap foil looking flex and decided to spray mine. Looks way better IMO and no longer jumps out like a blinding eyesore you almost needed shades to look at. Even though it wasn't real visible it still bugged me. It's all in the details.... for a quality job.

Look at the thread What not to do that S. Williamson started today. "The handyman install." Wow! What a fine specimen we have there. Stuff like that ticks me off because I am a contractor and people get swindled by hacks all of the time. Whoever did that mess likely relies on duct tape the 'fix all' a lot.

 

[ian105]

Its done! Passed inspection today. Here are a couple pics. Ill probably paint the Flex whenever I have to take it apart.
Still need to finish the carpet edge, but thats it.
Might do stacked stone behind it, but it doesn't look out of place as is either.

 

[ian105]

Has anyone used this product stove bright chimney paint product?
(broken link removed to http://forrestpaint.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/CRFCC1.pdf)

I want to paint the exterior pipe in the spring to something closer to the brown siding color.

 

[bags]

Excellent my friend! Congrats! I like the adapter also. It looks better than the flex IMO. I have seen that paint recommended here before so it must be pretty decent but have not used that particular brand myself. Good looking stove by the way. At this point you were just ready for the heat and the cosmetic details can wait. I understand. LOL!

I'm in the process of round two on the pellet stoves. Looking for another to do another area of the house. Have it narrowed down and haven't pulled the trigger on anything yet but will real soon. Wife's gonna love that! Should go well since she is now in love with the first big expense. She doesn't want me diving into my finish the house fund, but I have already been building a lil cash surplus she is unaware of. She'll come home one day from work and whala! New stove already installed.

Have you fired it up yet? Post some pics of that too.

 

[ian105]

Fired up. Left the furnace off today so it was 60 when I got home. Basement is up to 69.
Main floor is 66 in the middle. Large stairwell between the floors

Hung tp up to see the heat move and they are dancing Def moving some heat upstairs

Anyone have suggestions on what distribution blower settings give best efficiency?




Didn't take the cat long to find the new warm spot!

 

[bags]

Nice! Now you are a happy camper. How do it do overnight? We are getting a more consistent cold weather pattern here now. Today is supposed to hit 55 but right now it's 35. From here on out it is going a lot lower. I had the P68 on the lowest settings on constant burn last night and the house stat was at 72 at 5:45 AM. I was experimenting to see where it would keep the house. It was already 32 here at 9 PM last night when I set it on these settings. Getting to know the machine still.

Efficiency and blower settings has many variables. You are going to have to experiment. Every home, set up, stove, pellets used, on and on, etc; are unique so what works for one might not carry any weight for the other. It will take you a little time. Which stove do you have? I was having problems at first and playing around with settings too much. I was also over thinking it. What was recommended by many to me was to set it on room temp, feed rate 4, auto ignite, and set my temp to where I wanted it. That helped me a bunch. One mistake I did was setting the feed rate down to 1 or 2 thinking it would save pellets. Logically and in theory it makes sense. Not necessarily true. Same applies with the blower speed to a degree from what I have figured out.

When I set to above recommendations it helped to established a baseline, metric, or a given point with the unit and my house. Then I could understand what it would do and had a point to start from and refer back to. Might try that and then observe what results you are getting. If, say, you then want upstairs a bit warmer then you could adjust the temp up some. Once you get this mode down pat then you can switch to other modes and compare. Key is to get to know your stove and situation and then you can experiment with adjustments to suit your wants and needs the best. It is a long learning curve IMO because all the variables are constantly changing. The outside temps etc; then switching modes and rates changes things more.

I have learned some differences in modes (room temp vs, constant burn / stove temp) that produce the same results temperature wise with different feed rate etc;

 

[bags]

I know you have a Harman. Accentra?

 

[ian105]

Correct, stove did seemingly fine. Checked on it a couple times. Woke up to both floors at 67 found a stove that was off. ...out of pellets

It holds 40 pounds (manual says 50...no idea how that would really happen) I lit it off around 7P last night. Stove was still slightly warm so guessing it maybe it went out around 6:30.
So thats around 12 hours, 40 pounds over 12 hours is 3.3 lbs per hour. Seems high. Was in the 30s last night.
Was on room temp, manual.

Seemed to have a fair bit of black carbon on the rear above the fire pot. Is that normal or a sign of a draft issue leading to poor combustion?

 

[bags]

Ian, I am not real familiar with your Harman so I am not sure. What did you have the Room Temp set at? You will get carbon build up here, there, and everywhere in time. That is why everyone is adamant about cleaning and maint. It likely is normal. It could also be the pellets you are burning. Some create more carbon and ash. What are you burning? I am burning Somersets and hey are good. I also have burnt Propellets and they have high reviews here too. I can not distinguish any difference between the two.

They look the same and burn the same. Both hardwood and produce identical ash. Likely made from the same types of sawdust down to like species of trees.

40 lbs in 12 hrs seems high. Tonight if the temp will be about the same try Room Temp, Auto ignite, with feed rate 4. By the way what was your feed rate last night?

 

[ian105]

Feed rate was 4, burn line looked good. Temp will be similar, a bit colder.
Burning Propellet, fluffy ash.
Trying stove temp mode today Set on 3

 

[bags]

What I had last night was the feed rate set on 1 with constant burn with the blower in the upper range and the temp dial set on 1 (constant low rate burn). The blower will operate in these mode settings IF the igniter is switched up into auto. In manual igniter mode it will not let the blower operate. In manual mode the blower will not operate below 5 on the temp dial, I believe. Might be 4.The igniter doesn't fire since there is a constant low fire burning.

SO in essence you are operating in all manual low constant burn that way even though the igniter is at auto.

I had very similar temps here last night and awoke early and my house stat was at 72. Not bad! Then I opened the door and scraped the burn pot with the fire still going. Put on a leather glove. The fire might die out but as soon as you finish scraping and shut the door it resumes flame pretty much instantly.

At that point I went to room temp fan high still in auto ignite. I turned the temp dial up to about 5. and the pellet speed went up and I got a big hot flame which I wanted. I let it toast up in here and after it did I switched right back to my "idle constant burn" settings for the day. I will switch back up this evening when we are hanging in the living room and toast it up again then back to idle constant burn for the night. I might kick the feed rate up to 2 to see what the morning stat temp will be. Supposed to have about the same low temp tonight.

 

[bags]

In the low idle constant burn settings your burn will recede backwards some towards the back of the pot and this is perfectly normal and fine. You can disregard the 1 inch back stuff. That 1" of ash at this particular setting is another baseline or metric to verify stoves operation. The manual even states it's OK if it does not maintain the 1" ash line from the front of the pot.

 

[bags]

Currently this is working well for me and not using a bunch of pellets. It will change somewhat when the outside temps drop. I am finding that things are averaging out better since it is staying colder out. It was more difficult to maintain more consistent inside temps and stove settings when the outside temps were fluctuating drastically.

Ex: 75 daytime high with evening lows hitting in the 30's. Plus I was playing dial mode spinning fool. Get your baseline worked out and the rest comes much easier.

 

[ian105]

Thought the feed rate was supposed to be set and forget. Seems to be some debate on that I gather. So basically you were throttled as low as you could go. With st 1. Feed rate 1

Is efficiency the same at low and high burn settings?

 

[bags]

In room temp auto it is set it and forget it. The stove selects and controls what it needs based on the temp you have it set at. In constant burn it does not. Feed rate then determines how many pellets are pushed is what I m figuring out. Not sure about the efficiency between low and high.

Another thing I figured out is that there are better modes, rates, etc; for different outside conditions.

I have noticed now that it's colder I am using less pellets than in room auto or manual setting to the modes I have worked out. This, I believe, is why most here switch to constant burn mode when it gets cold and stays cold. There is a lot of confusing debate about all of this. In 24 hours I am using 1.5 bags total currently now it's colder but I am also keeping my home warmer than many here do. Many have different target inside temps they aim to keep. Before when it was warmer I was using 1 bag or less.

The bags per day is another gray area. Many base that as 1 per day for the entire heating season average. Again, highly debatable since everyone's temps, set ups, home insulation, amount of windows and doors, etc; is different.

Many of these bags per day and stove settings are highly generalized and just an "about this and that much" guess-timations from what I am figuring out. I do know as it gets colder I will be at 2 bags a day approx. for a more realistic daily average and again as it warms ("shoulder season") it will taper off to much less in the bags per day dept.

I am not saying many of these long time pellet burners are wrong nor misleading at all. I am saying they offer this general data up as a guideline as to what to expect in general. It's a here is the ball park you should be playing in. Very generalized.

Bottom line IMHO: Everyone's results may vary is the big disclaimer because that will be a fact. Your house and set up, stove, desired inside temps, home layout and construction, stove placement, and everything else is a different variable to the equation and calculations than my situation and everyone else's for that matter. We are all apple trees in the orchard but each apple is unique and catches the sun in a different light so to speak. Much you have to figure out on your own for what works best and is most efficient for your given variables and needs.

 

[bags]

I'm pretty sure since you were in igniter manual and feed rate 4 then your pellets were fed at feed rate 4 all night whether the fire wanted them or not. If you had run in igniter auto the stove would decide to feed more pellets or less. Could be feed rate 1 at times while feed rate 5 at other demanding times. I am pretty sure but, as I've stated, I am also still figuring things out. I think I am correct saying these above, but not 100% sure.

I also have gathered that the many "refer you to the stickys" responses and such is because this is such a variable and everyone is different.

This entire mode, settings, auto / manual stuff is another thing Harman needs to spell out (in the very basic "manual") is having many or more written examples with all of this. Their idea of a manual is piss poor. For the cost you would think they could produce an excellent "manual" and not a small stack of general papers stapled together. So what if it bumps the stove cost up $15 bucks. I don't believe that would be a deal breaker for someone willing to spring so much for an excellent product. For example, If you set your stove to this and that then this is a result. Examples of many different modes and settings. All they do is provide a few general examples. Not stellar in my opinion.

I am not knocking their product but pellet stove owners in general are a bunch of DIYers who are willing to follow directions and figure out things for themselves even if it was dealer installed. Once the dealer rolls down the road many are on their own also.

Think about how many more pissed off pellet stove owners there would be if not for this great forum. I would still be burning cord wood.