Harman p38 auger tube crack failure?

[Lousyweather]

it would sound as if your assesments are corect. They are coming by on Saturday morning to replace the auger feed-tube assembly and burn pot.

They stated that there are 5 additional air vents/holes down at the base of the burn pot which can cause the flame to over burn in the pot and cause that gap to show up.
(or something to that extent)

They figured about 90min to do the replacement. Just need to take off the back hopper, and start taking pieces out.

my part will be cleaning out the burn pot, the ashes, and making sure there are no pellets in the hopper.

90 mins to replace the auger tube weldment?! NO WAY! Especially in-house....3-4.5 hours

 

[ducker]

it would sound as if your assesments are corect. They are coming by on Saturday morning to replace the auger feed-tube assembly and burn pot.

They stated that there are 5 additional air vents/holes down at the base of the burn pot which can cause the flame to over burn in the pot and cause that gap to show up.
(or something to that extent)

They figured about 90min to do the replacement. Just need to take off the back hopper, and start taking pieces out.

my part will be cleaning out the burn pot, the ashes, and making sure there are no pellets in the hopper.

90 mins to replace the auger tube weldment?! NO WAY! Especially in-house....3-4.5 hours

My understanding is that there is no welding needing to be done.
Hey, I have no idea what they are replacing etc... just that they are coming and fixing it

But thanks for the notion that quite possibly will take twice as long to fix it then they told me.

 

[tinkabranc]

I have been following both threads on these auger tube issues but am getting
a bit confused now.

The issues swalz is having looks like a digger inside the auger tube and ducker's
looks to be a little gap where the pot and tube meet. Different issues or no?

I do not know anything about welding so forgive my symantix, but wouldn't a spot weld
in the spot where the parts meet take care of that gap?

 

[ducker]

Ok the guys showed up at around 11am. It's now 1 and they are piecing it back together. There are two guys working on it. It's definately the feeder box they are replacing. Pics to follow later shen I have more time.

 

[Lousyweather]

so, it'll be between 5 and 6 man-hours then, right?

 

[ducker]

well all things considered it seemed as if one guy was doing all the work and the other was just assisting him.

I would figure it took them total of 4 man hours.... then we fired it back up to make sure everything was working. They were out of the house by 1:40pm.
arrived around 11:10am. Total time spent in the house was about 2.5 hours; or 5 man hours. start to finish.

 

[Lousyweather]

dont forget travel time.........

 

[ducker]

good point!! assuming from the stove shop to my place... approx 40 min. So add another 80min to the job!! That adds a bit.
(I know they came from even further away, but I can't control where their jobs were scheduled.)

Bah, I forgot to post pictures last night. will do it tonight!

 

[Lousyweather]

and is that travel time one way, or both ways? so, worst case, 2 ways.......40mins x 2 = 80 mins
80 mins x 2 guys = 160 mins, or almost another 3 man-hours!

 

[timjk69]

I agree with Summit. Their's a gasket between the the burner and main body. I had the same situation, pulled off the burner and resealed that small area to eliminate the air leak.
Would be easier to just pack a little furnace cement in if needed.

 

[ducker]

What happens here I wonder. Does the metal thin out and crack or is there 2 pieces seperating from one another? I just bought a Harmon and wonder if I wouldn't try welding or patching the crack if it was out of warranty.

its the seam where the auger tube and pot meet... they are 2 seperate pieces and boltd together via studs and bolts.. ITS NOT a crack, just a spot where the baked on carbon came off clean... go to a showroom and look at a frsh one: you'll see a seam all the way round.

I'll post pics tonight, there's no seam where that hole is, it's a clean tube with out any welds/seams in it.
the piece where the hole is is #8 - on the last page: the Ultra Feeder Weldment part# 1-10-724132

They replaced that whole piece

 

[ducker]

the below is the replacement piece:

You can see it is one solid piece. no welds at the opening where it is to connect to the burn pot.



and here is my cooked one:

You can see even more clearly now where the hole is, there shouldn't be any thing at all there, it should be a solid pipe!!

Now what you can't see in the picture of mine, is the fact that the small 1/8th of an inch protrusion of the pipe on the new feed weldment has all be dissolved on the bottom part of the feeder tube in the weldment piece.

I should have taken a good picture of the burn pot when they had it all apart, but I didn't think of that at the time.