Harman P68 - 6 Blink Status

[juP68]

Hello - I am brand new to this forum and to my pellet stove. I recently purchased a house with a P68 that is about 20 years old and looks like it is very lightly used. I have used the stove a few times over the past week or so and started to get the 6 blink status light. There were a couple bags of pellets stored in the basement that I was using and I thought may be the culprit because of moisture (no idea how old these pellets are). So I switched pellets and the problem persisted.

I scoured this forum and tried everything I thought to be related (cleaning the chambers, ensuring doors seals are in good condition and properly shut, polishing ESP probe, blowing on tube connected to pressure/vac switch, etc.)

I finally realized that there was some smoke coming out of a cleanout tee at the back of the stove. I am not sure if this is standard to have a tee located here, but there isn't a great place to put one outside. Since there is no cold air intake pipe attached, I am guessing the issue is that the smoke was being pulled into the stove causing incomplete combustion due to low air quality. I attached a flex pipe to the intake port and just ran it away from the stove and everything appears to be working perfect now.

Obviously I still have the issue of smoke escaping. I tried to seal seams with silicone tape as suggested in many posts, but some smoke is still leaking out. The cap on this cleanout tee does not attached very tightly (Selkirk from Menards is my guess of the brand), so I think i will rebuild the whole piping system with duravent (the 90 degree elbow up top is leaking smoke slightly as well). Also, I dont think i will hook up a true cold air intake system that runs out side, but I will likely drill a hole in the wall and run the flex pipe to another room.

Anyways, I just wanted to share this experience in case it helps anyone. I really appreciate this forum and I sure have learned a lot in the past week. If I am way off base on something or if anyone has suggestions, please let me know.

Thanks!
Joe


EDIT: The same problem occurred, the feed light would turn on but the feeder would not actually feed pellets, which would eventually cause the flame to weaken and the 6 blink status to return. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[johneh]

Welcome to the forum
I am not a Harman person but from the manual
6 blink status may be caused by several things :
1. Blocked or partially blocked flue.
2. Blocked or partially blocked inlet air. a. The backdraft damper on the inlet pipe may be stuck and closed. b. If outside air is installed, the inlet cover may be blocked.
3. The air chamber under the burn pot may be filled with fines and small bits of ash.
4. The holes in the burn pot may be getting filled with ash or carbon buildup.
5. Combustion blower fan blades may need cleaned.
6. Fuel restrictions as noted above

Smoke leakage is common and a clean-out Tee is also common inside . The tape has to
be put on smooth and a number of overlapping raps to seal the pipe. Sealing should be done on all interior pipes

 

[bogieb]

@johneh covered the stuff aout the 6 blink status, so I won't comment on that.

Clean out T needs to be super-taped and ideally the tape is fairly wide and smoothly laid. Here is the cleanout fro my P43. I laid overlapping strips of tape along the face of the removable portion first, then wound the tape around the edge and sides.

(no, the wall and FHW cover aren't nearly as close as it looks in the pictures - 4+ inches.

 

[rickwai]

Did you pull the tee cap off and clean the venting from the stove all the way out to the termination cap and clean the screen on the end of the cap if it has one? Did you pull the combustion fan cover off behind the ash bin and clean the fan blade and vac out from the stove to the clean out tee? 99% of the time this is a cleaning issue with the flue. You need a brush and rods for the length of your pipe, they come in 5' sections. Pull term cap off and brush the horizontal then remove the tee cap and run a brush up to the elbow with a empty bag under it and the shop vac hose up the flue a couple inches then clean brush and sweep the horizontal from the fan blade to the tee from inside the stove.

 

[rickwai]

Also the slight leak in the piping has nothing to do with a 6 status blink. Running the air intake into another room will not any effect on that either. It may help with a cool draft coming towards the stove, but im not sure.
Clean the chamber out under the burn pot using a mirror so you can see the igniter.
If you have issues after doing all this empty the hopper and check for an obstruction at the bottom. Reach to the left and check for a foreign object it goes back maybe 3". I had one the other day with similar symptoms and emptied the hopper and found a small roll of electrical tape back there out of sight from the top. It allowed enough pellets past to run for a bit but would go out from insufficient fuel.