Just purchased a new P68 to replace our Earth Stove

[alternativeheat]

If it were not for adopting a 110 lb dog with nervous bladder I would be 1500 miles farther south

Sweet looking dog !

 

[alternativeheat]

Holy cow that was some serious flames and heat! Until I figure this room temp thing out I switched it over to manual mode feed rate of 3 with setting of 3. Going to let it run on this setting the rest of the night.

So far no leaks at the joints which is a good thing!

They don't call it the "heat monster" for no reason LOL!

 

[Bioburner]

Your probably over thinking things. Set your temperature 70 or so, feed rate usually 4, fan high or low, ignitor on auto and just let it do its thing. Try and get the room probe away from air movement and be sure its plugged in. One can extend the probe wire if needed.
No leaks so your ready for what mother nature is sending as long as you have your pellet stash stocked.

 

[Harman Lover 007]

Feed rate 4...set it and forget it. Anyone ever hear me say that before???

 

[alternativeheat]

Feed rate 4...set it and forget it. Anyone ever hear me say that before???

I've heard that on some of the new Harman's, that in the manuals it is saying feed rate 3. Some of the new folks might be reading that as a base setup and where they are getting the 3 setting idea from.

 

[EarthStove]

Thanks guys!

Last night I had it burn through a half bag of stove chow. It put out some good heat on feed of 3 and and stove setting 3.

I had to take it off of the room temp when we first got it going because of the flame. The stove got so hot that the burn off was unbearable. tons of smoke and stuff. That thing was like the sun!

Quick question, does turning UP the distribution fan dial increase the temp of stove at all or is that only dictated by the other settings? I swear I thought that when I turned up the room blower the flame increased. It might be my imagination though.

I will give the room temp another shot today when I get home from work. I had it running for about 4 hours last night before it ran out of pellets. I didn't want to sleep with it on until I feel comfortable with it. But I think last night proved it did ok. Not to mention I did fall sleep next to it. LOL

One last thing. How the heck do you shut this thing off with pellets still burning? Whats the procedure? I switched it to OFF on the room blower and the stove just shut down and filled with smoke and of course it started to come out of every crack and crevice in the device.

So far I really like the stove - only thing that we all miss is the awesome looking flames from the old stove. But heat is more important then looks.

Thanks again guys.

 

[alternativeheat]

Thanks guys!

Last night I had it burn through a half bag of stove chow. It put out some good heat on feed of 3 and and stove setting 3.

I had to take it off of the room temp when we first got it going because of the flame. The stove got so hot that the burn off was unbearable. tons of smoke and stuff. That thing was like the sun!

Quick question, does turning UP the distribution fan dial increase the temp of stove at all or is that only dictated by the other settings? I swear I thought that when I turned up the room blower the flame increased. It might be my imagination though.

I will give the room temp another shot today when I get home from work. I had it running for about 4 hours last night before it ran out of pellets. I didn't want to sleep with it on until I feel comfortable with it. But I think last night proved it did ok. Not to mention I did fall sleep next to it. LOL

One last thing. How the heck do you shut this thing off with pellets still burning? Whats the procedure? I switched it to OFF on the room blower and the stove just shut down and filled with smoke and of course it started to come out of every crack and crevice in the device.

So far I really like the stove - only thing that we all miss is the awesome looking flames from the old stove. But heat is more important then looks.

Thanks again guys.

When distribution fan increases it scavenges more heat out of the stove and puts it in the room, it also pushes it further out into the rest of the house. the ESP senses the lost heat and the flame will increase to compensate. Harmans try to maintain a certain exhaust temp based off your settings but never below a certain point. So yes , your flame probably did increase in size accordingly.

In room temp mode, the board senses both exhaust temp and room temp. This stuff is all in the sticky I mentioned in my other message. You need to read that rather than have us explain over and over these things ( believe me every single new Harman owner asks, I did myself even ! But we get to feeling like broken records here LOL, that's why the sticky was developed). Then if you still have a question bring it up but you will have the basics already covered..

edit: And I agree with 007, turning the blower knob to off should put the stove into shut down mode and that may take a half hour or more to accomplish, the whole time with the combustion blower running. So something is wrong there or you had a hiccup. You didn't pull the plug or something did you ?

 

[redbill]

I always keep Feed Limit on 4, Blower on highest (constant mode), and adjust the other knob manually, depending on how cold it is. Never bothered with Room Temp mode, I like to control it myself. To turn off, I turn the Blower knob to the middle.

 

[Harman Lover 007]

One last thing. How the heck do you shut this thing off with pellets still burning? Whats the procedure? I switched it to OFF on the room blower and the stove just shut down and filled with smoke and of course it started to come out of every crack and crevice in the device.

If the above is the case, then something is very wrong!! You should be able to turn the stove to off and the combustion blower will continue to run until the flame goes out and the stove will cool down. This could easily take 30 minutes (or longer)

 

[EarthStove]

When distribution fan increases it scavenges more heat out of the stove and puts it in the room, it also pushes it further out into the rest of the house. the ESP senses the lost heat and the flame will increase to compensate. Harmans try to maintain a certain exhaust temp based off your settings but never below a certain point. So yes , your flame probably did increase in size accordingly.

In room temp mode, the board senses both exhaust temp and room temp. This stuff is all in the sticky I mentioned in my other message. You need to read that rather than have us explain over and over these things ( believe me every single new Harman owner asks, I did myself even ! But we get to feeling like broken records here LOL, that's why the sticky was developed). Then if you still have a question bring it up but you will have the basics already covered..

I read that thread! It didn't make sense late last night though. LOL

Thanks for the help.

 

[EarthStove]

If the above is the case, then something is very wrong!! You should be able to turn the stove to off and the combustion blower will continue to run until the flame goes out and the stove will cool down. This could easily take 30 minutes (or longer)

Yeah, that's what I thought too. Will try again today.

 

[EarthStove]

I always keep Feed Limit on 4, Blower on highest (constant mode), and adjust the other knob manually, depending on how cold it is. Never bothered with Room Temp mode, I like to control it myself. To turn off, I turn the Blower knob to the middle.

Thanks!

 

[alternativeheat]

I read that thread! It didn't make sense late last night though. LOL

Thanks for the help.

That's ok, at least you read it, all do not, nor their manuals LOL !! Well ask away if you have questions.

 

[bags]

Bernese Mountain dog. She was to big(110) for the breed so was not to be used for show or breeding. More aptly named Bee, short for Bernice, busy Bee as she can't seem to sit still. Likes the snow but not this ugly sub zero cold. To restless for a two dog night.

Our small dog is 45-48 lbs and the new big boy is pushing 70 Lbs and slim and in shape. He is just big, lazy, and tall. Very laid back which is great but he does have spunk when needed.

 

[bags]

Stove is operating! Burning off some serious manufacturing stuff at the moment.

I have the feed rate set at 4 and the room temp set at 75 and the flame is super huge.

What are good settings for a newbie. The only way I can get the feed to slow is if I turn the room temp all the way down to 50.

You can leave the temp at 75*, flip the igniter switch to manual, and then adjust the feed rate. This will slow the feed down and by adjusting the feed rate you can sort of pick your temp but it will take a few to figure out and such. Right now it is 20* here and I am down below 1. The house stat is reading 73*. Tonight when I go to bed and the temps drop I'll adjust the feed to 1 to 1.5 and it will keep the house at the same temp.

Just run auto room temp with your temp of choice and feed rate 3-4 for awhile to get used to the stove and how things roll. Twisting knobs right now can be confusing and pointless. Study up what you have it set at, the outside temp, and the inside temp it's holding. Just because you run full auto with a set temp does not mean it will keep you there per se.

 

[EarthStove]

So I moved the temp probe off the floor and just above the stove. Set feed rate to 4 and place it in room temp mode. Then set the temp for 72. The house thermostat was reading 70. She fired up and I had a full blown flame for about15 minutes then it slowly died down and now it looks like the fire has gone out. I guess once it needs more heat it will kick back on an restart the fire.

This is fun!

 

[alternativeheat]

So I moved the temp probe off the floor and just above the stove. Set feed rate to 4 and place it in room temp mode. Then set the temp for 72. The house thermostat was reading 70. She fired up and I had a full blown flame for about15 minutes then it slowly died down and now it looks like the fire has gone out. I guess once it needs more heat it will kick back on an restart the fire.

This is fun!

Yes it will do that in auto but you want to distribute the heat so you don't want the stove heat directly whacking the probe and shutting it down prematurely. I mentioned before that some of use have found a good place for the probe to be is with the wire mounted in a coil to the back of the hopper up high on the hopper and the probe itself sticking out to the side. I duck taped my wire back there about two years ago, thinking I could undo it and move it around. It worked so well I've just left it there. I had it dead on with my oil heat thermostat but it came off and when I reattached it I have less probe sticking out now, so it's within 2 degrees at this moment.

Well anyway, have fun LOL!

 

[EarthStove]

Yes it will do that in auto but you want to distribute the heat so you don't want the stove heat directly whacking the probe and shutting it down prematurely. I mentioned before that some of use have found a good place for the probe to be is with the wire mounted in a coil to the back of the hopper up high on the hopper and the probe itself sticking out to the side. I duck taped my wire back there about two years ago, thinking I could undo it and move it around. It worked so well I've just left it there. I had it dead on with my oil heat thermostat but it came off and when I reattached it I have less probe sticking out now, so it's within 2 degrees at this moment.

Well anyway, have fun LOL!

At the moment I just have it hanging above from the mantle that is there. My "goal" at some point is to move to a wifi thermostat that I can move upstairs somewhere. Once I figure out how to attach the thermistor tot he back of the stove I will give that a try. I figure at the height it's at now it's getting somewhat of a false reading. But I just checked my wall thermostat in the other room and it's reading 71f and I have the stove set to 72.5 I think so that's pretty good!

I think I may still have a bit of a leak in the 45s behind the stove. I am smelling just a bit of smoke when I am right up on them. It smells like its coming from the factory joints in the 45 and not the connections which I siliconed up real good. I may spread some on top of all the joints again for good measure.

 

[alternativeheat]

At the moment I just have it hanging above from the mantle that is there. My "goal" at some point is to move to a wifi thermostat that I can move upstairs somewhere. Once I figure out how to attach the thermistor tot he back of the stove I will give that a try. I figure at the height it's at now it's getting somewhat of a false reading. But I just checked my wall thermostat in the other room and it's reading 71f and I have the stove set to 72.5 I think so that's pretty good!

I think I may still have a bit of a leak in the 45s behind the stove. I am smelling just a bit of smoke when I am right up on them. It smells like its coming from the factory joints in the 45 and not the connections which I siliconed up real good. I may spread some on top of all the joints again for good measure.

Shut the lights off so it's dark in the room and look at your vent joints with a flashlight. You should find the leak and Duravent factory joints do leak a little. Most of us silicone tape them up or run a bead of silicone ( RTV ) around the joints.

 

[bogieb]

Yeah, I wrap all the 45's and 90's with self-sealing silicone tape as they tend to leak in my experience. Using the tape is better than using RTV because it is easy to get where you want, comes in different colors so you can match your pipes, and is easy to remove later. Use either X-treme Tape or Nashua tape which can be found in hardware stores, BBS or on the web. I've used both types and they both work fine - just the Nashua stuff is more readily available in different colors if that is a consideration.

 

[EarthStove]

Thanks for the pipe suggestions. I will get on it this weekend. The amount of smoke I smelled on startup was really negligible so not to worried about it but want to get it taken care of soon.

I have good news to report this morning.

That cold front is moving through and the prevailing west to north west winds have picked up and we have had some gusts to about 15 to 20 I would say. So far no smoke in the house at all! This is REALLY good news. By now the old stove would have really been putting smoke in to the house.

I would expect winds to continue to pickup through the day - will see how it holds up with higher gusts.

I calculate that we went through one bag from about 4:45pm yesterday to 9:30am today. First had it set on 72 and then my wife turned it up to 76 around 10pm. Upstairs was pretty comfortable.

 

[Lake Girl]

If it were not for adopting a 110 lb dog with nervous bladder I would be 1500 miles farther south

She's gorgeous ... she looks like a dog we had but were told he was part Newfie. Best dog for our kids as he was their shadow chasing any animals away from his babies. Stood the line between the house and tree line when we had a bear around. I'm jealous!
Our GSD, Schatzi, just had surgery for a torn ligament and meniscous (she's topped the list of most costly rescue critter). Going to be a long and slow recovery

Holy cow that was some serious flames and heat! Until I figure this room temp thing out I switched it over to manual mode feed rate of 3 with setting of 3. Going to let it run on this setting the rest of the night.

So far no leaks at the joints which is a good thing!

Looks like you did a great job on the install and the stove will pump out the heat. Good luck on figuring out the best settings

 

[EarthStove]

She's gorgeous ... she looks like a dog we had but were told he was part Newfie. Best dog for our kids as he was their shadow chasing any animals away from his babies. Stood the line between the house and tree line when we had a bear around. I'm jealous!
Our GSD, Schatzi, just had surgery for a torn ligament and meniscous (she's topped the list of most costly rescue critter). Going to be a long and slow recovery


Looks like you did a great job on the install and the stove will pump out the heat. Good luck on figuring out the best settings

Thank you! So far so good!

 

[bags]

You will really come to like your P68 a lot. Great stoves that will heat the house up very well. The high here today is 18* and was colder last night and earlier today. The house stat is reading 75* and the far reaches are within 8*- 10* which is nice because the bedrooms stay aa bit cooler.

To be honest I bought my P68 mainly for shoulder seasons and to reduce work and wood use in my Woodmaster OWB. I did not think the P68 would keep up during the nasty cold snaps that can last awhile like all winter here sometimes. i was more than happy and impressed the 68 kept the place as toasty as we want thru the cold, cold and single digits. It has been my primary heat source for the last several winters since i installed it.

The other heat sources get moth balled now. When it gets and stays cold I do turn on my central HVAC fan on to distribute heat better and more evenly. I also use ceiling fans and some other fans to help move the air. It works well.

 

[alternativeheat]

What ever happened with the shut down problem ?