New guy with a fairly stupid Harman question

[johneh]

Cleaning your hopper is part of maintenance. When new, they usually have a slight coating,to prevent corrosin, as you use stove,hopper gets hot,and lignen and possibly other chemicals leach from pellets.

In the 20 years, I have been using this stove I have never had to do maintenance on the hopper
When I run out of pellets the hopper is empty not even sawdust. Every pellet is used in
the burn pot even the fines But then again I do not use or want a Harman sticking pellets just
another reason. Think I'll keep the Enviro!!

 

[Mt Bob]

In the 20 years, I have been using this stove I have never had to do maintenance on the hopper
When I run out of pellets the hopper is empty not even sawdust. Every pellet is used in
the burn pot even the fines But then again I do not use or want a Harman sticking pellets just
another reason. Think I'll keep the Enviro!!

Most people don't .I don't. Because I live in cold climate, and the stoves never get that low. If I open the lid,can see the auger, but there is 10lb of pellets stuck in the corners, it would be foolish and stupid to shut lid without filling it. Now I have seen some other brands "tunnel" and have 2/3 of a hopper, but auger exposed/empty, but I have never seen a Harman do this. I suppose there may be exceptions, and that's the people that need to do something about it.

 

[swalz]

Hello all, long time lurker first time poster. Bought a new house last year that had an existing Whitfield advantage II from 1993. Worked great but with tax credits this year wanted to upgrade to something a little more user friendly for the Mrs. After reading many threads on here I pulled the trigger on a P61a. Absolutely love the stove! More heat then I could ever want and 10x less work then the Whitfield. Only complaint I have so far is that when left alone for a few hours the stove will shut it self off due to the pellets literally not falling to the bottom of the hopper. I know it sounds stupid but just wanted to see if anyone else has had a similar issue. Currently burning TSC white bag and they do seem a little more “dusty” in this batch then usual. Wondering if that’s just causing enough grip on the pellets that they’re staying stacked on the sides. Any input is appreciated! Going to attempt to add a photo to show what I’m talking about. Typically me opening the hopper lid is enough movement to make the pellets fall to the auger so that’s what’s happened in this pic.

Thanks!
-Brian

View attachment 284988

It is the pellet length, I picked up a ton thinking they would be the same as they been carrying. I have the same issue so I only burn them when I am home. I have woke up a few times with the stove out because of them.

 

[railfanron]

I know some people have problems with pellets sticking. I've never had this problem in the 6 years I've owned the P43. If it runs completely out there is nothing left in the hopper. No pellets or fines.
Ron

 

[bogieb]

I know some people have problems with pellets sticking. I've never had this problem in the 6 years I've owned the P43. If it runs completely out there is nothing left in the hopper. No pellets or fines.
Ron

That is my experience with both the P43 & P61a - only time either has shut down for lack of pellets, has been operator error - usually at the beginning of the season where a full hopper will last a week or so.

 

[rickwai]

Pellets do look pretty long. Get a couple bags of a different brand and see how they react. The new sheet metal may have a little grip to it that will break in. My hoppers are mirror smooth from 16 yrs of use, but it has had probably 30-40 tons run thru it! This is not a common issue with Harman. A more common problem is long pellets bridging over the slide plate, building up like pixy sticks. I have seen pellet bags that have 1 1/4-1 1/2" plus length pellets mixed in. Harmans dont like those. Secondly if filling morning and night the hopper should not get that low. If hopper capacity is 72 lb and you fill at 7a and 7p it would get that low. I dont think a p61 can burn 4 bags a day?

 

[Harmanizer]

10 years burning with my stove and never had any problem with pellets feeding.I've run the hopper dry on many occasion and nothing remains in the hopper.Burned hardwood and softwood pellets.

 

[Nitro-Fish]

Never had this problem on the Harman’s; the Englander’s are another story.

 

[Tonyray]

I have no reason to run the hopper dry or till its empty. If i lift the lid and see there is a few pounds left, my natural instinct is to fill er up..cant see walking away and saying to myself, " gotta ad pellets soon". Gonna get same amount of hours out of a bag regardless..Anyways, i burn good softies and my harman never bridges but my pellets do stick. Or funnel as they say.. basically i just give em a whack once a day and all is well.

 

[sandpipe]

I recently had a bridge stoppage in my Harman Invincible Insert for the first time in 10 years. This is the first season I've used softwood pellets (Wood and Sons Pine), and although they have excellent heat and minimal ash they are somewhat sticky as compared to big box's hard shiny mixed hardwood pellets.

My chute also has funneling occurring, something that never had occurred with the mixed hardwoods.
I'll try and clean the inside of the chute next maintenance shutdown to see if this eliminates the problem. The chute is anything but smooth as glass right now.

Anyone else have similar experiences with softwoods vs. hardwoods?

 

[Tonyray]

I recently had a bridge stoppage in my Harman Invincible Insert for the first time in 10 years. This is the first season I've used softwood pellets (Wood and Sons Pine), and although they have excellent heat and minimal ash they are somewhat sticky as compared to big box's hard shiny mixed hardwood pellets.

My chute also has funneling occurring, something that never had occurred with the mixed hardwoods.
I'll try and clean the inside of the chute next maintenance shutdown to see if this eliminates the problem. The chute is anything but smooth as glass right now.

Anyone else have similar experiences with softwoods vs. hardwoods?

I posted a few posts back about never letting the hopper get low enough to cause funneling..oops!
Harman P61A. burning pure softies...used stove temp/contstant mode last nite..hopper was less than 1/4 capacity.
this morning stove not running due to funneling and lots of sawdust in the middle..
my mistake for not topping it off....usually before filling I reach down and stir a bit at the slide plate. pellets are small so no bridging but too much fines we're at middle of hopper below.[ which in retrospect could have contributed to lack of fuel]..
stove mode uses pellets faster so that was half the problem.. other half was of course not topping it or filling up.
read lot of so called fixes for this like sanding the sides, applying some kind of wax or similar to make the pellets slide better.
have not done any of these but might try something if i forget to top off the pellets like i did last night.
also my fines box get's filled lot sooner so I vacuum it once a month.
using EasyBlaze softwoods and this year quite a lot of fines in the bags..
too much work and time involved to go thru sifting 72lbs of pellets pre hopper so I'm open to full proof methods to get them to slide better but really looked like to much fines at top of slide plate was the culprit.
[ not using the brand is one remedy of course but got a ton/half to go thru so.........also using stove or constant mode, the pellets will always feed 3 to 4x a minute depending on set feed rate so there is no break like in room auto for the pellets to stop for a bit or maybe shift a bit or think about it..lol

 

[Dataman]

No problems on my Harmon XXV. Might be couple handfulls left when stops.

 

[Oregun]

I intentionally let our XXV run out of pellets last night. Here is how it looked this morning.

 

[Tonyray]

Nice that so many have no problems with funneling but not much help for those that do..
just sayin....right now not letting it get low seems to be a help.

 

[Oregun]

The foil tape shown above is the fix for our stove. The last bunches of pellets tended to gather in the seams. Putting the tape on the seams helps them slide down.

 

[Tonyray]

The foil tape shown above is the fix for our stove. The last bunches of pellets tended to gather in the seams. Putting the tape on the seams helps them slide down.

Ok. I will try that 1st.. didnt notice the tape in your hopper.

 

[Smoke’n]

Appreciate everyone’s input. Being a brand new stove I didn’t want to do anything permanent to the hopper incase a warranty issue came about early. I burned through my 1st ton and did a deep clean. Switched to a different brand pellet this time and will see how it does. Not the pellets I was looking for but supply is low in my area at the moment. I may try the foil tape in the corners. As far as not letting it get low I’m gone 10-12hrs a day for work so at the current capacity it’s inevitable. Will report back soon!

Thanks!

 

[bogieb]

Appreciate everyone’s input. Being a brand new stove I didn’t want to do anything permanent to the hopper incase a warranty issue came about early. I burned through my 1st ton and did a deep clean. Switched to a different brand pellet this time and will see how it does. Not the pellets I was looking for but supply is low in my area at the moment. I may try the foil tape in the corners. As far as not letting it get low I’m gone 10-12hrs a day for work so at the current capacity it’s inevitable. Will report back soon!

Thanks!

With being gone so long during the day, you might consider getting a hopper extension. Yes, they are expensive for what they are, but well worth it. The main reason I got rid of the Hastings was that I was gone 12-15 hours a day and it would be out of pellets by the time I got home. I couldn't find any kind of hopper extension for it. First thing I did when I bought the P43 (off CL) was to order an extension.

 

[Pete Zahria]

but really looked like to much fines at top of slide plate was the culprit.

That will definitely do it

Dan