New Harman Stoves Junk???

[sunnydog]

Hi all, first post here.

Thought I would chime in about my experience with the Absolute 43.
I’m on my second season with the stove. Had two problems early on, one was the room
temperature sensor had to be replaced. Displayed temperature would jump around, one second it would read
72 and a second later 60. The other problem was the pellet grate in the burn pot warped. The igniter wouldn’t
work so I had to use starter gel for a couple of days until I got a newly designed grate.
(Harman was aware of the problem and got the part to my dealer quickly)

Other than that the stove has been great and it’s easy to clean. I haven’t had any software problems.
The stove heats our well insulated 1800sq home really well. We went thru a little over 2 tons of barefoot pellets
last year. This season I bought the wireless room sensor and did the Software update and its been rock solid.
I had a wood stove for 25 years prior to this so its my first pellet stove.

 

[Lake Girl]

Just to finish the thread out the OP(ejsechler) bought a used Accentra. You can follow his progress here: https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/harman-accentra-should-i-buy-it.155860/#post-2094669

 

[Lake Girl]

Thought I would chime in about my experience with the Absolute 43.
I’m on my second season with the stove. Had two problems early on, one was the room
temperature sensor had to be replaced. Displayed temperature would jump around, one second it would read
72 and a second later 60. The other problem was the pellet grate in the burn pot warped.

I would think this would be worthy of starting a new thread since the absolutes are a newer model and this may help folks with determining if this is the stove for them ... Nice to hear it is burning well!

 

[TStark]

Typical salespeak; what I sell is great, everything else is junk, even if I sold it last week.

 

[David Myers]

Hi all, first post here.

Thought I would chime in about my experience with the Absolute 43.
I’m on my second season with the stove. Had two problems early on, one was the room
temperature sensor had to be replaced. Displayed temperature would jump around, one second it would read
72 and a second later 60. The other problem was the pellet grate in the burn pot warped. The igniter wouldn’t
work so I had to use starter gel for a couple of days until I got a newly designed grate.
(Harman was aware of the problem and got the part to my dealer quickly)

Other than that the stove has been great and it’s easy to clean. I haven’t had any software problems.
The stove heats our well insulated 1800sq home really well. We went thru a little over 2 tons of barefoot pellets
last year. This season I bought the wireless room sensor and did the Software update and its been rock solid.
I had a wood stove for 25 years prior to this so its my first pellet stove.

I have a new Absolute 43. It only worked for three weeks before the burn grate warped and the stove would not light. I have been waiting for over three weeks for a replacement from the dealer where I bought the stove.I hope they send the newly designed one.

 

[fmsm]

Hi all, first post here.

Thought I would chime in about my experience with the Absolute 43.
I’m on my second season with the stove. Had two problems early on, one was the room
temperature sensor had to be replaced. Displayed temperature would jump around, one second it would read
72 and a second later 60. The other problem was the pellet grate in the burn pot warped. The igniter wouldn’t
work so I had to use starter gel for a couple of days until I got a newly designed grate.
(Harman was aware of the problem and got the part to my dealer quickly)

Other than that the stove has been great and it’s easy to clean. I haven’t had any software problems.
The stove heats our well insulated 1800sq home really well. We went thru a little over 2 tons of barefoot pellets
last year. This season I bought the wireless room sensor and did the Software update and its been rock solid.
I had a wood stove for 25 years prior to this so its my first pellet stove.

I had the same warped burnpot issue, they replaced that and the igniter. What I find interesting is that they had a software update, I wonder if that had anything to do with my dirty burn/fuel air mixture issue?

 

[Lake Girl]

I have a new Absolute 43. It only worked for three weeks before the burn grate warped and the stove would not light. I have been waiting for over three weeks for a replacement from the dealer where I bought the stove.I hope they send the newly designed one.

Make sure you check up on the software update too. And welcome to the forum!

 

[sunnydog]

I had the same warped burnpot issue, they replaced that and the igniter. What I find interesting is that they had a software update, I wonder if that had anything to do with my dirty burn/fuel air mixture issue?

If you look at the notes for the Software update it appears it’s more for the wireless room sensor and a few display enhancements, but who knows. I did the update this past fall when I got the wireless room sensor.
I burn in room temp mode unless it’s really cold. The stove is burning different from last year, but I attribute that to now having the sensor 15ft from the stove. Before the stove would cycle on and off a lot more.
Last spring I had my dealer/installer come out and do the complete cleaning and he was surprised how clean the vent and stove was.

I’m curious, what were the symptoms of your problem and did they have any explanation?

 

[Lake Girl]

Likely should start a new post detailing the quirks/pitfalls of the Allure Folks may have more trouble finding them buried in the 3 page spread...

 

[David Myers]

Make sure you check up on the software update too. And welcome to the forum!

Thanks for the welcome. I will have to check to see how to do the software update, or see if I need it on this stove. This stove is new this year. I had the Fire Fox stove made by Travts for 19 years and replaced it with the Absolute 43. When the stove was working it did seem to burn a little on the rich side. There is no damper control like my old stove, so maybe a software update will allow the stove to burn a bit leaner. I have faith in Harmon and hope I will eventually get everything straightened out.

 

[fmsm]

If you look at the notes for the Software update it appears it’s more for the wireless room sensor and a few display enhancements, but who knows. I did the update this past fall when I got the wireless room sensor.
I burn in room temp mode unless it’s really cold. The stove is burning different from last year, but I attribute that to now having the sensor 15ft from the stove. Before the stove would cycle on and off a lot more.
Last spring I had my dealer/installer come out and do the complete cleaning and he was surprised how clean the vent and stove was.

I’m curious, what were the symptoms of your problem and did they have any explanation?

Very dirty burn, black glass and soot in the firebox. So bad that the concrete outside of the exhaust (I go up a foot and straight out) was spotted with black smoke. The stove was installed by the dealer and I was using Okanagan Douglas Firs.

After many conversations and troubleshooting trips by the dealer Harman's solution was to replace the stove. I was too afraid of the Absolute and went with an Accentra.