Anybody own the Harman 52i service rail kit?

or, simply cut some 2x4's to about 16" in length and stack them one on top of the other until you approximate the height of the hearth

 

Input or experiences? Not a whole lot. The Majolica finish is pretty, but it's not nearly as durable as the black. The worst thing to have happen is for one surface of the porcelain finish to contact another. In theory, if installed correctly, this will not happen. But if you don't do it right, you'll have chips on the finish.

I'm not sure I'll ever get my money's worth out of mine. I'm in a different situation than many here in that my Accentra is my back-up heat source, and not my primary. My primary is a heat pump which is cheaper to run until the outside temp gets down below maybe 35-40F. Above that, the heat pump is cheaper than the cost of pellets.

I do still run the Accentra on warmer days, but more for the "comfort factor" than any cost savings.

My bottom line advice? Don't buy a leaky 80's built, POS poorly constructed, cookie cutter, multi-story house which has the only heat source as a heat pump unless it's located somewhere the temp very rarely ever drops below about 40F.

And buy low, sell high.

 

Yeah, I'm good w/ geometry and building the frame. It's the metal rail part that would be a bit of a challenge. I'm pretty sure I can take it back still. But then I'm reminded if I use it once a year, it saves me on professional stove cleanings -- so it probably pays for itself in a 2-3 years. But yeah, it could also NOT cost me $300.

 

My neighbor just dropped $16K on a quality heat pump. You can get them for $16k or you can get a quality pellet stove for $4K. In 3 years, my pellet stove will have paid for itself in savings on monthly bills. I'm guessing 10 years to pay for the pump and we live in an area of the country that would be ideal for a heat pump. But even if it saves more money at a better rate, I'm still coming out ahead in the first 13-15 years or so because of the savings I'm accruing for the 7 years difference I'm not paying back the investment. Based on that loose logic and data, the way I see it, heat pump owners don't start pulling ahead of me until nearly 15 years down the road. Yes, this assumes of course that biomass fuel remains constant over those years -- something we all agree isn't happening. But it does illustrate that a pellet stove owner is likely to be ahead of the game than heat pump guys for some time.

But they are nice to have in the summer, no? I find it more humid back east and I'd think it'd be nice to have some air conditioning.

 

If it were me, I would be taking LW advice of screwing 16" 2x4 together to the right height. Cheap and easy.

 

I can do that but it's not going to slide w/o the rails. I have a bad hand and can't pick the stove up.

 

I'm still interested in this, Art. If you have time, I think it'd be cool to see.

 

Oh, got it. This kit comes with the rails to make the stove slide out of it's installed position. Without the kit, you need to life the stove out? I thought the stove still slid out on rails and all you got here was the scissor stand.. Not good with a bad hand.

 

This is my inclination too. But I am married now.

 

DING DING DING Give that man a cigar !!

 

So anybody here who owns a 52i pellet stove ever clean out the pellet feeder chamber yet? As mentioned, I bought the rail kit, pulled the stove out, and thoroughly cleaned the exhaust with a 3' diameter flue brush. It was nice to attack this from both ends. But when I went to clean the pellet feeder, the combustion fan is in the way as shown in the pictures above. It seems to me you have really only a couple of options. As far as cleaning the pellet chamber, you either have to be a hobbit, know somebody who knows a hobbit, have hobbit hands, know somebody who has hobbit hands, or you remove the combustion fan. And if you attempt to remove the fan, Lousy mentioned the easiest way to do this was to lift the stove out and set it on it's front and access it from the back. I'm thinking one probably would want to remove the front door before smashing it if you did this. I don't know. It all seems like a PITA if you ask me. For as brilliant as they designed this stove, access to the pellet feeder chamber is pathetic.

So, to do this, I will try the wife approach first. She's got way smaller hands than I do and we'll try and get her to remove the cover and then figure out some slick way to vacuum out the chamber. Since I don't own a vacuum with those small hoses, maybe a straw would work if I can't get my vacuum hose in there. I suspect you could also scrape stuff out.

If I'm not happy with those results, or we are having problems getting the feed front plate back in, I'll resort to removing and cleaning the whole combustion fan. I see 3 screws on it and 2 of them are going to be the work of the devil to remove w/o turning the stove upside down.

Anybody else have some better ideas on how to do this? Please provide details on exactly what you did. If you removed the fan, please provide your best approach. If you worked around the fan (with hobbit fingers), please provide your approach removing, cleaning, and reassembling the cover. If you removed the stove and turned it upside down and then removed the fan, please tell us if you suffered a back injury.

 

lol

 

Holy chit!!! Just looked at the manual for your stove as my feeder cover is a piece of cake to get to so I wanted to see what you were talking about.

Looks to me like you need to remove the exhaust tube to get to this area.....

Here is a snip of the motor area.




And a pic of the cleaning instructions noting that the exhaust tube has been removed for better viewing. I would think that isnt only for better viewing because man that looks like a royal PITA to get at

 

I think I recall someone (maybe will711 ) has Accentra IN FRONT of on old fireplace. With all the BS you are going through, that sounds like a great move over an insert to me

 

Thanks for posting those gbreda. That's what I have in my book too. I really don't want to dismantle the exhaust tube. Not sure what that would do to my warranty... prolly not good. Anyway, fact is, this is crappy design. The manual tells you nothing about HOW to access it nor recommends any way. It would seem this is one of many reasons they want you to get it professionally cleaned. My gripe with that is why show us the area to clean if we aren't supposed to clean it ourselves?

 

Just like anything else, when you make it smaller it still has to have all the components in that smaller area. That results in harder to get so some areas.

My combustion motor is on the other side and the exhaust is in the center below the feeder. There is nothing at all in the way f the feeder plate.

 

Yeah, I read ya. It's all about compaction. I'm fine with spending the extra dough for the rail kit -- or building one on my own. I'm fine w/ pulling it out myself and cleaning it myself. And I appreciate being informed that I need to clean this area out. The cleaning part is a breeze. But they need to not leave it up to me to decide what is the appropriate way to gain access to the feeder plate. If they're going to tell me it needs cleaning and they're going to show me where it is to clean it -- then they need to show me or tell me what the procedure is for accessing that area. If they don't want me to access that area, then they should spell out that it should be done by a professional and if I attempt to do it on my own, I may invalidate my warranty. They did neither.

 

This is a new stove, right? I would call the dealer and ask for advice.

 

Yeah, I bought it last February. It's a good idea. I pretty much had resolved myself to unplugging the electrical connections to the motherboard so I could pull the stove out further on the rails and access the panel from the back of the stove.

 

Ok. So I called the guy who sold it to me and he said the way he recommends is to disconnect the power supply and other pertinent electronics from the motherboard so I can pull the stove way out and access the pellet feeder that way from the back. He also said if I try to remove the combustion motor, I have a high likelihood of damaging the gasket. I believe him because I'm mechanical enough to get over the hump but dangerous enough to ensure I can't get back over the hump.