Holy chit! Trouble with my Harman

I attempted to restart my Harman last night and it didn't combust product. Without looking I open the door to a smoked filled chamber and a rotten stench. I let it dissolve today with a full burn pot of partially burned/blackened pellets. Basically it was gunk. I found liquid on the burn pot and medallion.

 

What happened?

 

You tryin to cook a chocolate cake in there?

 

sorry....dirty stove!

 

Impossible.

 

that's what they all say!

 

It was great.

 

No the stench was horrible and there's fluid in the stove. I thought about cleaning it all up but I am leaving the evidence. If it's a cleaning issue, I want to know because I burned spotty since January. So i didn't clean it as thoroughly as usual because I didn't burn as much. But there is a glaze all over the place.

 

I also heard from a Harman repair guy at another stove place that some of the earlier i52 models had a bad auger that often required replacement. It has been making a horrible sounds. I think it's mechanical because I cleaned out the pellet chamber around the new year.

 

Ha! I removed it. The blacked part had a bunch of fluid on the other side and immediately above the auger was a film of fluid. Something just seems off. It still has a nasty chemical stench to it.

 

My bad. It's the crucible (flame guide?) that rests on top of the burn pot above the auger opening and below the medallion. The medallion blackened and the flame guide had the fluid on it.

 

What do you think that fluid is? You must have a theory?

 

Had a similar situation back when I had my englander. It ended up being my oak was getting water in it and the moisture was being drawn into the stove. installed a shield outside above the oak and problem solved.

 

.. It has to be 100 Proof, or greater to ignite - Even Harman stoves can't burn water, .. yet.

 

Hello dotman17
Sounds like maybe a bad bag of pellets with bark and creasote in it. Five years ago I had to clean a stove with sticky wet creasote all over it from 1 bad bag. If I did not take pics it would be hard to believe but I did!

Here is my post back on 2-12-2013
Hello

It is covered with what looks like oil! See 1st pic below. Black burnt pellets with oily goo!
The hopper, and auger and fire box is covered with it! It was even dripping down to the floor in the front! Eeewww!

To do the stove cleaning I sent out for a can of Acetone!
Like the comercial says. This gives stove cleaning a new meaning! Jeezzz!

This is a 2009 St. Croix Ashby-P insert purchase 2 months ago and only used 2 months!
Here are the oily details!
The stove ran great using cubex wood pellets for most of the 2 months. The other day a bag and a half or these new pellets called HearthSide Premium Wood Pellets made made by Bay State Wood Pellets in Fitchburg MA. Now there is no cleanout T on the back of the insert and the ash piles up and chokes the exhaust. So since these pellets do produce more ash quickly that is what happened. The stove and room got real smokey when the stove shut down. The only noticeable difference in looking at the pellets was that one bag used here had ALOT of fines in the bag!

Has anyone seen such oily goo in the hopper and around the auger? ? ? See pics below!
Has anyone tried these HearthSide wood pellets made in Fitchburg MA? Any luck with them?
Click pic to enlarge - Finally after 10 hours of cleaning it is up and running!

 

I haven't heard this about a "bad auger"......I think the guy is off base (the other repair guy)