Have a Harman P38i insert. About 8-9 reliable seasons. Regular cleanings. Today, tonight after a shutdown, when it restarted it began making this harmonic sound every 15 seconds or so. It’s continuing to do it even during the lengthy shutdown/cool down process. I’m planning a deep clean of fines and exhaust fan blades once it cools, but does anyone else have any ideas? I thought I read once upon a time that the flame deflectors were kinda funny on these and they potentially added to a noisy harmonic but I’ve never experienced anything like that. Until now, maybe?
It could be the exhaust motor on it's way out! If you can, touch the rear of the exhaust motor to verify it's the culprit (be cautious doing so)
I made that exact mistake. It was indeed the exhaust motor, not the auger. Fried before I figured it out and $300 electricity bill for space heaters til the new motor arrived. I had soot built up in the short pipe between the exhaust motor and the chimney pipe. Poof, around $300 irrc. Don2222 fixed me up though with much faster shipping than the mfgr
Correction its a P35i My dealer has the Combustion blower in stock for $127.99 Any words to wise or tips for replacement? I’ve got my insert installed on one side of a 2 sided fireplace so I can ‘easily’ access it from the back. Methinks it is removed twd the front and I’ll be crawling inside the fireplace to do it. Does anyone know if it requires any fancy tools?
You might have a hard time separating the impeller off the motor shaft. Buy a extra impeller in case you have to cut the old one off. You can try to soak the set screw with penetrating oil to help removing the impeller off(good luck with that one) Keep your old one if you want to try to replace the bearings yourself and have a spare combustion motor for later. PS; put anti-seize on the shaft /setscrew for easier future removal.
I have had my Accentra make that type of droning 2 times. 1 was because I did not get the back side of the exhaust impeller clean, and 2nd time, stove was clean, but horizontal section of exhaust was dirty.
FWIW I cleaned it this morning and pulled the access panel to the combustion/exhaust motor as Ive done before during previous deep cleans. The motor gave a little kinda like a wheel w a bad wheel bearing. So hoping its the culprit. Plan to tackle it tonight. Ill grab an extra impeller just in case. Thx!
That sounds like a classic bearing going out. Mine was doing the same thing. I made a puller and used heat and penetrating oil and was unable to remove the impeller. 10 seconds with my Sawzall solved that problem. Definitely order an impeller. I installed mine with a liberal dose of high temp never seize...both the shaft and the set screw...so we will see in 10 years when I have to replace the motor again. Heck, I may just pull it off on my next deep clean for the hell of it!
Ivanhoe, Wildwest, ChandlerR, Nitro-Fish, thanks for your replies and your advice. My tools are still strewn about but so far I can say: Mission Accomplished! Full disclosure: in my 9 years of ownership I’d never pulled the stove out or removed the combustion blower. I’ve cleaned it on a weekly basis, done the leaf blower blowouts from the roof, and emptied the fines and vacuumed the access point to the combustion blades from the rear-since my double sided fireplace gives me that easy access. Having said all that, here’s what I learned: I pulled the stove out and set the front of it on my adjustable height mechanics stool (Harbor Freight el cheapo worked great, needed 17” height) The 3 thumbscrews holding the combustion blower in the exhaust housing were pretty much seized in there. Needle nose sorta worked but were clumsy so I did a quick measurement and found a 6 point 11/16” socket a great substitute for my weak fingers (this was prob my favorite ‘hack’ of this project). Having loosened the thumbscrews the plate was basically rusted to the exhaust housing so it took a little prying to loosen it from the face. Full disclosure we live in a valley with a creek and high humidity. Only recently did we install A/C. Once removed, I was finally able to loosen the set screw on the blade/impeller and remove it, but it was still pretty much seized the shaft. After a few impatient attempts and some PB Blaster I went full Sawzall on the shaft. At that point I had deformed the fan blades anyway so I just really needed the mounting plate to re-attach the new motor and new blade/impeller that I bought ‘just in case.’ Having disassembled it all I began reassembling. I took pics along the way and I knew the motor only re-installed one way, but following my own pics I mounted the motor incorrectly to the whatever plate that holds it in the housing. I had a 1 in 3 chance of getting it right I suppose. This is why I dont gamble. Having deduced that the motor was incorrectly mounted to the plate, I reexamined my pics and found proper orientation and installed correctly on the thumbscrews. I did employ some never seize on these screws plus the set screw on the blade/impeller. Having mechanically installed the replacement motor and blade/impeller unit, I set to reconnecting the wires from the motor. Only then did I realize the white to white, and red (stove) to black (motor) connections. Somethings you just take for granted-probably cause I disconnected the white to white connection first. Anywho... As my wife patiently observed my butt crack from the relative comfort of her down blanket, I reconnected the power, crossed fingers, and turned to Stove Mode. Immediately I noticed this new combustion blower was much quieter, maybe 25-30% quieter? Noticeably so. And, no crazy Harman Phil-Harmonic that drove me batty the last 24 hours. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Nice job getting it done My question now is , did you also put anti-seize on the shaft? Oh, since this is a insert model, the combustion motor/impeller came out as one unit which was a blessing
Just for the record, regular silver anti-seize won't help much, long term in high heat situations. Best to have the copper, high temp version handy for those applications.
Great job bigwalleye! I love your saying about gambling. That is me. If there is a 50/50 chance to be right, I'm wrong 100% of the time. I have always said that if I did go to Vegas I would bring someone to bet against me and we would split the money
Hello I just replaced the combination blower on a 17 year old Harman Accentra Insert. I use Dry Molly on the mounting hub, mounting bolts and impeller blades. See pic
Actually, I have to disagree. The "color" of the anti seize means nothing. there is copper in all of them.except for the top of the line, used in nuclear power plants. All the lower grades, the "lubricant,grease" melts at 350 degrees, so the only thing relevant is what is left, to protect the metal. If it is USA made, it is probably very high quality. Just mu 2 cents.
Yes I agree on that measurement in comparing stoves but it did help a lot in fixing this stove since I know my low setting is 70 Degs warmer with the new auger motor and bearing. Now my next problem is that I believe there is a big mistake somewhere and I if you can tell me what you saw on the Profile 30 it may help. The Door gasket that I see on some web sites for these 2 stoves is 1” diameter but I looks ridiculous because it flops around so much! The profile 20 takes a 3/4” door gasket and it is basically the same! Did you see a door gasket like this on that Profile 30?
