How to tell if a Harman p43 burn pot gasket is bad

Oh, OK

 

The cracks in the burnpot aren't right and I dont think I have ever has my weldment/burn pot bolt area that clean or with that pattern. So yeah seems like an airflow thing. If you do need to do the gasket, replace that pot too.

 

So do you think the burn pot weldment is bad? I have never had those burn marks on the back before

 

Well it must be affecting airflow, but how much I dont know. If it cracked, did it slightly warp also? But if it is sucking air in around the gasket, I dont know of that would give you that cleaner area or actually make it more ashy.

Would like to have Lousyweather have a look-see at the pics of he cracks and ash pattern.

 

That’s my normal flame. I can’t send a video for some reason

 

Did you just clean the firebox recently? Maybe it hasnt had time to build up in that area yet but it doesnt lok like the P68 pattern.

 

Oh yeah, you are lighting with a torch. That could cause the cracks you have in the pot so that might be a dead end on why it wont light.

 

But I used gel to light it.

 

While I haven't seen cracks like that, I dont think they would affect how your stove burns or lights. With a bad burnpot what you normal look for is holes and/or bubbles in the burnpot. As for the odd coloring of the rear wall, I dont really pay much attention to that usually, so cant really comment. Your fire looks ok when burning.

Not lighting is often an indicator of poor airflow, be it from air being diverted around the igniter, something plugged somewhere, etc.

I dont know your particular setup, but do you have a plugged/partially plugged spark arrestor? Is the intake damper moving freely? I wonder what ytour draft numbers are when you are lighting up.......

 

My exhaust set up is a 90 out of the stove, a 6-7 foot piece of 3” double walled to another 90 then to the thimble which has a reducer to 3” then exhausts into a 8x8 cinder block chimney. From the thimble to the top of the chimney is maybe like 6-7”

 

I was just trying to figure out your EVL, but am confused by this: "6-7 foot piece of 3” double walled to another 90 then to the thimble which has a reducer to 3”.

How can a 3" pipe get reduced to 3"?

 

The thimble was originally for a wood stove so I had to put a reduced from the original prob 6-8” down to a 3”

 

If you look in the pic at the thimble that is a black cap over it to reduce it to fit the 3” pipe

 

so, he's around 15' of EVL.....probably not your issue.
I see in the picture its turned so the stove is parallel to the wall. Is this how the stove normally sits, or has it been moved to you can work on it? In other words, is this position its normal operating position?

Simpson...ugh.

 

So you're not reducing.....you're increasing from 3" ----> 6-8". I had the same on my previous house. 4" ---> 8" double wall wood stove pipe.

 

It’s been like that since I bought it. I have a slab house and it’s the only way I can put it. This way it faces the living room and I have a fan that blows down the hallway to circulate the air around the house.

 

well, D-Mac, don't take this personally, but here's the part where I comment on the install.......

The side clearance......without side shields, the side clearance to combustibles is 20", with shields, it is 14".......this clearance is to anything combustible, regardless of whats in between.....yours is much closer than that. I know "its been like that for years", but unsafe. If I were the tech here, which I am not, I would red flag that thing. See the discoloration of the side panel....that's usually from real heat.

That lower elbow looks rusty....Id change it out.

What about the clearance in the front...where the heat comes out. What is that black cabinet looking thing? You really shouldn't have anything closer than 4' in front, preferably more.

That slip joint up near the upper elbow does not appear to be screwed together....it needs 3 screws at that connection.

The outlet coverplate is loose....its also a hazard.

I have to point this stuff out, but the biggest thing is that side clearance. If you constantly heat something combustible, the flash point of that material decreases ALOT, which could cause fire at a much lower temperature than normal.

Sorry.

 

I have ceramic tile on concrete board with a 1 1/2 air gap between the concrete board and the actual sheet rock. The lower elbow isn’t rusted it’s red high temp silicone, the black thing is an ottoman for shoe storage and to sit on. All joints for the connections are high temp siliconed. I have one screw in them but I will put more in there. I know the outlet thing. I need to find a screw big enough to go into the box because we had to move the box out so far because of the tile and concrete board. The sides are like that because I tried to use gloss high temp grill paint and it didn’t stick. I put it in the only location that I was able to. There was a wood stove there before. The house is from the 70’s.

 

do you have any documentation illustrating that the tile/concrete board/air space idea works?

 

Just found this.