Need Some Advice on Harman DVC 500

I have been buring my stove since January of this year I moved into a new home and left my old behind.. So I'm fairly new to this unit.. First off let me explain my set up because it may be contributing to my problem.. My unit is installed in basement below grade so it's not vented directly straight out wall.. I had to purchase the additional square type pipe to vent it up 4 ft and out 1 ft above grade... My first issue came about after 1 month of burning at a medium setting , stove and pipe work were clean before start up.. One day I forgot to fill hopper with coal and it was low so I figured house was very warm so I would let stove all but burn and do a quick clean of fly ash build up inside stove after cleaning the inside of stove I loaded hopper back up and lit new fire after a few minutes I got 2 blink code error ??? Fire started to burn out .. So I start to panic but leave it go out now stove did not get 125 degrees at this point .. So I let it cool and start to think I didn't tamper with much of anything so what went wrong I basically scraped the walls shop vac inside good and the great area removed fire brick shop vac that removed ash bin shop vac the compartment cleaned glass and that was it... Why the 2 blink code??? So I decide to pull ash bin and behind ash bin I have a plate that kind of hangs there covering a exhaust almost triangular hole . So I pull plate and notice hole is all but blocked with fine fly ash so I suck that clean and start to think " well that's my exhaust so I wonder what square pipe looks like inside". Because it comes out say 24" to a 90 goes up 4ft then 90s again 24 " to above grade outside then my candy cane type pipe ... So I pull the big ash square interior piping off and sure enough it's loaded up not blocked but pretty bad I clean it all out and clean pipe out side then drop exhaust motor and Clean that mess out .. Put it all back together and no blink code and back to business all good... 3 weeks now with a new source coal than before that I'm test burning the new coal burns nice and hot with a moderately low ash but it is dirty and what I can see is a ugly mess inside what once was a absolute clean stove black build up and fly ash everywhere all over the place below fire grate especially on the steel walls it looks horrible never saw that before with the other coal and I was all but blocked up so I'm wondering what the exhaust hole and pipes look like now ?? Stove is running with no codes but I'm going to tear it down again which is a pain in butt and takes a lot of time to see if I have excessive build up again... Just wondering if this is a common practice with a direct vent stove every month clean out or is it because my set up required that expensive piping for below grade application ?? Sorry 4 bad photo but I set off smoke detector and wife is in bed so I had to shut door quick...

Anthracite does not leave a black residue. Always should be light brown.
Sounds like you are trying to burn bituminous in it.
Bad coal?

009to090 wrote:Anthracite does not leave a black residue. Always should be light brown.
Sounds like you are trying to burn bituminous in it.
Bad coal?

It's def not bituminous .. It was baught at a local breaker and I live in the Anthracite region .. I just don't understand what this could come from it's def black residue built up along the sides and under grate and around the ash compartment .. Bad coal ?? I dunno .. I will try and take a better photo of it in a bit

Here is a better photo

Another

I have run the DVC for 5 years. The first three the stove had it easy but this winter it really had to pull it's weight. I do clean out the fines draw every week and shut it down every month for that exhaust clean out and yes the exhaust was dirty and needed cleaning. I just think the stove runs more efficiently when maintained that way. My first question is about the exhaust being 1 foot above the ground, is the bottom pipe capped or not, according to Harman it should be. Whereas mine is 8 feet off the ground and is not capped? My question to the board is why do Harman specify this as I do not understand the logic. Where are you and does snow cover obstruct the air intake. I just suspect you are not sucking in the air correctly. Wait a minute here I have just looked at your latest photos the fire is too far back is the back of the plate sealed correctly at the back, the fire should start further forward. Look at the holes in the plate ... before the holes there should not be a fire so something is not right here. read the manual, take out the plate, are all holes clean.... this does not look like mine when it idleing at all.

coalnewbie wrote:I have run the DVC for 5 years. The first three the stove had it easy but this winter it really had to pull it's weight. I do clean out the fines draw every week and shut it down every month for that exhaust clean out and yes the exhaust was dirty and needed cleaning. I just think the stove runs more efficiently when maintained that way. My first question is about the exhaust being 1 foot above the ground, is the bottom pipe capped or not, according to Harman it should be. Whereas mine is 8 feet off the ground and is not capped? My question to the board is why do Harman specify this as I do not understand the logic. Where are you and does snow cover obstruct the air intake. I just suspect you are not sucking in the air correctly.

I burn the stove on a low to. medium setting no need to burn hotter it's ducted to my living area so heats house quite nice.. My outside pipe is capped at bottom there is nothing obstructing air intake .. Fines tray is empty every 3 days or so not much in it ever

Breaker, read my additional rambles you were too quick for me.

coalnewbie wrote:Breaker, read my additional rambles you were too quick for me.

Yeah I think it looks that way because I opened door it's not really back that far in the photo it looks as if it's against the fire brick but it's not .. Plates we're cemented in before first fire but at idle fire is back far but not as looks in photo .. But I will check out plates today when I clean it out ..

The color of the fly ash looks ok to me. Not sure why the corners look darker.
BTW.... I found out if I cap the bottom of the outside T, the fines build up quicker inside the horizontal pipe. What I did was put a 1 foot section of pipe on the bottom of the T , and left the cap off. That dramatically increased the number of times I need to clean out the fly ash.
As a matter of fact, I have NOT needed to shut down and clean the fly ash out of the flu pipes this year!

Just remember to install a 1 foot long pipe on the bottom of the T if you uncap it. This keeps the exhaust from being sucked into the intake openings.

Edit: Sorry for the typo... I meant to say..... "That dramatically DEcreased the number of times I need to clean out the fly ash."

Just remember to install a 1 foot long pipe on the bottom of the T if you uncap it. This keeps the exhaust from being sucked into the intake openings.

Hmmm, that was not an issue when the stove was used gently but this winter I had to clean things out a lot. That sounds like a great idea and it makes sense. As you burn you learn (to quote a distinguished poster). This winter I had to prevent the intake from getting snow clogged.

009to090 wrote:The color of the fly ash looks ok to me. Not sure why the corners look darker.
BTW.... I found out if I cap the bottom of the outside T, the fines build up quicker inside the horizontal pipe. What I did was put a 1 foot section of pipe on the bottom of the T , and left the cap off. That dramatically increased the number of times I need to clean out the fly ash.
As a matter of fact, I have NOT needed to shut down and clean the fly ash out of the flu pipes this year!

Just remember to install a 1 foot long pipe on the bottom of the T if you uncap it. This keeps the exhaust from being sucked into the intake openings.

I don't have clearance to ground under T 6" I guess I could dig down.. Best way to explain it is it looks like black mold spores and it's thick all over especially under and around grate in ash bin area

Hi,
Not to hijack the thread or anything, but I have recently purchased a DVC-500 and could use some help trouble shooting a problem with smoke in the hopper/room blower. If anyone has any advice I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks

What's the draft reading? I hope you have a couple carbon monoxide detectors? If not, shut down and get some!

Welcome to the forum.....

how recent is 'recently' and how many tons have you put through the stove to this point?

have you cleaned out your flue pipes yet?