VF3000 Harman

Arte · Post by **Arte** » Tue. Dec. 03, 2013 10:10 pm

loving my new stove , seeing alot of Harman bashing but coal sure beats wood . one quick question , seeing raw unburnt coal on floor of unit , looks to be coming out around edges between feeder and grates any ideas ?

2001Sierra · Post by **2001Sierra** » Tue. Dec. 03, 2013 10:12 pm

Pictures? They speak volumes of what you are seeing.

KLook · Post by **KLook** » Tue. Dec. 03, 2013 10:25 pm

I used to see fines coming out around the sides but not large chunks of coal. There must be to much gap there where the pusher feeds it up the ramp to the grates. Seems the only way for that to happen is for the stoker unit to be pushed in to far as I don't remember a gasket in this area. Never took mine back out. Someone else that has one will weigh in soon.

Kevin

Wiz · Post by **Wiz** » Wed. Dec. 04, 2013 6:37 am

Welcome to the world of coal burning. Never had a problem with Harman products, and some people have nothing better to do then bashing.

coalkirk · Post by **coalkirk** » Wed. Dec. 04, 2013 8:02 am

I've never had that problem with coal being pushed off the sides. Could your grates be in backwards? They will fit that way. The hump or curved end goes at the end where the ash drops off. If it's not that then I'm at a loss.

Also could a mod with magical mod powers move this to the proper section so it will be seen by the right people? Thanks.

KLook · Post by **KLook** » Wed. Dec. 04, 2013 8:20 am

The hump or curved end goes at the end where the ash drops off. If it's not that then I'm at a loss.

I wish I was home with mine to peek at it.....that does not sound right to me. I believe mine comes out and pushes up a sharp hump and then slides down the slope and falls off? Does yours push a full bed across and up the slope and then falls over the hump? Anyhoo, I was thinking the flanges of the stoker bed itself leave a low spot back at the point it penetrates the boiler wall, where the firebrick go. I felt I had fines come out because of a small crack there. If the stoker is pushed in with out the gasket in place on the outside of the boiler(going on memory) it might make a crack big enough for rice coal to get out.

Kevin

coalkirk · Post by **coalkirk** » Wed. Dec. 04, 2013 8:34 am

KLook wrote:
The hump or curved end goes at the end where the ash drops off. If it's not that then I'm at a loss.
I wish I was home with mine to peek at it.....that does not sound right to me. I believe mine comes out and pushes up a sharp hump and then slides down the slope and falls off? Does yours push a full bed across and up the slope and then falls over the hump? Anyhoo, I was thinking the flanges of the stoker bed itself leave a low spot back at the point it penetrates the boiler wall, where the firebrick go. I felt I had fines come out because of a small crack there. If the stoker is pushed in with out the gasket in place on the outside of the boiler(going on memory) it might make a crack big enough for rice coal to get out.

Kevin

Kevin - you are correct. Brain fart due to lack of coffee.

captcaper · Post by **captcaper** » Wed. Dec. 04, 2013 2:54 pm

How's the manual on this one? For my Super Mag it has a section on adjusting the feed bar. Also good detailed PDF illustration on parts and were they go.

Arte · Post by **Arte** » Wed. Dec. 04, 2013 5:50 pm

thanks guys cold weather setting in might live with it for a while . anyone running radiant in concrete with vf 30000 . mine kills boiler and very slow to recover. thinking about setting priorities . seems to be fine if just radiant but add half hour showers and bedroom zone I was down to 90 dgrs water temp

009to090 · Post by **009to090** » Wed. Dec. 04, 2013 8:07 pm

I had that exact problem with my first DVC-500. I cemented some pieces/slivers of firebrick in that area. Problem cured!
I posted a thread about it, with pictures. If I find the link to that thread, I'll post it here.

Edit: Here it is. Check out the video I made of cutting the filler pieces...
Harman DVC-500 Efficiency

KLook · Post by **KLook** » Wed. Dec. 04, 2013 10:13 pm

Running radiant? Yup, running cast radiators? Yup, running baseboard? Yup, running toe kick and fin tube under floor vents ? Yup......
You came to the right place. In order to not kill the temps in the undersized VF3000(for eastern Maine) I put in an injection system by Tekmar for the radiant zone. Worked like a charm. Mine circulates 24/7 and "injects" hot water up to a variable point determined by the outdoor temp sensor. It has a high limit control and a variable heat curve to adjust how hot for how low the temp is.

Kevin

Arte · Post by **Arte** » Fri. Dec. 06, 2013 4:36 pm

thanks kevin i'm assuming you had a mixing valve , did u hook up injection yourself ( $ $$$ ) ? are you in maine

KLook · Post by **KLook** » Fri. Dec. 06, 2013 8:29 pm

thanks kevin i'm assuming you had a mixing valve , did u hook up injection yourself ( $ $$$ ) ? are you in maine

I am now living in Tenn. My house is still mine in Maine and my son is running the VF3000. I got it working well enough that a guy that never even ran a wood fire in a stove is keeping the house warm with coal. He is pleased with the savings when I showed him the fuel cost calculator. My mixing valve is closely spaced T's. The cool return water meets the hot boiler water and mixes in a certain length of pipe.(5 or six times the diameter of the pipe used) to the next T which is the return to the boiler. I have a circulator pulling away from the T's and it runs 24/7. Another circulator is pushing the hot water into the first T. That circulator is controlled by the Tekmar system. The high temp sensor is after the constantly running circ and shuts of the supply circ when high temp is reached. This creates a pulse system and in my case made an improperly installed system work much better.

Kevin

KLook · Post by **KLook** » Fri. Dec. 06, 2013 8:32 pm

I should say I had a 3 speed Taco for the hot supply and ball valves on both sides to isolate it for removal. I never had the speed above low and I shut the ball valves down at least 50% and it work fine. I was trying to slow down the time it took to reach high limit and make longer pulses. I was not very successful at that and the system worked so well I left it alone. It has been debated and many in here do not recommend squeezing the flow thru a circulator.

kevin

rka · Post by **rka** » Sat. Dec. 15, 2018 5:11 pm

Hello, Im new here but want to talk about the VF3000 I own and have used for about 10 years. I live near the Harman factory here in PA so my comments may be a bit biased toward Harman. The quality is excellent, but the nice thing is the simplicity of the pusher block operation. After a burn season I remove and clean the whole mechanical assembly and store it out of a humid atmosphere till the new burning season starts or reinstall for hot water heating in the summer. The one negative thing I noticed the first year I used it was the domestic water coil did not seem to produce enough hot water for a family of four. What I did was simply looped the domestic water coil to a electric 40 gallon water heater, installed a small taco circulator in the loop, put in a ranco electronic temp control in the hot water heater tank ( file:///C:/Users/Rob/Desktop/ranco_etc_instructions.pdf ) and now I have plenty of hot water and if I decide to take a coal break I can just use electricity for the hot water in the summer, which by the way doesnt save much when you burn coal vs electric to heat your water. So when someone tells me to switch to geo thermal or some other new tech form of heating. I just tell them I burn about 5 to 6 tons of coal at 170.00 per ton (800.00 to 1000.00 a year) and I never need a high paid tech if I have heating problems. And that heats my 2500 square foot home and it heats my domestic hot water at 125 degrees. Anyway, just thought some of you may have an interest.