Harmon P68 Pellet Stove Broken (again)

What a difference a year makes.

A couple of days ago, I noticed the flames inside the pellet stove were not normal. Usually they are concentrated blue flames, this time they were long yellow lazy flames. Not good. Sometimes, all you need to do is clean the darn the thing and the flames will return to normal.

So I tried cleaning it:

Special ash vacuum sucking up all the dust.

Very dirty stove

Extrememly dirty burn pot

It did not work and I decided that a call to Men at Work was needed.  Last time I called this company it was a nightmare. They did not return phone calls, missed an appointment, failed to bring parts  etc etc. Read all about it here.

This time was a different experience. Monday morning I called the office at 7:30 and left a message. Danielle returned my call at 10am! I was told that they had a cancellation for tomorrow and they could be here at 11 am. I was floored. Not only was my call returned, but they could actually fix the stove tomorrow. I told Danielle that I am working at that time,  but could be home by 3. She said she would have to call me back. This is the best part-she re arranged the schedule around so they would be here at 3! What a difference a year makes. Danielle did not have to re arrange the day’s schedule,  she could have easily just gave me the next 3 o’clock availabilty.

When I got home at 2:45, Ward was in the driveway waiting for me. Is this the same company from last year? Couldn’t be! Last year they came  early than left when I was not home. But what is this? Ward knew he was early and stuck around! Holy shit on a shingle, what a difference a year makes. Yeah, I know I said that already but it is true.

Ward came in the house and operated on the stove and got it working again. He replaced an exhaust probe and opened a stuck valve. The stuck valve was the key, it creates a vacuum inside the sealed stove effecting the amount of oxygen needed to burn the pellets correctly blah blah blah. I won’t bore you with the techicalities Ward taught me. I swear he can fix the stove blindfolded.

So now here is the stove working much more betterer:

Normal flames

 

 

If anyone reading this owns a pellet stove, (and lives in the Hudson Valley) I highly highly recommend Men at Work Chimney Sweeps.

What a difference a year makes.

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