Here's a little information sent to me about the stove.
You will have no problems with the stove. It is a good unit and really puts out the heat! The only thing I dont like is that you have to empty the ash from it about every third day. I'm told that with wood pellets you can go forever before you have to empty. I start my stove in mid November and it burns until mid March. There is no dust with the coal as it is washed prior to being packaged in 40# bags and is usually still damp when you load it. Occasionally if a bag is damaged and has a small hole in it some "black water" might drip out onto the floor while loading but it does not stain if you wipe it up early. The "brand" coal I burn is Blaschalk from PA.
Hope it helps.
Kelly

"I'm told that with wood pellets you can go forever before you have to empty."

GEE-Who told you that?? That is absolutely not true. Top-feed pellet stoves are notorious for having to clean out not just the ash pan but also the burn pot and heat exhange tubes almost DAILY! Of course, Harmans are bottom-feed and are different.

Thats what she heard. I was told one ash pan is equal to a ton of pellets, where as one hopper of coal is equal to a full ash pan in the coal stove. That's interesting info about the Harman vs top feeders. Thanks. I'll try to send pictures of my stove next week mounted and piped in, I've seen others send pictures so I'll try.

On average, I would say that one ash pan is equal to about 2-3 days of wood pellets. Some models more, some less. And I have used & sold many different brands/models of pellet stoves. I would stop listening to whoever told you that bit of bunk. I hope it wasn't someone who works at a stove shop. Perhaps they meant to say one pan = one bag.

I was told pellet produces about 1-2% ash. In comparison coalwill produce about 12%

"In comparison coalwill produce about 12%"

that will depend a lot on the coal. the coal i burn has about 10% and that is considered high, good anthricite will generally be less than 10% it can be as low as 2% ash.

Really! That's good to hear. I will be burning rice anthricite coal. I look forward to finding out this winter.

The good news is I loaded two bags of rice coal in the stove and there was no dust at all. That was my big worry. The stove gave off huge heat, and took a good hour to shut down , then even more time to be cool enough for the fan to shut down. One thing I did not like and my wife hated that no one brought up. It smelled real bad, the burn off of the paint almost made her throw up, I had to open windows to get the smell down. I would fire one of these up if it was new to burn off the smell while it's cool enough to open windows.I'm reading a Harman P61 flyer right now and it states " CONVENIENCE" Normally ashes need only be removed every one to two months". Here we go! ACCENTRA " The accentra can burn up to a ton of pellets without the need for ash removal or cleaning. Gotta love a Harman.

EVERY new or newly painted stove needs to have the paint "cured". I'm pretty sure all the manuals state to have a small fire for the first few hours. They all stink for the first day or two. I would always recommend to my customers to fire it up for the firs time on a warm day with all the windows and doors open. Yet another reason not to wait to buy a stove until the weather turns cold.

Thanks, of course no one told me that, and I don't remember reading it anywhere. Nice to hear it will go away, think I'll fire it up again.

It's one of those little things that you get from an experienced, concerned & involved stove dealer. This time of year, they might be getting too busy to be thinking about these small, important things that could make the difference between a satisfied, informed customer and a dissatisfied one that feels abandoned.

Of course, no "big box" store would even know to tell anyone this. The salesperson is selling stoves one minute and carpet the next.

Ran it again last night, smell went away. Thanks for all your help. Love this Super machine. I keep getting advise from people about the draft, the draft. There is no draft, Direct Vent, blows peoples minds. The tile guy was telling his friends, "I'm telling ya, the pipe comes out from the bottom!! ". Gotta love high tec stuff.

Do you have the battery back-up? We are just wondering what happens if the power goes off? Doesn't the direct vent depend on the electric fan? We currently have a Harman Mark II, and I keep thinking how nice a stoker would be.....Very happy with heat ours puts out, but it is a bit messy.
Boby

I don't have a battery back up. I have a house generator, and any small generator out the window would be fine. If the power goes off as it did the other day, the fans will shut down and the coal will burn slow then out. You do have some time to start a small generator to fire it back up before it burns out completely. I would pick up a 2,000ish + watt generator for emergency's anyway, this way you can fire up the generator and run some lights and your refirigerator if needed some cold winter day. You just run a extenstion cord back in the house to power a few things.

Just make sure you choose a generator with a constant 60 hertz or you may have issuse with your circuit board later down the road.

Has anybody had problems with their Harman Coal Stoker when feeding it somewhat wet rice coal? I did. It stopped feeding the coal. I cleaned it out and replaced it with nice dry coal. I cleaned the tray, everything, and it still would not feed the coal. I had to shut it down and now I am waiting for a service person. Please help.

I was wondering if anyone could tell me how many tons of coal they burn in there dcv-500. I have a home that is just over 2000sf.I live in west michigan and winters seem to go on forever. joejeep

With the settings on its lowest i go through about a bag or so a day. My home is just over 2000sf too. hope this helps. btw i live in west michigan also and just found out today that coal went up to $6.00 a bag.

We have been trying to get our Harmon DVC 500 stove lit numerous times to no avail. Ugh! It was installed last end of winter and installation folks from Courtland could not even get it lit. Somehow we were successful 1 time and loved it but this year cannot get it lit. Had a service rep come from from Courtland who still could not get it lit...these folks know nothing about coal stoves! We have tried fire starters, pellets, paper. Nice fire starts but coal just does not catch on. HELP anyone?