Harman DVC-500 burning back into the hopper

I have a harman dvc-500 and the stove burns fine for the first hour after starting it, then it starts feeding coal and more coal till the fire is out of control. By this time I'm raking the hot coals off the grate and everytime the fire is back to the feeder block. I tested the tcp probe several times and its fine. It actually got that hot on Christmas Eve it melted through one of the wires to the feeder and burned the circuit board out. We got the stove used and it looks like it overheated before. Does anybody have any ideas? Thanks

Couple common things to check: make sure your draft is correct based on manufacture specs, measured with a manometer and make sure the stoker mechanism and carpet (where the air blows through the burning coal bed ) is sealed correctly so the air is being blown where it should.

A quick look the manual shows quite a few areas that the manuf. has made accessible for cleaning at different intervals throughout the heating season. Make sure the past owner had all these area cleaned out!!!


http://hearthnhome.com/downloads/instal ... VC-500.pdf

I just wondering when you guys that have a dvc 500 when you light your stove do you light it on top of the grates or down in the valley?

Always on the grate!

Back in October 2011, many members here kept me from free diving off a bridge over a dvc500 problem. Great team here. While my problem isn't exactly the same as yours, maybe you can pull something out of reviewing the thread:
http://nepacrossroads.com/about21985.html

My problem was a pinched pressure tube and it was my fault. I was getting error codes but you didn't comment if you see any.

Take a look at the thread.....and keep asking questions !