Still pile up

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chrisasst

Minister of Fire
Aug 13, 2008
1,289
cortland ny
I am using somersets and some of lowes energex. I set bottom three to 2-6-1 and top two are 7-9.. after 5 hours and another thorough cleaning. I am getting the following.. (click on pic below)
I am going through a bag of pellets in about 8 hours no matter what settings I am using.
what am I missing

Englander PDVC
 

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Stove model might help us assist u.
 
First thing I would do is take the thermostat out of the equation and try it that way. Make sure you put the jumper back in the terminals on the board.

Also, if you are running on 7, you are dumping a lot of pellets into that pot (you did say it didn't matter what setting cuz it does the same thing? correct?)

To me it looks like an airflow issue but you said you just cleaned it.

Have you checked to see what mode the stove is in?

If all else fails, you can try do a board reset.....first things first though.
 
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I have had it in mode c. I changed it back to d last night and it still is piling up. I put the bottom three to 5/9/1. Top I had set at 5/9.
I went through a bag of pellets in about 7 hours in d mode last night. I usually get at least 12 hours.
It seems to me that the panel is not responding to any setting and it is just pouring pellets out. The temp is reading high 700 degrees which I have never gotten that before.
How do I do a board reset?
 
Disconnect your thermostat first to make sure it's not constantly calling for heat....or maybe something is screwed up. Is it wireless or hard wired?

Edit....also, have you tried closing the feed gate a bit at the bottom of the hopper?
 
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Tstat is hard wired. I set the top buttons at 1/9 before I left for work. I see what it looks like when I get home.

Don't believe my pdvc has a feed gate that is moveable in my hopper.
 
Tstat is hard wired. I set the top buttons at 1/9 before I left for work. I see what it looks like when I get home.

Don't believe my pdvc has a feed gate that is moveable in my hopper.

I believe it should (or it's missing?) my old '06 it......should be a small plate with a screw attached
 
I believe it should (or it's missing?) my old '06 it......should be a small plate with a screw attached
Mine is 09. I will check again when the pellets run down but I believe the plate has no screw and is silicones in.

Here is a photo of the pellets running 1/9. And 5/9/1. After five hours. It's better but only putting out 550 degrees.
 

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Did you get the stove used? Also, are you sure you cleaned all the "chambers" behind the plate? I don't know but it really looks like lack of airflow. When I do a full cleaning I take an air compressor to every nook and cranny.

Hopefully Mike will see this thread and chime in.
 
New stove. Third year with it. Yeah I cleaned all nooks and crannies, chambers etc. that I know of. Even made sure the two holes under the burn plate were cleaned out.
Will leaf blow it out again.
 
Try this......

Perform a control board reset as follows .....

Do this when the stove is cold.

Unplug the stove from the power outlet.

Plug the power lead back in.

You must press and hold the bottom 3 buttons all at the same time within 4 seconds and wait 3 seconds and then release buttons.

Wait 5 - 10 seconds for the F5 readout display to go blank.

Unplug power lead - wait 5 seconds

Plug power lead back in and press both the up and down blower speed buttons at the same time within 4 - 5 seconds, you should now see a letter (A, b, c or d) in the left digital display under heat range, you need to change this to 'd' or 'c' using the up / down buttons below that readout, once set to 'd' or 'c' wait 10 - 15 seconds then unplug the power again and wait 5 seconds. (Sometimes the mode that you want does not set and defaults back to the mode that it was in before, repeat this step to make sure the mode that you want is set.)

Plug power back in, then set the lower three (3) buttons to read 6 4 1 from left to right.

Clean out the stove and reload with pellets and fire it up. Set the heat range to 2. Set the blower speed to 3 or 4 and then leave the stove alone for 60 - 90 minutes. After 60 - 90 minutes have passed, set the heat and blower to the numbers that you want.

This is how I set my 25-PDVC, and I have not had any issues with heat output, but I do have to scrap the burn pot out once per day due to the way the burn pot has been designed.
 
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Disconnect your thermostat first to make sure it's not constantly calling for heat....or maybe something is screwed up. Is it wireless or hard wired?

Edit....also, have you tried closing the feed gate a bit at the bottom of the hopper?


Ok well, I learn something new everyday. It does have the movable plate in it. I closed it up, we'll see what happens I guess. Don't think this is the answer to my problem, but
 
Ok well, I learn something new everyday. It does have the movable plate in it. I closed it up, we'll see what happens I guess. Don't think this is the answer to my problem, but

This should help some but like you said, might not be the problem.
 
Well I did a reset. Cleaned it all out again. It seemed to be doing better. Before I went to bed, filled the hopper and I changed the bottom to 5-7-1. This morning the burn pot was full and over the edge. Should have took a pic was in to much of a hurry to clean it before I had a major fire. hopper empty at 7.
I am guessing my control board is messing up. Which I know I cant afford to replace.
What is mikes screen name? Any other diagnosis I can do?
 
Well I did a reset. Cleaned it all out again. It seemed to be doing better. Before I went to bed, filled the hopper and I changed the bottom to 5-7-1. This morning the burn pot was full and over the edge. Should have took a pic was in to much of a hurry to clean it before I had a major fire. hopper empty at 7.
I am guessing my control board is messing up. Which I know I cant afford to replace.
What is mikes screen name? Any other diagnosis I can do?
Seems to me if your pot is overfilling, you need to lower the lower fuel feed number. I run my bottom three at 2-6-1 and top number rarely any higher than 3-8. When I need extra heat I raise the lower fuel feed to 4. During shoulder season I have run with lower fuel feed at 1 just to slow down the amount of pellets feeding into the burn pot.
 
Seems to me if your pot is overfilling, you need to lower the lower fuel feed number. I run my bottom three at 2-6-1 and top number rarely any higher than 3-8. When I need extra heat I raise the lower fuel feed to 4. During shoulder season I have run with lower fuel feed at 1 just to slow down the amount of pellets feeding into the burn pot.

I have never had this problem before. To me its like the bottom LFF is not responding. Almost like it is stuck on 9.
but I guess I am stuck dealing with it since I dont have $200 right now.
 
You might consider closing off the slide plate in the hopper more to restrict pellet flow and/or lower your upper feed number to 1 or 2. Creates a dirtier burn but will get the job done. Just need to clean faithfully.
 
Have you tried disconnecting the t-stat and running it for a while? Maybe there is something is screwy with it?
 
You might consider closing off the slide plate in the hopper more to restrict pellet flow and/or lower your upper feed number to 1 or 2. Creates a dirtier burn but will get the job done. Just need to clean faithfully.

I closed the plate as far as it can go. right now running is on 2/6/1....3-8
definitely not putting out any good heat...but..

Have you tried disconnecting the t-stat and running it for a while? Maybe there is something is screwy with it?

yes, no difference.
 
I don't know what is going on with the fuel feed, but that flame looks lazy to me. Even with a fast camera it is hard to capture the flame peaks and those look round instead of pointed.
I know you just cleaned it, but I suspect there is something wrong with the air flow in your fire box.
 
You can now increase your feed rate to get more heat. Until you reach the point of overfeeding again. Then you will know your limitations with the current pellets you are burning.
 
That's burning like a cruddy stove. When's the last time the combustion fan was cleaned and lubed? Venting clean?
 
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