new to stoves with problems.

Solid fueled stoves (appliances) have no 'pilot light'.........

T-stat operation is a function of the control board as is auto light., you have to have an igniter and the correct control board for automatic ignition some stoves allow manual light and thermostatic control in hi/low mode your manuals should tell you how the unit will work and if a thermostat can be used.

SmokeyTheBear said:

T-stat operation is a function of the control board as is auto light., you have to have an igniter and the correct control board for automatic ignition some stoves allow manual light and thermostatic control in hi/low mode your manuals should tell you how the unit will work and if a thermostat can be used.

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If you read the first post SB, it's manual (gelled firestarter start).....

"My brother in law gave me an older unit. It is an englander model # 25-pvd/55-shp22. The serial number is whi-012803 and the manufacturing date says 07101? "

So, the t'stat will modulate the HR setting from idle to the highest setting user inputted to the control board. with the board controlling the ramp time between ranges and that of course is not user adjustable.

The appliance (stove) will ramp down to the lowest setting when the T'stat is open. That setting is in the memory chip on the board and cannot be altered. It's enough to keep the burn going and the firebox hot enough to most likely keep the RA fan energized. When the T'stat calls for heat it closes the circuit and the control board begions to ramp up in HR settings to the highest setting you have selected.

I've always ran my stoves on a remote t'stat, for over as long as I can remember. You need to consult your manual as to which terminals you attach the t'stat leads to and/or which jumpers you need to remove to allow the t'stat to control the stove. Most, but not all stoves, use a millivolt t'state so you need to consult your manual for which type.

Running a remote t'stat evens out the heat. You can set it for say 68 and it will maintain 68 within a couple degrees. Fuel usage depens on many factors such as insulation or drafts or ambient outside temperature so usage can't be estimated but the heat level is much more stable and you don't have to fiddle with the settings. I basically set my stove to run balls to the wall (wide open-HR9, hard as it will go) and let the t'stat throttle the stove according to heat demand, just like a central furnace. My only issue is, unlike a central furnace, I have to fill the stove with fuel.......

Always and I mean ALWAYS UNPLUG THE STOVE AND DISCONNECT THE THERMOSTAT LEADS DURING THE WARM MONTHS WHEN YOU AREN'T USING THE STOVE BECAUSE INDUCTED CURRENT FROM ELECTRICAL STORMS CAN FRY THE BOARD if, it's plugged in or the t'stat is physically connected to the board.

I run a line conditioner (surge suppressor) on my stove in the winter as a precaution. Boards are expensive.

jeremygrimm said:

So the board should control feed and keep the fire "alive" while the thermostat switch is open. I will just need to start the fire manually. I shouldn't need to restart the fire if the thermostat takes an hour to go to switch closed?

In any of your experiences has a thermostat helped or hindered fuel consumption?

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Just to clarify, the board on these stoves are not fully automatic in terms of adjusting the fuel/air to keep the fire "alive" as some other stoves will (this is not bad, but you do need to be away of it.) These boards have per-determined fuel/air mixtures (IE: feed rates/combustion blower speeds) for each setting of the heat range (1-9). I don't know if all model years of this stove have this or not, but on the control board you will probably see three buttons on the bottom lined up horizontally and they say something like "Low Fuel Feed" (LFF), "Low Burn Air" (LBA) and "Air On Temp" (AOT). You never use AOT, but LFF and LBA can be adjusted for a particular brand of pellets if it is not burning correctly.

These are not settings you will have to constantly be playing with by any means (since November I made 1 or 2 adjustments and I was mostly being OCD), it just gives you the option to tweak the burn settings to make sure a particular brand of pellets burn properly. There's plenty of posts on the forum that discuss setting them, or alternatively, if you call ESW support they will be more than happy to help you select the proper values if you are having issues . Again, you may not even have to touch these settings, just wanted to make sure you understood that if problems arise you aren't without recourse! In all likelihood, your pellets will burn just fine with the default settings, but if you are like others on this forum (myself included) it will be hard to resist playing with the settings to try and get the best burn possible for whatever brand of pellets you burn :D.

with the unit you have adding a thermostat is possible, it will not turn the stove on and off (as it does not have an auto igniter) rather it will turn the stove up and down based on t-stat input. so the stove will not go out if the t-stat circuit is open, it would just continue to run on its lowest feed arte until the t-stat called for heat again

stoveguy2esw said:

with the unit you have adding a thermostat is possible, it will not turn the stove on and off (as it does not have an auto igniter) rather it will turn the stove up and down based on t-stat input. so the stove will not go out if the t-stat circuit is open, it would just continue to run on its lowest feed arte until the t-stat called for heat again

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I could have sworn thats what I stated in my post #32, but then, I could be dreaming.........

jeremygrimm said:

It was.. but mike is an englander tech support guru that has personally called me at my house. I apologize for not giving you recognition on your post. Thanks.

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You don't have to. I know what I'm talking about. If I don't know, I don't reply. This ain't my first rodeo.

Yes I run my furnace fan to mix the air up and get heat upstairs to the opposite end of the house. Works great. U might want to consider installing some return grills close to the stove to suck up some of that heat

SidecarFlip said:

You don't have to. I know what I'm talking about. If I don't know, I don't reply. This ain't my first rodeo.

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Lol

husky345 vermont resolute said:

Yes I run my furnace fan to mix the air up and get heat upstairs to the opposite end of the house. Works great. U might want to consider installing some return grills close to the stove to suck up some of that heat

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Thats a good idea, something that I do as well, but I use a LUX CAG t'sat with a 'clean air cycle' that runs the central furnace blower 5 minutes, in every 15 minute segment instead of constantly. Keeps the whole house at a fairly even temperature and my main cold air return is right next to stove, very handy spot. The LUX isn't made anymore sadly, but there are other intermittent fan run devices on the market. Don't know why LUX discontunued theirs......A great idea actually.

An added benefit is the central air furnace filter traps a large portion of the dust associated with a pellet/corn stove. I get quite a bit of 'collected crap'. in the filter, which I change monthly.

missed a wire terminal, should be fine now