New owner of a 25-pdvc

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.

dennisb777777

New Member
Feb 9, 2008
3
Central Michigan
My wife and I just bought our stove. Its been running a week. It burns a bag a day. We are using Pro Pellet brand pellets from TSC. My only complaint is having to clean the burn pot twice a day. The stove wont burn the pellets down to a fine ash. It makes kind of a cake type substance out of the pellets. Everything stays in the burn pot and then plugs the auger off to were you cant see it anymore. The stove does wonders with the heat department in our house. I have a 1600 sqft doublewide. The propane bill was killing my pocket book. I have called Englander and they have been a tremendous help in dialing the bags burnt a day down to one. My only other question is what can I do to get the stove to burn the pellets to white ash instead of black charcoal like ash.

My stove has a fresh air intake, I used a duravent chimney kit. I have a 45* on the back of stove, 1ft of pipe thru the thimble then the cleanout t. 4 foot of rise then a 90* and a cap. The stove is burning on 3-4 normally. I like it warm in the house.

I would call Englander but its Saturday.

Thanks for any input Dennis
 
I don't know the answer but Im having the same problem. I hope someone can help us out.
 
I would try a different brand of pellets Test And Monitor the stove on the various settings.

You might want to double check and make sure there is nothing blocking the intake and exhaust.

I'm not familiar with the quality of the "Pro Pellet" but my local TSC keeps their pellets stored out in the open and I happened to be there when this guy was bringing back like 10 bags because they were Frozen... got water in the bags and froze.
 
After reading all the problems on this forum about the 25 pdvc, I'm sorry you have one.
 
Hi Dennis,
I too have an Englander, though it is not the same model, I've had the same problems. I was getting a large ash/unburnt pellet build up in my burn pot no matter what my stove settings were. I had tried 3 different brand of pellets, and they all seemed to burn the same way. The 3 brands of pellets that I tried were about 1/2" to 2" long. I have just bought a different brand to try them out, and they are a lot shorter ( about 1/4"- 5/8" long) and seem to be burning much better.
I don't know if the length of pellets matters or not, but they seem to be burning very well for a change. My stove has been running now for about 6 hours, and I have nothing but ash in my burn pot! YEA!!!
 
Mr Whitfield said:
After reading all the problems on this forum about the 25 pdvc, I'm sorry you have one.
I have only had problems with he Penningtons they are too long. I am glad you have the Englander, becuase you didn't over pay for your stove. I have read people with the $3000.00 stoves with problems also.
 
Thanks everyone for the replys. My wife and I were all ready to go and by a Quadra-Fire. $3800 otd with a hearth pad and installation kit. I just couln't do it. Thats alot of change to drop on something you know nothing about. The englander we bought at Home Depot for a end of season clearance. $1298. I have about $1700 into the whole thing. Stove, ton of pellets, and I built my own hearth pad, ceramic tile and the whole works. I think it turned out very nice. The heat it produces far offsets the inconvienance of the cleanings. I just thought it was odd that it needed to be cleaned so much. My cousin bought a usstove from TSC earlier in the season and he cleans it once a week. If I could repick my buy I would have gotten one without a auger in the burn pot. The ones that drop the pellets into the burn pot have alot less maintanence. (My cousins) I have to use up this ton of pellets I have and then I will try a differnet brand. Thanks again Dennis. I will call englander on monday to see if they have any other things I can do to the stove.
 
Dennis,

Please keep us posted on all your discussions and outcomes with Englander. some of us are getting ready to install the stove, and hope to avoid some of these types of problems.

Todd
 
I have a Quadrafire Mt. Vernon for about 4 months and so far has been well worth the cost. It starts corn without wood pellts or starting fluid. The burn pot automaticly dumps the clinkers. The thermostat controls the rate of feed. I need to clean it every 2 to 3 days although it is recommended to clean it daily. I haven't tried wood pellets yet.
 
Greenhorn said:
I have a Quadrafire Mt. Vernon for about 4 months and so far has been well worth the cost. It starts corn without wood pellts or starting fluid. The burn pot automaticly dumps the clinkers. The thermostat controls the rate of feed. I need to clean it every 2 to 3 days although it is recommended to clean it daily. I haven't tried wood pellets yet.

I LOVE the fact the Quadra Fire did that with the thermostat controlling the feed rate. feed rate. I was very hesitant at first with it. But the Castille is fed I think the same way basically as the Mt Vernon. The stove really is a stove that damn near runs itself other than cleaning and filling it. Very easy to operate. I also LOVE the burn pot in mine....it very deep....and love that the pellet chute isnt close to the bottom of the burn pot.
 
I have the same problem with my 25-pdvc stove. I just periodically scrape some of the build-up away every 8-9 hours or so. I realize that in some of the more expensive pellet stoves you wouldn't have to do that, but the fact is , that's probably why they're more expensive. I was not able to find any stoves for as cheap as the englander stoves were around my area, so I knew that there were probably going to be a few quirky things that I would have to deal with. All in all, it's been a pretty good stove. Mike.
 
Dennis said:
My wife and I just bought our stove. Its been running a week. It burns a bag a day. We are using Pro Pellet brand pellets from TSC. My only complaint is having to clean the burn pot twice a day. The stove wont burn the pellets down to a fine ash. It makes kind of a cake type substance out of the pellets. Everything stays in the burn pot and then plugs the auger off to were you cant see it anymore. The stove does wonders with the heat department in our house. I have a 1600 sqft doublewide. The propane bill was killing my pocket book. I have called Englander and they have been a tremendous help in dialing the bags burnt a day down to one. My only other question is what can I do to get the stove to burn the pellets to white ash instead of black charcoal like ash.

My stove has a fresh air intake, I used a duravent chimney kit. I have a 45* on the back of stove, 1ft of pipe thru the thimble then the cleanout t. 4 foot of rise then a 90* and a cap. The stove is burning on 3-4 normally. I like it warm in the house.

I would call Englander but its Saturday.

Thanks for any input Dennis

I am burning an Enviro Empress & I am finding that buildup in the burn pot is related to differences in the pellets & draft. Basically, to go 2 days (burning fairly high) with different pellets I need to set the damper in different positions. With Pennington pellets, I can set the damper in quite a way. I still haven't found a setting on energex which will not build up. It would appear the damper would need to be way out the whole time. With PA Pellets (sams club - very high ash) I have the damper about half an inch further out than with the Penningtons. With Comfy Cozy ( also a bit high on the ash), I start at the pennington setting, but pull it out a bit as they start to build up.
 
I have had the same problems with this stove. Been trying a lot of things. I did unhook the outside air and took all the exhust pipe off out side. I now just have it running out the wall with the vent cap on. This all seems to help, most of the time all pellets burn up to ash. I also ran a small piece of the oak pipe over to the exhust blower as it does create some air out the back side, now this air is blowing into the burn pot. I do think there is a problem with this stove and englander needs to step up and correct it. My question to them is can you or do u have a bigger exhust blower for this unit. I think that is the problem. It is windy here today and I have been getting some black on the glass. So that would tell me that the exhust blower is not strong enough to ovecome the wind.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.