Englander 25-PDV quits feeding sporadically

The top auger is supposed to stop running on this stove. It intermittently goes on and off depending on your feed settings. The lower auger however should always run.

What fuel feed setting are you running at? If you are running at a low feed setting, try turning up the low fuel feed a notch.

When my auger motor died, it it completely quit on me. I don't know about an overheat shutdown, maybe someone else will chime in. It does seem strange though that it shuts down for 15-20 min, then starts again. Try giving the folks at Englander a call tomorrow, or maybe Mike from Englander who is on this forum a lot will see this and help you out.

When I first bought my stove as a return at Lowes 4 years ago, it gave me some trouble like this. Took me a while to figure it out, and I found that the screws that hold the motor shaft to the auger were loose. Takes a bit of patience to work on upside down, hanging over the stove, if you don't take the stove off the pipe and move it. I now have EVERY tool used/needed in a coffee can behind the stove- all the correct size allen wrenches, nutdrivers, even the torx for the motor screws. No hunting for tools that fit. Now, once a season, I tighten up everything and the only problem I have is combustion blower squeal when cold. So, I only let the stove get cold on Saturday, and then just for a few moments.

Thats exactly what i am attempting to debug.

See this post ..... within it you can see some of evaluation i have already done.

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/31098/

look through the vent to the right of the front door, looking behind it you should see a vacuum hose connected to the side of the firebox behind the vent, use that as a point of referrance to the location , look inside the stove in the same place in the inside of the wall of the firebox , you are looking for a small hole in the wall there. this is the port for the door ajar vacuum switch if its partially plugged with ash the switch may open when the stove gets hot , then as the fire dies back the air density picks back up and pulls the switch again and the stove starts feeding again. locate this hole and insert a toothpick or a straightened paper clip into the hole and ream it out , then fire the stove and see if it goes back to running normally

WestonFire22 said:

Thanks Mike, I will check that out. We turned it down to 3 last night and didn't have any problems. Will check when I get home today and see if it was fine all day as well. So from what I can tell, it was just happening on the "high" feed rates.

Bruce

Click to expand...

heat, vacuum pressure and air density all play a part. the hotter the air , the less dense it is and the less molecules per cubic unit of measure to move and create vacuum behind them. stove heats up , available vacuum lowers, at a certain point the vacuum present is no longer sufficient to hold the switch closed, that breaks the circuit. the switch has a very light "throw" so it doesnt take much. but a restriction in the vac port can reduce the availible vacuum to the switch , componded by the heat.

let me know if this doesnt cure it i have more tricks up my sleeve yet.

NEStoveOwner said:

Thats exactly what i am attempting to debug.

See this post ..... within it you can see some of evaluation i have already done.

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/31098/

Click to expand...

yours is a different thing bro, BTW , im not going to be in tomorrow, but will be next saturday , was going to swap with another senior tech who is riding herd tomorrow but he has a committment next weekend so i couldnt swap, i'll pM ya later and see if we can attack this a different way if you need to faster than next sat.

Mike this seems like the same prob we have discussed.. I am headed to the customers house saterday night. If your around give me a call around 5 pm

Deffy said:

i get that too on my 25pdvc. on real high settings (feed 6-9 / blower 9) the stove dies for a few mins except for a pile of brightly glowing pellets, then picks back up as if nothing ever happened.

i run my stove very clean so i was assuming its bumping its high temp limit momentarily, stopping the pellets, cools off fast with blower on 9 then resumes normal operation.

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could be either , they mimic the exact same symptoms, your vac port is located just outside the burn pot on the right side rear wall , look about 1/2 inch to the right of the OUTER edge of the pot, and about 1/2 inch down below the bottom edge of the baffle plate. its so close to the pot it can get missed sometimes and could be getting some ash in it without being seen.

WestonFire22 said:

, but mine now stops long enough for the fire to die down/go out. Just kinda weird that it runs fine (intermitent as it should), then it just stops for 15-20 minutes, then starts working again.

Bruce

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Mike, this is exactly what mine does. But the upper auger motor stops only stops when the entire stove it hot. Auger will work again when cool but by that time fire has died.

is it the upper auger which is stoppig? i thought the issue with yours was the lower auger stopping. upper auger is a different kettle of fish.

Its the upper auger on my stove.

The lower auger is only turned on and off as the stoves starts and shuts down. it runs continuosly when the stove is running. any other stopping of the lower auger is either mechanical, a jam or something has loosened up, or possibly a motor failure, or even more unlikely a board failure. motor and board failures are RARELY intermittent. they are usually hard fails. the UPPER auger is controlled much more- by the feed rate contoller, as well as the limit switches. the control board needs to see correct negative pressure in the combustion area or just before the combustion fan in some models, the control board makes a couple of decisions- is there a call for heat? is there a negative pressure where i want it? is there an overheat condition? what is the heat setting? then the controller board starts and stops the upper auger, feeding the pellets from the hopper to the lower auger. the lower auger simply supplies the burnpot with an even distribution of pellets over time, as supplied from the hopper by the upper auger, based on the combustion burn rate setting. So, the upper auger MEASURES the amount of pellets from the hopper, based on the heat setting, dropping them into the lower auger, which puts them into the burnpot in a smooth, 1 rpm, constant movement.

If you can do this safely and understand what i am asking:

Put a volt meter on your upper auger motor. Run the stove. Make sure you are seeing the voltage vary from zero to 115.

After the stove is warm make sure every time the meter shows 115, the motor is it actually spinning.

My stove did the same thing and it was a bad auger motor. I think its a failed winding. Windings get hot,
coating shorts out somewhere and effectively reduces the number of windings and therefore cant deliver
enough torque to spin the gearbox.

NE has a very good point- one that I will try to make even simpler. Go to radio shack, or any electronics hobby type place, and buy a couple of 120 volt cheap pilot lamps. Hook them up to the auger motor, and the vacuum switch. put them right across the 2 wire on each device. when the auger motor pilot lamp lights, the motor should spin. the lamp across the switch works differantly. the lamp should NOT light under normal draft conditions when the vacuum (negative draft) switch lghts, the switch will be OPEN, which means that you have a combustion air blower problem or blockage, or the switch or its tubing could be bad. when you are done, put the pilot lamps in your toolbox, and keep them for next time. i have a couple of sets of these with alligaor clips on them, for troubleshooting.

Check out the info in the post below. The information contained may save you time and grief.

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/34017/

stoveguy2esw said:

look through the vent to the right of the front door, looking behind it you should see a vacuum hose connected to the side of the firebox behind the vent, use that as a point of referrance to the location , look inside the stove in the same place in the inside of the wall of the firebox , you are looking for a small hole in the wall there. this is the port for the door ajar vacuum switch if its partially plugged with ash the switch may open when the stove gets hot , then as the fire dies back the air density picks back up and pulls the switch again and the stove starts feeding again. locate this hole and insert a toothpick or a straightened paper clip into the hole and ream it out , then fire the stove and see if it goes back to running normally

Click to expand...

Mike, Thanks so much for all the information as someone else mentioned, they dont pay you enough! Ive been up since 3am, reading posts and trying to figure things out, Ive let the pellets run dry, top Auger works, "sporadic" still I think. And will some more cleaning , jotted down many notes from your replies. ( this is the first time have had this issue, of fire burning down, not being fed pellets and wont start up, then getting all the pellets in the tray) I gotta check two things I think. 1) the airhole vacume line cleaned and checked inside the firebox, and 2) taking a serious look at the igniter, cleaning and putting something in there to clean the little hole ? I think the issue is overheating and top Auger stops feeding, by the time it cools, the fire is down so it wont reignite. ? Thats where Im starting, other wise Im a happy 25-pdv owner for the second season, we enjoy the ease and warmth, Like anything else with parts that move, just fine tune the maintenance and learn from you all the tricks.. Thanks, edinmaine "Ed"