Englander Troubleshooting

Can you snap a picture of this "Fiberboard"?? I cant for the life of me, picture what it is.

As for reviewing your settings, it refers to checking the bottom 3 buttons (shouldnt mess with them, unless you are dealing with Englander or someone that has had one and/or been trained to do so) These 3 buttons show a # when they are pressed.

What year is your stove? There should be a Warnok Jersey plate on the inside of the hopper or on the bottom left hand side of the stove. The Manufacturing date will be on that metal tag.

What are your bottom 3 buttons set at? Read from left to right? (Example: 4-4-1 or 4-6-1)

There should be a baffle hanging on the back wall of the stove. Commonly referred to as an impingement plate. You must remove that and get small brushes, a shop vac, and a leafblower (do a search here for leafblower trick) . The exhaust passages fill up with fly ash. You have to get it out. So from your burnpot to the combustion blower is a passage way. That passage must be kept clean.

Sounds like you may have a "Dirty" stove?

DexterDay said:

Can you snap a picture of this "Fiberboard"?? I cant for the life of me, picture what it is.

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amynrichie said:

We have had a used Englander 49 SHC 22 for about 3 years, and cannot seem to get it going good this year. Lazy fire- we have taken it apart, cleaned the flue, cleaned/straightened air intake. Replaced gasket on hopper, door, and ash pan. Tightened ash pan.

Ordered exhaust blower. The fiberboard is cracked, so ordered that too.
On the owner's manual, for "lazy fire" we are instructed to review board settings: review for what? For excessive ash, instructed to remove baffles and clean unit. Stupid question: what/where are the baffles on this stove?

There is a lot of creosote buildup on the glass and inside the stove. Pellets do not burn completely enough to drop into the ash pan, they build up in the firebox.

Aside from replacing the fiberboard, do you think that the exhaust blower is the main cause?

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You should look through this. Very helpful information from Englander.

http://www.englanderstoves.com/help/CornStove/index.html



Also, have you watched the DVD that Englander has on how to clean your stove? If not, you should get it and watch it.

http://www.englanderstoves.com/Pellet_Service_Video_04.html

GrahamInVa said:

DexterDay said:

Can you snap a picture of this "Fiberboard"?? I cant for the life of me, picture what it is.

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Oops... I was mistaken on the Model #.... Thought they had an old model (25-PDVC or 25-PDV)

Mistook this for the previous thread.

The other things I wrote, still apply. About finding and following the exhaust path and cleaning with a leafblower and your bottom 3 button settings

drop me a PM with a daytime phone number i can call and go over it with you

i have not gotten a PM with your number yet , i just sent you one so if ya want reply to that one so i can give you a call

Make sure you talk to Mike tomorrow...he'll set you straight.

Other than that, either the combustion blower isn't working right, or the stove is just plain dirty inside.....a lazy flame is typical signal of a very dirty stove inside.

IMO, I recommend you search this forum for "leaf blower trick", and do this to your stove.

Congrats Now if only I could get ahold of Mike to work through my stove issues......

Mykl78 said:

Congrats Now if only I could get ahold of Mike to work through my stove issues......

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Suggestion: Put the make & model of your stove in your signature line......this is done in "Your control panel" at the top of the page. This allows members who want to help you out know this info w/o having to ask every time.

amynrichie said:

OK! After talking to Mike this morning, we are A-OK! The settings are corrected, places are cleaned that we didn't even know existed, and we have a beautiful clean burn tonight! The basement is 84 F, and the upstairs is 72F. NICE!

Thanks All!

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Congrats on the fix. Mike and the people at Englander Tech Service are the best in the business!!

Can anybody give me any tips for removing the combustion blower to clean it on my 10-CDV? I just bought the stove used and asked the owner if he had ever cleaned any of the blowers and I was told no. I have the manual and should be okay doing it, just looking if there were any tips before hand.

I have been seeing a lot of black pellets on top of my firebox. To me, they are not getting enough air to burn properly. I should also be getting more heat than what I am. I am sure I need a good cleaning to help and get my settings dialed in.

http://www.englanderstoves.com/manuals/PU-CBG_combustionblowergasket.pdf

its pretty simple, there are 5 screws (5/16) holding the blower to the stove , you will need to remove the side access panel and preferrably the rear one to gain as much room as you can to work,

first unplug the stove, then locate and unplug the wires to the exhaust / combustion blower from the control board , these will be the 2 wires in the row at th etop of the circuit board which are closest to the front ogf the unit. note there are 2 blank terminals to the right of these wires which are not used so pay attention of which terminals the wires are connected to so not to cause confusion when reinstalling. and snip the wire ties so that you can remove just the blower wires from the bundle
next disconnect the flue pipe ( take advantage of this time to clean out the flue as we already have to disconnect it) locate the 5 screws (look at the link above the picture shows the locations on the blower itself) 2 above , 2 below and one just under the exhaust coupler.

after removal for cleaning , use a putty knife or similar to scrape off any residual gasket material from th eold gasket which will pretty much fall apart when you take the blower out. use a medium stiff brush to clean the impellor and inside of the housing (an old toothbrush works pretty well on the blades) once clean i have a little tip for ya. pick up some spray graphite from your local hardware or farm service store. "paint" the impeller and even the inside of the cleaned housing with this graphite it actually helps keep the crud from burning from sticking to the surfaces especially on the impeller and its not flammable(BTW its good for squeaking augers as well) while the blower is off , clean out the exhaust housing from which you removed the blower as it is an area which if neglected can contain quite a bit of ash buildup.

once the cleaning is completed and graphite has had about 15 minutes to dry onto the housing and blades regasket the blower and you are ready to reinstall it. the gasket can be put in dry but you may find some sort of adhesive will make it easier to keep it in place during the installation, just a couple dots of pretty much any adhesive should be ok, we use a spray adhesive at the plant with no issues, silicone, elmers glue , whatever's handy.

reinstallation is simply the reverse of removal, another hint , start all 5 screws before tightening them , makes it easier to get them all in.

after reinstalling and reconnecting wires to the board , zip tie your wire bundle back together taking care to keep the bundle and loose wires away from hopt surfaces and moving parts. when all is reassembled and the flue is hooked up, perform a quick "dry run" without lighting for long enough to ensure all our parts are operating normally (just in case a wire came loose or somthing) when satisfied all is ready , put the unit back into service.

hope this helps ya

Thanks Mike. I will have to try this after I can get a gasket.

I'm sure I have an air problem. I actually get a better burn by cracking the ash pan a bit, like a damper. If I seal up the ash pan, then the burn pot starts to back up and has black pellets on top. This is even with the stirrer on. I have it in corn mode on the settings of 4-9-1.

commedic81 said:

Thanks Mike. I will have to try this after I can get a gasket.

I'm sure I have an air problem. I actually get a better burn by cracking the ash pan a bit, like a damper. If I seal up the ash pan, then the burn pot starts to back up and has black pellets on top. This is even with the stirrer on. I have it in corn mode on the settings of 4-9-1.

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yeah, we might need to have a chat bro. running with an ash pan leak may look like its burnig better but its not , it wastes heat. most likely plugged up similarly to the OP no biggie it can be corrected go ahead and PM me a phone number i can get to you during the day with and i'll try to give you a ring

FWIW if anyone has tried to PM me over last couple days , sorry my PM box was full and i didnt know it, its emptied now so ask away

THIS is why I bought an Englander stove 4 years ago. Between the manual and video that came with the stove an owner can do a complete teardown and cleaning of these stoves, and you don't have to be "that" mechanically inclined. But the best reason of all is if you have a question on these stoves you call the company and get superior customer service, or you leave a note in this forum and Mike gets back to you. I've had great luck with my stove and would suggest anyone in the market for a stove to give Englander a try. American made, and excellent customer service. Read some threads on other brands, you'll find that some companies once you have the stove are impossible to contact for support. (No i don't work for Englander

You are correct, the customer service has been great. I don't have the video so I have been learning on my own. It is just fun getting the stove dialed in since I bought it used. When I was instructed to burn wood pellets in corn mode so the stirrer would function, I was burning almost a hopper of pellets in 14 hours compared to over 24 hours in pellet mode. That is with the factory settings of 5-9-1. They said I could work the first number down to maybe 3 to slow the feed rate and that seems to be working okay. I do get a lot of carbon buildup in the burnpot so I have to shutdown about every 3 days and chip the carbon out. There is also a ton of fly ash buildup inside so I have been trying to find the hiding spots to get vaccumed out. I think I may be getting it.

Does anybody know what the importance of the fiberboard backing is?

commedic81 said:

Does anybody know what the importance of the fiberboard backing is?

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I don't know but I would like something like that for my Harman P43 simply for the looks. Wonder if they have anything like that, I know they have fake logs, but eww.

commedic81 said:

Does anybody know what the importance of the fiberboard backing is?

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Mike got me squared away with this and other critical information. Thanks Mike

My auger motor has crapped out on me twice my stirrer motor has crapped out once. My fiber board has cracked and I have only had the stove 1 yr 3 months. Apparently they have been sending me the 2 rpm motor for the auger instead of the 4 rpm motor. So now I get to change it again. While installing the fiber board I chipped it. Do I need to use the fiber board? Is it just for decoration? Can I just self tap a piece of 1/8 in steel in place of the fiber board?