25-PDV What to expect?

[Troy-bilt]

Been lurking for awhile. Awesome forum with lots of knowledge. Glad I found you!
I'm the Proud new owner of a 25-PDV Manufactured in '92. I've downloaded a manual but can't seem to find BTU ratings. Heated home (and domestic water) with a SumersHeat 50-snc30 as only source of heat (except passive solar) and absolutely love it. We average about 3 cords a season. Purchased the pellet stove because I was looking for something to make it easier for a caretaker in case I need to go away for a few days. Also, this past winter was an eye opener when I was kicked by a horse and was down for about a month. So the plan is to use the Pellet stove on the days where the wood stove is too much or the lazy days or when its extremely cold as suppliment to the wood stove. The house is well insulated R-30 walls and cathedral ceilings and R-60 in flat ceilings. 3780 sq ft and is earth sheltered to the North and West. Insulated slab on grade is 5" thick concrete thermal mass. Never done heat loss calculations but I figure its probably not much. So I'm really curious about what to expect out of the stove (if I ever get it working, hehe) Anyone heating with an old Englander 25-PDV? Been around fire wood and wood stoves all my life but this is my first pellet. I was extremely impressed with the quality of this stove and the fact it seems to have never been over-fired. Also seems to be a good supply of new parts available.

I do have a couple of other ?s about the stove. She seemed to be in fantastic shape other than being very, very dirty (don't know how it ever burned). I filled up a large shop vac with powder ash very quickly. The exhaust was almost plugged shut with said powder ash. Just purchased the stove this evening ($150) and have vacuumed everything. Also hit it with the compressor. Plan to remove, clean and oil as much as I can. Both augers seem to be in fine working order and working fine. The combustion fan is not working. Does this unit have a vacuum switch? If so where? The room circulating fans do not come on as well. I assume they will not until the stove is at operating temperature?? Any help or insite will greatly be appreciated.

 

[vvvv]

i have 99pdvc, sounds similar.
try manually moving combustion blower as it may be stuck. cblower should run on startup regardless of vac switch which is located inside rear of stove & connected by a vac hose to the cblower. cblower can be connected directly to 110 [on mine] for testing. room blower comes on with temp. digital board control [on mine] allows for further tweaking. look at the 25pdvc manual from Englander to note the diff between old & new
http://www.englanderstoves.com/manuals/pre-04.25-PDVC.pdf

 

[krooser]

Mike from Englander is a regular contributor on this forum.... I'm sure he will chime in.

 

[geek]

you said Manufactured in ‘92 ?????

That must be wrong, check again.....

 

[stoveguy2esw]

you said Manufactured in ‘92 ?????

That must be wrong, check again.....

actually that may be correct we did build a 25-pdv in 1992..
to the OP , call me at my shop maybe i can give you some insight into whats up with the stove 800-245-6489 im here from 8-5 eastern mon-fri

 

[Troy-bilt]

BLIMP: Thank you very much for the info. I plan to test the cblower on the bench today. It only has two wires attached so I'm assuming in this model there is no vacuum switch?? New gasket is on the list to order. Plan to do a test burn to test the other blowers etc...I'll keep you posted.

krooser: Hoping he'd chime in. Hint, hint

geek: Noticed in your signature you sold your 25-pdv. If you don't mind me asking what was its age and why did you sell? Were you looking to upgrade etc, or were you not happy with it? Checked my stove again and its 11/92.

 

[Troy-bilt]

Thanks Mike. we were typing at the same time. I'll give you a call.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

Thanks Mike. we were typing at the same time. I'll give you a call.

robert (one of my techs ) just buzzed me he'll be calling you back shortly

 

[Troy-bilt]

Called and spoke with Robert at englander Tech support. He walked me through the process of checking all the blowers. All three are in working order. We unplugged the lower auger and tested all three there. Next we tried the room circulators in the cblower spot. They both worked. Sounded like lacking amperage but they both did blow. Hung up and decided to tinker abit.
Removed all the blowers and cleaned and lubed them. cblower still not working in its spot. Called tech support back. This time I got Mike. What a bundle of information he is. I learned so much. I could have talked for hours. Anyhow, we came to the conclusion that the cbustion part of the board is failing and probably should be relpaced. After I hung up I decided to spray a bunch of contact cleaner and blow it out with compressed air. Hooked the cblower back up and low and behold she runs (not sure why but hey...) Made a fire and the room circulators cycle fine and work with the rheostat. cool beans. I did notice that the cblower never changes speeds unless I change it on the back of the board on the little pod (not sure what its called) anyhow, I don't think that's right. Should the cblower speed change as the need changes? I adjusted the length of time upper auger runs (thanks again Mike!) and I really like the way its burning. She has had a fire for about the last 5-6 hrs. Figure I probably still need a new board. but hey not bad for an 18 y/o stove, right?

I'm so impressed with the customer service at Englander. My stove is 18 years old for goodness sake. Talk about service after the sale. Wow! Not only fantastic tech support, But I can buy parts for the thing and not have to make them! What more can you ask for!

 

[vvvv]

whats the control board look like?

 

[Troy-bilt]

Red off button and green on button both at the bottom. has two radio dial type knobs one over the other. One is heat blower and the other is???blower (can't remember off the top of my head). That's about it. Pretty plain looking though. I'd take a picture but I've tried to embed photos from photobucket for the past 1/2 hr with no luck. Feeling kind of dumb right now %)

 

[krooser]

Kinda makes me think real seriously about an Englander for my shop...hmmmmm.

I DO know that Mike Holton has helped many stove owners on this site and others... a real asset to be sure.

 

[vvvv]

Red off button and green on button both at the bottom. has two radio dial type knobs one over the other. One is heat blower and the other is???blower (can't remember off the top of my head). That's about it. Pretty plain looking though. I'd take a picture but I've tried to embed photos from photobucket for the past 1/2 hr with no luck. Feeling kind of dumb right now %)

different from my 99 25pdvc. good idea to check or replace all rubber hoses within, they get old ,dry,& crack............W. Va.= coal?

 

[geek]

Mike is the man....

 

[stoveguy2esw]

in that stove you really wouldnt get much of a change in the speed of the comb blower, might could hear it but probably not , best thing to do from here is to try to get the "pot" adjustment back to its origional position if you can and leave it at that if the fire looks active as it shold and fuel is burning cleanly and completely. im happy to see that it started working for ya , never thought about contact cleaner (i'll remember that one)

 

[vvvv]

in that stove you really wouldnt get much of a change in the speed of the comb blower, might could hear it but probably not , best thing to do from here is to try to get the "pot" adjustment back to its origional position if you can and leave it at that if the fire looks active as it shold and fuel is burning cleanly and completely. im happy to see that it started working for ya , never thought about contact cleaner (i'll remember that one)

i put light dimmer [PWM] on mine last year for a little while, dont think it can hurt the blower motor but aint perfectly sure. my newer 25pdvc has a built in PWM. also got a plate mounted on top of firebox so it blocks the fire fumes from going directly to the blower.fumes have to the right & turn left before they reach the exhaust blower

 

[imacman]

Mike is the man....

x2

There is no finer customer service for stoves than Englander's.....period!

 

[tinkabranc]

Mike is the man....

x2

There is no finer customer service for stoves than Englander's.....period!

X3

Never owned an Englander myself, but seeing how responsive Mike and his crew are when someone
needs their assistance, this company ROCKS!

 

[stoveguy2esw]

thanks guys, im blushing seriously. give craig some credit though , his vision in putting this forum together is what gives me the chance to do what i do, which in the grand scheme of things really isnt that much. if i didnt have a place that i could try to help where i could, i'd be just another guy on a phone line.

so thanks web, for letting me "play in your yard"