correct factory presets on Englander 25PVDC? and fire goes out

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lammer

New Member
Dec 27, 2010
9
Western MA
Did a search, no results so hope I am not duplicating this question. Have had this stove since 01 or 02 I think. Husband used to handle it(passed away), don't remember any problems in past. I don't use as primary heat source. I use for for one room use only as primary heat in this room is so bad(baseboard- steam).. the last two weeks I have had a problem in that the stove is going great, but after 2 hours it goes out. I thought it was the insulation on door window, it was bad, and thought that maybe the air wasn't right to sustain fire. I replaced today (actually my teen son did it after talking w helpful man a Lowe's today). Installed nicely, waited the required time and lit it , and after 2 hours it went out again. I tried to watch the stove and it seems it is not feeding pellets which causes the fire to go out.(and we are in the midst of a blizzard here in MA) I had made a call to England Stove last year inquiring about the factory resets as they had been accidently changed. I was told to put the buttons on 4-1-1.Didn't have any problems last year after my call, but not sure if they are the right settings and maybe that is the problem with sustaining fire. Before I have someone come out to check it out and spend money I don't have, could someone advise if these are correct? also any suggestions as to cause of this problem?We even cleaned out hopper entirely and vacuumed as well as cleaned the firepot twice, and the outside vent, just to be sure, but still it goes out. It burns beautifully then looks like no more pellets being fed. Should I have my son take off back and check out motors tomm? Can it be my pellets?I mistakenly bought soft wood but was told i could still use they just wouldn't burn as efficient but wouldn't cause a problem. I have L&G,Surefire, and Okanagan on hand to use till I can buy more and get hardwood. But if pellets are the cause, why would it burn so well for 2 hours?Called someone last week to repair, can't get here til 1/11. But Lowe's gave me a name may be able to get out here this week, but I just wanted to know if there is something I can do myself (or my son) without a service call, anything that comes to mind from those of you more knowledgeable in this forum?I would really appreciate it.Oh yeah, I had it on 5 and 5.
 
Does the stove go out because there isn't enough pellets in the burnpot, or is it overflowing & going out? When was the last time the stove was taken apart & completely cleaned? And that includes removing the blowers, vacuuming inside the ash traps until clear, and the entire exhaust system from combustion blower to cap.

As for the settings, I would try 4-6-1. And the pellets you have are fine, as long as they are dry....Englander prefers hardwood, but the softwood will burn no problem, especially the Okanagans....they are a very good pellet.

The only other thing that stops pellets is ash getting into the tube that connects to the vacuum switch. If it gets blocked, the vacuum switch will signal the auger to stop feeding pellets. Try removing the tube & making sure it's completely clear, along with the vacuum switch and the fitting that the other end connects to.
 
If you were in the Pittsfield area I`d come over and help you out but the mention of Lowes tells me your not.
Set the lower 3 buttons at 6-4-1 and see if the fire stays lit.
 
Thanks so much to imacman and Gio. I am in Springfield area, wish I were in the Pittsfield area,though!Now you both put the same numbers but in different order. if I am looking at the side of stove, from left to right the buttons are : Low Fuel Feed, Low Burn Ash, and Air On Temp. so are the numbers 4-6-1 or 6-4-1?Whichever i am supposed to do, iI will relight tomm morn (hopefully we'll have power in this storm, don't even want to think about that prospect).
I guesss I started this out stating I was a newbie, but I am not sure where the blowers are located to be able to clean them. We emptied hopper and vacuumed well, emptied burnpot and back cover and vacummed well, and did go outside today and used the long telescoping brush we had and emptied cup.If you can describe the blower location, we will clean there, too(I mean I know where the air comes out, but not sure what you mean by actually removing them to clean.sorry to sound like such a helpless dumbo,not used to have to these things and trying not to be a bother or have to spend too much for service, but I will if I have to,hopefully if we can't figure this out ourselves, I can get someone before the 11th!I was so impressed to install the insulation, I know you'll say that it is easy, but I was a bit nervous about having my teenager do it, but he was good at it (except for adhesive on glass- minor at this point :) ) So any other tips and or instruction is greatly appreciated!Thanks again for the help.
 
Oh yeah, forgot to say that only once did I notice the pot full when it went out, all of the rest of the times it was empty and I watched it tonight, auger hardly was moving when it decided to go out.I tried to move the numbers on the buttons a bit to see what would happen, it did feed more, but then went out again and I was too nervous to really mess up by playing with the buttons... I have a healthy respect for fire, especially in my home!That's when I thought of trying to google for info and found this great site.One thing I have discovered being alone..... in this old house, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. When I have tried to take intitiative on some handy things I sometimes made things worse, so I am a bit overwhelmed by this stuff, but I do want to be able to atleast understand it eventually... but fire?...wish hubby has given me more (or even some ) instruction in the things around here....didn't occur to us Id be the one doing this on my own or our son, so I do appreciate the help.. alot.
 
Since Gio actually has the same model stove, I'll defer to his settings....try the 6-4-1 first. That's 6 on the LFF, 4 on the LBA, and 1 on the AOT (that one never gets changed).

Here is a good place on the englander site that has "How to's" for different things on your stove.

www.englanderstoves.com/PelletServicing.html

Before you remove the combustion blower, you'll need to get a couple of gaskets from Englander, as they usually tear when you remove them. Luckily, that is usually only 1 or 2 times a burning season.

www.englanderstoves.com/store/25-PDVC_Parts.html

Try the settings first, and if the burn pot is empty again if it goes out, then the vacuum switch is most likely the culprit, as i mentioned in my first post. Here's the link to the pic of the switch....the tube I was referring to that has to be kept clean is the blue one in the pic:

www.englanderstoves.com/manuals/ReplacingtheVacuumSwitch.pdf

Hope this helps...gotta get to bed now.
 
It sounds like the stove is clean, it has been vacuumed and cleaned, and the vent has had a brush run in it to make sure it was clean. I dont think the blowers are dirty or the stove would not run well to begin with. So I would not worry over the blowers at this point.

Try the settings that have been recommended, and see if it stays on over 2 hours. It sounds like from what you say that the stove does very well for 2 hours, so it doesnt sound like a major problem. Sometimes a simple reset can fix a problem, many people have unplugged their stove for 10 minutes and plug it back in, this should reset the control unit, it cant hurt to do this. It is also possible that after about 2 hours something is getting a little too hot, and the stove is shutting itself down, this would tell me possibly a temperature snap disc I'm not sure but if you have a real high flame for 2 hours it just might be turning itself off. If possible you want to avoid running it full blast for a long time, it can get over heated and shut down.

If changing settings does not fix the problem, there is a very nice man on this forum name of Mike Holden who is the Englander wizard, he knows and services them and he may be able to shed some light on this problem. I'm hoping its only a matter of settings. Sometimes we use a different pellet from the previous season and need to change the feed rate or adjust a setting or two for it to work well, I noticed this with my stove, I got the same brand of pellet as in previous years but I had to adjust the feed rate a little bit to keep the fire from going out on its low setting. So the settings are important and I hope that fixes it.

There is a ton of information here at this forum, as you can see by the information given by Macman, and others, these guys that have the same stove you do know that stove and its behavior pretty good so i think you're in good hands and hopefully will avoid any service call.

Good luck, I hope it runs for you..
 
I didn`t see a mention of what the the heat range was on but when set down low on #1 or #2 these stoves can usually maintain a very low flame but can be susceptable to going out occasionally due to fluctuations in the amount of pellets fed in to the burn pot. I just wanted to cover this possibility of this happening.
 
The book mentioned to keep it at a 5/5 in the trouble shooting section, so that is what i have done, I would usually run at a 3 or 4 at this point in winter, lower at crisp fall/spring days to take edge off. Hubby always said to keep the lbower higher than heat, guy at Lowes yesterday said to keep same always (I woul dhave done like a 3/4 , but have kept it at 5/5.Never had this problem in all these years....I hope that it really is a just a tweaking and not a big deal....I will fire now and try new settings and post.. fingers crossed....:) Itis still snowing, and the wind is crazy blowing, but have power and heat, so no other complaints here...and again thanks so much!
 
By the way, the pics are great, thanks, it is really helpful to see it that way, my son and I looked atthem, I feel much more comfortable having that as a guide if we need...thanks...
 
well, auger turns but not feeding any pellets even turned up to 5 again, so shut it back off, will take off back in a bit and see what we find...wish us luck..but atleast before Igot a good fire for the 2 hours, so is it because I changed settings? or did something finally give?Maybe I'll put the setting back and resitart just to see and go from there. I just don't wnat to keep putting it on if I may damage something else by doing so... may call the Lowe's guy for opinion/help. Feeling totally inadequate at this point..

Update: relit, changed settings back and it still not feeding, so it is not the settings issue, atleast feel like I am gettting some where try to diagnose..
 
If you're sure that the auger is turning, then it's possible that there is a pellet blockage in one or both of the augers. Best bet would to unplug the stove, and remove both of them. If pellets are "mushed" in the auger, it will stop pellets from going through.

EDIT: use this service sheet to remove the auger motor, and then pull the auger out of the auger flight. If it won't slide out easily, that may be the problem. Use pliers to "unscrew" the auger back out of the flight.

www.englanderstoves.com/manuals/ReplacingAndAligningAugers.pdf

Look up into it to see if any pellets are packed in there, and remove any that are. After sliding the auger all the way back in, it should spin around freely if everything is clear.
 
Based on your last message, have you checked the auger tube to determine whether it's plugged? You say the auger turns, but pellets don't feed.
 
called England,tech was very helpful, as we had never opened back before, it was difficult to know if there was something amiss, nothing to compare it to, one was realllose and the other was immovable. It turns out that the top auger was stuck, so he had him move it till it unjammed. (funny we initially thought it was the movable auger that was the problem, that seemed logical, didn't know they were supposed to be loose, see what we know)Turned on stove and it started feeding immediately. Lots of stuff came out into burn pot, so we cleaned all that out and lit it and now we'll see if it works.He also suggested that if it happens again , to switch the auger motors as the top only needs to work intermittently, may last a few years that way or not....I comtemplated buying a new motor to have, but he said if I don't need it right away, then the warranty could run out before I even need the part. So it is a crap shoot either way, see what mood lady luck is in...one thing I am sure of is when it breaks, it will certainly be on a weekend, a long weekend or another holiday...I can't say how thankful that I am that you were so responsive to my questions. I will keep you informed, for those interested....this is a great site....only which I could be more helpful to pay it forward.... fingers crossed (again)
 
Lammer, glad to hear the problem is solved. Englander Techs are the best in the pellet industry, IMO.

I agree w/ tech about switching motors.....give the one that runs constantly a "rest". Just make sure set screws are tight.

Good luck!

PS. While you had them on the phone, did you double check on the correct lower button settings?
 
Hello

Englander has the best Tech support around for their pellet stoves so do not hesitate to contact them!!
 
I agree with you on the techs,after an hour, the fire seemed to be going out,so I called them again, while I was on phone it came back on strong and is still on. It is making this occasional grinding noice, so in talking with them, I decided to bite the bullet and purchase a new motor.This tech frowns on the switch, says it doesn't seem to work in the long run, but was ok if i chose not to order one, and said he was aware that several of the jr techs advise that, but as a sr tech he doesn't. When it arrives, I will get rid of the top motor, put theone I moved to the bottom back tothe top, and put the new one on the botom (it almost sounds like I know what I am talikng about!)The noise is driving me crazy and I hope I can get it all to hold til the new one arrives.I had it shipped 2nd day ($8 more in shipping,not the next day of $55!)I did ask the first tech about the settings and he recommends the 4-1-1 but said that he has neard that the other settings are popular, too(wish I had thought to ask the sr tech that question). He said I could tweak the air one up if I chose. At this point I am not experimenting with anything til i get it all set (with fingers crossed). My son had the darnest time getting one of the screws to the motor undone, took him over an hour, but finally he got it.So, now I hold my breath and wait and then again til it all seems to be okay. I also found out that my hubby did purchase a new bottom auger motor and gasket in 2005 (actually 12/22/05).I don't really remember this, so it must have been a good, quick fix at the time.But there was some of his writing in the book that came with the stove, so I just had to ask, and they had the record.I recenliy bought a vacuum cleaner only to find out that my old one had a maintenance agreement, so I would have saved $ there, but honestly I thought I remembered we didn't get the maintenance on it, so I think I will check everything from now on as it comes up , and I keep much better recordsLOL. Well I'll post when I get things done and let you know...again thanks and who knows maybe this post will help someone else out...
 
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