Englander 25 PDVC not feeding pellets with error codes

[Panhandler]

Thank you all very much. Once i removed the auger motor and twisted the auger by hand it started freeing up. Lots of sawdust. I cleaned all of the new stuff out and re-assembled the motor, ran through a dry run, then filled with newer pellets and the stove is running strong...just in time. I returned the brand of pellets that were jamming the stove back to Lowes and was told they have been getting a lot of returns on that brand.

Thanks again for all your help.

Which brand?

 

[imacman]

Thank you all very much. Once i removed the auger motor and twisted the auger by hand it started freeing up. Lots of sawdust. I cleaned all of the new stuff out and re-assembled the motor, ran through a dry run, then filled with newer pellets and the stove is running strong...just in time. I returned the brand of pellets that were jamming the stove back to Lowes and was told they have been getting a lot of returns on that brand.

Thanks again for all your help.

Glad it helped and you got the stove running.

Ditto what Panhandler asked....what brand pellets caused the jamming?

 

[[email protected]]

The brand is Green Supreme.

 

[Dr.Faustus]

:bug: oh great! i just got 4 tons of green supremes delivered and stacked in the garage yesterday. *and* i have the save stove as the OP

 

[blackbear219]

I have dealt with somewhere around 40-50 upper auger jams this season. Right now I am going on 4 days without one. Sometimes I have 4 jams a day. There is no rhyme or reason to it. I have only had to pull the augers once to clear a jam. Every other time I have been able to clear it by wiggling the motor like everyone has been talking about.

If it is jammed, the motor is not going to rotate freely. Like everyone else said, if you wiggle the motor up and down you can manually turn the auger and force it through the jam. The key to remember here is that you need to wiggle. If you pull too hard, the auger is just going to nestle up against the jam and the motor will wind around the auger without actually turning the auger. The whole point here is to get motion in the auger so make sure you are wiggling back and forth and you should be able to clear it.

Wiggle the motor enough and over time you will loosen the set screw. Then you may be wiggling the motor but it is not catching/turning the auger, so look out for that. Tighten the set screw often if you have to do this more than once.

Everyone seems surprised when I tell them I have upper auger jams, yet it seems like somehow everyone with a 25-PDVC knows about the motor wiggling trick. Something doesn't add up there. Unfortunately, I am the self proclaimed king of upper auger jams at this point so hopefully this helps if you run into any future jams. Good luck.

 

[blackbear219]

double post

 

[Dr.Faustus]

i had upper auger jams 1-2x/day on the pdvc. this was 4 years ago. fed up i took out the auger, pumped some high temp grease into its fitting. used a dremel to smooth out the auger and to sharpen its edges. not razor sharp but more of a wedge type edge. i havent had a single jam or reason to remove the auger in 4 years. I dont sift either. i've thrown in tons of fines.

i cant remember if i dremeled both augers but i did grease them both since that was really easy, what i do know is no jams in 4 years and my stove runs 24/7 in dead winter.

another theory of mine is that the pellets dont feed as easy if you take them from an unheated space and throw em right in the hopper. i take a few bags in and they have a chance to acclimate before i send them to their fiery deaths

 

[winolet]

I had a problem with the top auger not moving and with help from the forum here I managed to open up the back and get it going again. However, I then thoroughly cleaned the stove and sprayed Silicone Spray Lubricant on both augers - haven't had a problem since (that was last winter). I now plan to do that every spring. Thank you all for your help in the past since I was very frustrated.