Englander 25-pdvc Problem

I noticed today that there is still an awful smell after the 3rd burn. There is air coming out of the blower housing in back. Is this normal? Not coming out the appliance adapter or pipe but the actual motor housing. Also the door was stuck shut today had to pull hard and the rope gasket was sticking to stove. I dont think it messed it up too bad but this cant be normal. I remember the very first time I fired it up a little smoke came out where the fan blows out the air before the fan even came on. Normal?Also I fired it up at 8-8 setting for an hour and then set it to 4-8. Went and checked 15 minutes later and the flame seemed to look the same in both settings. I am starting to think there may be a problem with stove. I know this is a lot of questions, and I will call tech support but wanted your opinion. Thanks!

Putting the stove upstairs where you spend your time is the best thing to do.
Will it cook you out?? No.. Especially if you use your ceiling fan in reverse (draw air up)

If you dont need heat in the basement? Then its a no brainer. Also, running on 8-8 will use more pellets. But that amount of fuel used, still is not coming close to the BTU's your woodstove produced. Only using 20,000 BTU wont get it done. These stoves heat based on fuel used. If using 2 lbs an hr it will be about 16,000, 4 lbs an hr 32,000 BTU and if using 6 lbs an hr 48,000 BTU. But your stove wont eat 6 lbs even on High. You have to use fuel to get heat.

(What woodstove dos you have ?? )

I have an old ugly large wood stove with 2 screw knobs on front to adjust air intake. Don't even know what make it is but I can get that thing to get the basement cooking in no time. Just getting to the point that I'm tired of cutting splitting stacking etc.. and that baby can eat up some wood..Maybe I have to see how my pellet stove does in the winter, if it can get the basement in the 70's maybe it will keep the upstairs decent without spikes and drops in temp. Just scares me that it only got the temperature upstairs from 66 up to 70 on a day that was only in the low 40's. If it can do that on a 20 degree day I'd be o.k. with it. Wont know until next winter.

Make sure to make that call to Tech support, and be near the stove when you do. But like everyone above said, trying to heat an un-insulated basement is usually very hard to do, unless you have a monster of a pellet stove. Bottom line.....If you want to heat the upstairs, move the stove up there.

Simple would be to place a fan on the lid cover & point so it blows at the cellar door opening, the faster the better. The doorway may feel cold due to the breeze but check the temps at other areas upstairs.

Yes but to really circulate air you need a supply and a return.

I use the stairwell for the return and 6" ductwork with inline fan to pull hot air from the heat tubes on the stove for the supply to 2 registers. One reg in the kitchen and one in the hallway to living room and bedrooms. It heats the whole house with a 45 k btu Avalon Astoria. I would highly recommend a large Travis or even Whitfield to do the job really good from the basement.

See my pics
http://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/...ting-the-heat-up-one-floor.65315/#post-817789

moving it upstairs is the way to go. however having it in the room with you might not be such a hot idea. i find that whatever room its in, it tends to draw a cool breeze across the floor towards the stove. this is to replace the hot air that has left the room heading towards other rooms.
i havent gotten cooked out much since i put my pdvc on a thermostat but it has happened. i think if i had it in some other room i wouldnt get as much of a breeze and wouldnt have to raise the tv to cover its fan sound.

well I spoke to Jeremy at tech support today. He is sending me a new door gasket kit. He said sometimes production doesn't allow the paint to dry enough and you get some on the rope gasket, then when it heats up it can stick to the lip of stove. Also he said after 5 or 6 burnings it should quit smelling. After describing how I sealed pipes and described the smell he thinks this is normal break in. When we discussed the stove performance I mentioned the flame height and he said the flame is way to high indicating that it is going towards top of impingement plate because it is acting like a flame that is not getting enough air. He stated that the flame should be even or a couple inches above burn pot with a very aggressive flame. I had not hooked up fresh air intake yet (I know I know but I wanted to make sure things were working well before putting a hole in my wall.) He thinks that a 3 inch fresh air pipe and then possible fine tuning should get this stove cranking. He stated that he has never had a problem getting enough heat output from this model even with unfinished basement installs, usually they are putting out more heat than desired. After describing my set-up and lay out He is confident that I can get this stove to heat the basement well enough to allow some heat upstairs I have hope now anyway! My wife absolutely does not want this upstairs with a 5 year old and the house is small, really no place to put it. I know the heat will circulate because there was already a cut out in the ceiling behind the wood stove and it seemed to act like a cold air return allowing heat to go up the stairs. Oh yea by the way he also stated that running the fan at higher setting than heat (like a 4-8 setting for instance) will also give the fire more intake air. Only problem is til I get the fresh air hooked up I may be out of cold days to test things out but he said they keep call records for ever. Wants me to see how it acts after fresh air hook up and he will tweak things if necessary to get fire burning correctly. Thanks for all the input and letting me wig out!

Interesting, I would have never guessed that.

Hopefully Mike will chime in and confirm that statement.

Btw, I use a 25pdvc in an unfinished basement, but I'm only heating the basement.

I seen that too... Are they talking 4-8, like 4 heat and 8 fan. Or 4-8-1 on the bottom 3 buttons.

Because the convection blower has nothing to do with combustion air. So raising the fan level, should do nothing to the flame... ??

how warm does your basement get and how big of an area is it?

I know. He did explain and I remember it made sense at the time but I'll be darned if I can remember!

Its 1000 sq ft and I can get 750 sq ft of it above 80 pretty easy. Theres one finished room thats pretty closed off that will stay within 2-4 degrees if I leave the door open.

I tried keeping the finished room at the same temp with the door closed using a room to room fan with poor results. http://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/tjernlund-aireshare-room-to-room-fan.79113/ Its fine with the door open but I have reasons for keeping it closed.

Also my basement has 2" foam on the outside and is completely below grade with no windows. So i do have some thermal break.

Hi Dr.Faustus

How is the PVDC on the thermostat? Do you use the recommended 9-9 for the high setting? What is the low setting?
Does it keep the room a constant temp? What temp do you set it for?

Thanks

The doorway develops a thermal circular flow which pulls air down in response to fan forcing air up & that is the supply/return. If you blow fan into cellar, it pressurizes the cellar & helps to warm the cellar moreso. The fan on the stove [hard blow aimed at the top of the doorway] induces any heat from the stove to be sucked into the blowstream & delivered upstairs. Bottom line is that its a simple thing to try so why not?

what heat and blower settings do you have to use to get it up to 80? Do you have the oak hooked up and if so did you increase to 3 inch intake hose? By the way my 5 year old thinks your avatar is pretty cool.

Hope I'm not corrupting any five year olds. I can clear 80 at heat setting 5 and maintain above 70 on 3. I always run my blower on 9.

When I first got it to previous owner had it in c mode and that sucker really cranked.

He had it in his basement and said he never ran it above 3. I don't know if he knew it was in c mode.

I was fully expecting to have to glue some xps foam up on the walls after the stove install, but to my suprise it works good.

I only use it intermittently as needed, probly combusted a ton down there this year.

Like I said my basement has 2' foam on the outside, is fully below grade and has no windows.

YMMV

Thanks for the info. do you have the fresh air hooked up?

Yes I used selkirk direct temp.

I was told to increase to 3 inch pipe. Cant seem to find an increaser. How do I get a 3 inch pipe on a 2 inch outlet

Use an adapter.

cant seem to find one. Do you know any websites? I tried ventingpipe.com and a few others and didnt see a 2 to 3 inch adapter listed.

Try a local auto parts store. Exhaust system adapter.

Have you tries Auto Zone and use a Muffler increaser??

Edit. A day late and a dollar short. Smoke beat me. Again..

never thought of that-thanks