Englander 25 PVDC

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sage

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All right pellet pros,

I installed a 25 PVDC in November and it's been preforming excellent until a couple weeks ago. Sorry I don't have pictures( I don't have a camera).

Anyway, I have the OAK and it is clear. I have the Dura-vent kit horizontal 1 foot out the wall then to the t and up the outside of the house 3 feet, elbow then 1 foot then the hood. I clean the stove every week by shop vac, scrape the ware plate, take out the big plate in the back of the fire box (sorry don't know what they call it),
vacuum out the hole that is behind that plate on the left. Brush all ash off the inside walls and vacuum that out and under the ware plate.

Ok, now, as of a couple weeks ago, it randomly shuts down with the burn pot full of unburnt pellets. Flame has never been lazy by the way. So I figure I need to do the LBT, so I did that yesterday and ran the little pellet stove brush up and down and in and out, got lots of ash out. I figured I had gotten it pretty good.

Fired it up last night running really good, I went to bed and this morning it was out again with the pot full again!

I should tell that I have a really small house (under 900 sq ft) and very well insulated, and only 1 floor. I only run it on 1 as anything else heats the house to 80! Way to hot for me!

The bottom buttons are on 3 5 1 and it's in mode D. And I've run 79 bags and have been running North Idaho Energy Pellets and some Prest-o-log pellets that are really full of ash.

Also I have not been here or up when it shuts down, only does it when I'm not around! So not sure if any of the E codes show up or not.

So what do you all think? What else should I be looking at?


Thanks in advance,

sage
 
first, if you are running on heat range 1, you might be too low with your LFF, try increasing to 4.

also, look inside the front of the stove, you see your burn pot against the back wall of the firebox area, look at the top right hand corner of the pot where it is pressed to the back wall, move from that corner to the right (outside of the pot) about a half inch clear of the side wall of the pot, then move down about 1/2 to 3/4 inch, look for a 1/8th inch hole in teh back wall. this is the port for the "door ajar" vacuum switch. this switch interrupts the top auger if the door is open, if it gets some ash in it it can drop teh switch while running normally and cause a gap in feeding, if this gap is long enough the fire dies and then as the new fuel gets there nothing is left to light it, so you have a big pile of unburned pellets in a cold stove

EDIT, when you find this little hole ream it out with a toothpick, do not vacuum it out! as this could damage the switch
 
Hi Mike,

Thanks for responding.

I know about the vacuum switch and not to vacuum it. I brush it out at every cleaning. I will try the toothpick, haven't done that.

I turned down the LFF because it gets way to warm in here and the pellet consumption was really high (only getting about 10 hours out of a bag) and it's been burning on that setting since about the first of December.

Process of elimination, I will start with the toothpick tonight. It's about 50 here today but will be cold tonight.

Thanks again,

sage
 
When you get the stove straightened out with Mike's help, you might consider putting a programmable thermostat on the stove. That way, when the house gets too warm, the stove will go into Lo fire mode, etc.
 
sage said:
Hi Mike,

Thanks for responding.

I know about the vacuum switch and not to vacuum it. I brush it out at every cleaning. I will try the toothpick, haven't done that.

I turned down the LFF because it gets way to warm in here and the pellet consumption was really high (only getting about 10 hours out of a bag) and it's been burning on that setting since about the first of December.

Process of elimination, I will start with the toothpick tonight. It's about 50 here today but will be cold tonight.

Thanks again,

sage

WOW I thought my 1 bags every 11 to 12 hours was bad, and I run my stove on a little higher feed rate then yours...
 
i have same stove - one thing that used to cause this on mine is that the hopper would have pellets not falling down on the sides of it. the fire would go out and shortly after the fire went out, a pellet avalanche would happen. by the time the stove shut down for a no fire condition, the burn pot was full of pellets.

that was extra special annoying. keep your hopper extra full and see if it stops doing that.

Also I have not been here or up when it shuts down, only does it when I’m not around!

thats a clue this could be whats happening.
 
Hey Imacman,

I was going to put a stat on it, but I want it to shut the stove completely off then turn it back on at a certain temp, but they don't on this model. I all ready run it on the lowest setting, does it go
even lower than 1 on the stat?

Hey Chrisasst,

Ya I thought 10 hours was really bad! I searched threads here and found out how to turn it down. I now get 24 to 25 hours out of a bag depending on pellet brand and maintain 70 in at 20 out and
75 in at 30 out.

We have had a very mild winter here just like everyone else, at 40 outside I have to turn the stove off!! I will say that my NG furnace has not run since the pellet was put in and my NG and Elec bill
is a steady 40 a month now instead of 125 a month! And I'm in t-shirt and jeans instead of sweats and a quilt!!!

sage
 
Hey Dr. Faustus,

Stove had a full bag of pellets in it at 8 pm last night. I have found that has happened, I keep the hopper pretty full just for that reason. This time it was not that. Good thought though.

Some one mentioned in another thread that the pellets can make a bridge over the auger, I thought that maybe it was that, but it doesn't seam like it is that.

I did the toothpick thing and there did seam to be some ash build up in it, so I hope that helped.

sage
 
sage said:
Hey Imacman, I was going to put a stat on it, but I want it to shut the stove completely off then turn it back on at a certain temp, but they don't on this model. I all ready run it on the lowest setting, does it go even lower than 1 on the stat?
That's a good question...I don't know. Give Englander a call and ask.
 
Ok, report on my stove.

I think the toothpick worked! It ran all night. Wasn't as cold as the said it would be! It's 80 in the house this morning! Shutting it down for the day.

It's suppose to snow again tonight so it will get a work out in the next couple days.

Thank you to all that responded, this forum is the best!

sage


ETA: I will be adding the toothpick to my weekly cleaning!
 
You mentioned vacuuming behind the baffle plate ?(heat exchanger) I know there`s a channel inside the heat exchanger upper left and I think there is also one that goes down on the right . Run a smaller hose attached to the vac in that channel too.





sage said:
All right pellet pros,

I installed a 25 PVDC in November and it's been preforming excellent until a couple weeks ago. Sorry I don't have pictures( I don't have a camera).

Anyway, I have the OAK and it is clear. I have the Dura-vent kit horizontal 1 foot out the wall then to the t and up the outside of the house 3 feet, elbow then 1 foot then the hood. I clean the stove every week by shop vac, scrape the ware plate, take out the big plate in the back of the fire box (sorry don't know what they call it),
vacuum out the hole that is behind that plate on the left. Brush all ash off the inside walls and vacuum that out and under the ware plate.




Ok, now, as of a couple weeks ago, it randomly shuts down with the burn pot full of unburnt pellets. Flame has never been lazy by the way. So I figure I need to do the LBT, so I did that yesterday and ran the little pellet stove brush up and down and in and out, got lots of ash out. I figured I had gotten it pretty good.

Fired it up last night running really good, I went to bed and this morning it was out again with the pot full again!

I should tell that I have a really small house (under 900 sq ft) and very well insulated, and only 1 floor. I only run it on 1 as anything else heats the house to 80! Way to hot for me!

The bottom buttons are on 3 5 1 and it's in mode D. And I've run 79 bags and have been running North Idaho Energy Pellets and some Prest-o-log pellets that are really full of ash.

Also I have not been here or up when it shuts down, only does it when I'm not around! So not sure if any of the E codes show up or not.

So what do you all think? What else should I be looking at?


Thanks in advance,

sage
 
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