Englander 25PVDC+Pellet Newb=Pathetic...

[Traxxis]

First off, fantastic forum here, TONS upon TONS of information. There truly is a forum for everything!

I am completely new to stove heating. I happened upon this unit on Craigslist for $300 OBO and it was listed as a "handyman special" because the blower wasn't working. After calling the guy and telling him I wanted it but would like to see pictures, he emailed me back and said it had more surface rust than he thought, so $100 and it's mine.

So, I pick it up, bring it home and give it a thorough cleaning, inside and out. It hadn't been used much, the guy said he used it one season, then moved into a house that already had one installed, so this one went to storage. I removed the impingement plate, cleaned it, what I assume is the heat exchanger behind it, pulled the exhaust fan and cleaned it all out, like I said, I think I did a fairly thorough job cleaning it up.

I then hooked it up and turned it on, and have been running it for two months with Pennington Premium Oak. My problem is that it doesn't seem like it heats worth a darn. Below are all of my measurements, which seem to stay somewhat consistent...

Room air temp: 125 degrees
Sides of unit: 190-225 degrees
Burn Pod (via infrared thermometer) 300 degrees
Exhaust: 250-300 degrees.

This just doesn't seem right to me, sure, I know 125 degrees is warm air, but is that really all this thing should put out??? I mean, it's hardly even cold yet in Oklahoma (haha, I know, it's nothing compared to you guys!). It currently hoovers around 45 degrees outside.

I do have the OAK installed, all joints are taped. My exhaust run is short, only about five feet long from the stove to exhaust tip, and it is at roughly a 60 degree angle.

The stove DOES pass the dollar bill test on the door gasket.

The bottom button settings are as follows:

LFF: 5
LBA: 4
AOT: 1

And the heat range and blower are set to 5 (heat) and 4 (blower), however I have adjusted the heat to 9 and it just doesn't seem to make much of a difference.

About every 15 minutes, the fire will put itself out and go to coals as it waits for more pellets.

The ashes seem to be acceptable, however I'm new to stove heating, so I could be way off. I will post a picture soon on the ash after running it for a couple hours.

I vacuum all ashes and scrape the burn pod before turning it on each time and give it a thorough cleaning after about every bag.

PLEASE HELP... I'm too cheap to pay for natural gas and my Wife is cold natured! haha

Stan

 

[Traxxis]

Also, before I was getting a little bit of smoke back into the house, after exhausting many other options, I climbed behind the unit and started looking, and one of the vacuum tubes was disconnected. I connected it back to where I believe it's suppose to go, and it seems to be running fine now, and after turning the LBA up a bit, I don't get any smoke back, and I get just a little bit of smoke smell at first start up.

I have also tried another bag of pellets, but cannot recall which ones they were. They came from Lowes, but they were softwood.

ALL PELLETS ARE STORED INSIDE THE HOUSE, and I have burned about 8 bags.

 

[Traxxis]

And a couple photos and a video that might tell you guys something or at least help you diagnose this thing for me.

BTW: My house is very small, I didn't think this thing would have any trouble at all heating it. 1190 square feet.

It had just dumped several pellets into the pot as I was taking these, so the fire goes from this to coals...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dM1jGkjSPB0&list=UU0V-omrp9cNxb58lygnT4UA&index=1&feature=plcp

 

[chrisasst]

What year is the stove? Did you hook an OAK up?

there is also a way to reset the stove and see what mode it is in but can't find a link to that.

 

[Traxxis]

The OAK is hooked up, yes.

As for the year, the plate says 9/05.

I see you're running one too, what does yours put out?

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Did you clean the convection blower?

 

[Traxxis]

Yes, convection blower is clean (that's the room blower, correct?).

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Yes, convection blower is clean (that's the room blower, correct?).

Yes that's the room blower.

Next up have you cleaned the combustion side of the heat exchanger?

That is the area behind the impingement plate, you need to get all of the crud out of that area otherwise the hot combustion air doesn't heat up the entire heat exchanger.

Get in there with some brushes with a length of garden hose attached to your vacuum. You need to clean that air path very well all the way to the combustion blower cavity.

Then when you cleaned that room blower did you also clean the motor and properly lubricate it?

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

The stove was likely not maintained properly and put away dirty.

Used stoves need a full tear down level of cleaning before firing them up.

So a lot of poking, pounding, and vacuuming are called for.

 

[Traxxis]

I did indeed cut about 3' of water hose and attached it to my vacuum. I scrapped the entire inside of the firebox, then removed the impingement plate, scraped both sides of it, then scraped all of the heat exchanger that I could. Both the section behind the impingement plate, AND above the impingement plate. I then vacuumed all of that out.

I then pulled the exhaust blower, vacuumed inside of it, and the impellers.

Where do you lubricate the motors???

If there were something hooked up wrong on the back side (the vacuum solenoids specifically) would that cause poor performance or would that just cause the stove to shut down?

Thanks!
Stan

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

I did indeed cut about 3' of water hose and attached it to my vacuum. I scrapped the entire inside of the firebox, then removed the impingement plate, scraped both sides of it, then scraped all of the heat exchanger that I could. Both the section behind the impingement plate, AND above the impingement plate. I then vacuumed all of that out.

I then pulled the exhaust blower, vacuumed inside of it, and the impellers.

Where do you lubricate the motors???

If there were something hooked up wrong on the back side (the vacuum solenoids specifically) would that cause poor performance or would that just cause the stove to shut down?

Thanks!
Stan

The vac switches need to have the correct ports hooked to the correct parts of the stove. I haven't looked at England setup so can't really speak to your stove, except to note if the stove thinks it hasn't got proper vacuum it stops pellet feed. One of those vacuum connections is for the door open detection circuit. The hopper switch when present also cuts the auger off.

If the motor on that room blower can be oiled there should be two oil ports on it one next to the blower and the other exactly across from it at the end of the motor these may or may not have a colored plastic plug in them. The motor plate should tell you which oil to use.

The augers on the stove must also be aligned and you need to check for anything stuck in the area between the two augers, that metal do hicky has been known to have a pellet piece get stuck in there and disrupt the feed.

 

[DexterDay]

There was a person recently who had feed issue problems. The fire was dying out and getting relit because of the amount of Pellets fed.

Have you tried calling Englander? Hopefully Mike Holton see's this and can be of some assistance.

Sounds like you did a pretty good job cleaning it. Have you checked to see what tue factory settings are (bottom 3 #'s). You could try and increase the LBF # up 1. That would feed more fuel to the fire.

Also check the lube ports as Smokey stated. Most take SAE 20 (3-in-1 oil/ blue bottle) a couple drops will do it some good. Especially if it hasn't been done in a few years.

 

[Traxxis]

Ya, I tried to call them but it just kept giving me a busy signal. When I went to their website, I noticed a pop up window that said they were having phone issues.

What temps are your 25's running?

Certainly 125 degrees isn't normal is it? If it is, then I need to just quit trying to tweak it.

Again, I'm using Pennington pellets.

 

[DexterDay]

Ya, I tried to call them but it just kept giving me a busy signal. When I went to their website, I noticed a pop up window that said they were having phone issues.

What temps are your 25's running?

Certainly 125 degrees isn't normal is it? If it is, then I need to just quit trying to tweak it.

Again, I'm using Pennington pellets.

Well half the problem is the pellets. Are these Natures Heat Penningtons??? If so, besides Inferno's. There about the worst pellet out there for heat.

You may have a problem. But I would buy pellets from somewhere else. Wal-Mart is the only place that sells them around here. I buy 2 bags every yr, just to be thankful for all my other pellets.

My 25 is bigger than yours (BTU's) and is no comparison. As mine is 16 yrs old with analog controls. But the temps are well over 200* on a 60% heat level.

 

[smoke show]

What temps are your 25's running?

Heres mine cranking on 9-9

The thermometer is touching metal as I had to cram it into the slots.

Don't tell my wife her thermometer is missing. :lol:

 

[superchips]

Change your setting to 3-2-1 and retest.

 

[DexterDay]

Change your setting to 3-2-1 and retest.

Changing to 3-2-1 is just gonna mean the same burn. But gonna have to run a higher setting to get the same results. Dropping each # 2 points will mean what he got on 5. Will be what he gets on 7 (if he changes). 5-4-1 or 3-2-1. Just means less air and less fuel, but in the same increments, it may show no change. Other than longer between cycles. Which is the problem now.

Even if it wasnt the same, thats a dramatic change. Changing one at a time and burning for awhile to see the changes, is a good suggestion. I have heard conflicting statements, but I thought that the stove has to be cool and turned off before the change will take affect anyways.

Im not against trying something. But do one thing at a time. That way you actually find the problem and know what did it. Changing 2 things at once, wont give you the answer.

Seems like you need more fuel. Burn didnt look bad on Youtube. Although that was a very short clip. Can you post one long enough to show the Fire cycling up and down? BTW-Awesome Forum name... Do you "Ride" (Bikes, ATV's, Etc)

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Here is one thing that it might be, the prior owner could have had it connected to a thermostat if so it is likely starting out a the normal start up settings seeing there is no call for heat and dropping in to maintain fire mode which is low burn.

Check the control board for a missing jumper wire on the thermostat connector.

Consult the manual section dealing with operating the stove on a thermostat.

 

[mithesaint]

Try a different pellet. I am new to pellets as well, and the pellets I started with are terrible. They are Eco Flame, a softwood pellet from Lowes. They're terrible. I've had much better luck with Presto logs and AWF, both from lowes. Start with a better pellet before you go any farther.

 

[fmsm]

Call Englander! The one thing I have to say as a former Englander owner is that there technical support staff are great! Keep trying to get through, you will and it will be worth it!

 

[imacman]

....Well half the problem is the pellets. Are these Natures Heat Penningtons??? ....

The OP stated in the first post that they are Pennington Premium Oak pellets. I burned 4 bags of them a couple of years ago, and they were fantastic.....wish I could find them again around here.

 

[imacman]

About every 15 minutes, the fire will put itself out and go to coals as it waits for more pellets....

Stan, have you checked to make sure that both augers are secure in their connection to the motors? It's possible one of them (most likely the upper) is slipping and not allowing pellets to get transferred down to the second auger.

Also, I think that stove has a pellet feed "door" in the bottom of the hopper.....maybe it's too far closed???

 

[Countryboymo]

I bet Smokey is on to something with the stat not being connected.

 

[Countryboymo]

I bet Smokey is on to something with the stat not being connected. I would guess that unless your home is built like a block of swiss cheese that stove should do fine if its in a central location.

 

[imacman]

I bet Smokey is on to something with the stat not being connected.

Now that I go back & re-read the OP's posts, that may be the problem......jumper wire missing.