Englander Fire going up and down

[kdp7462]

Hi All
Its been down right cold the last week or so here in Maine so I have been running my PDV on heat range 5 or 7. Room blower on 9. I have noticed that the fire will be blasting for a while and then go right down to smouldering. This happens probably every hour( or at least it seems as though when I am home watching it!) It has not gone out yet, but there have been a couple of times I hit the "on" botton and it goes into the S U on the control board.

Any ideas on why this would be happening? It didn't seem to be doing it when I was running it on 3 to 5 range prior to the cold snap.

Thanks!

 

[imacman]

How long has this been going on? Is the burn pot full of pellets, or almost empty when this happens? What are your lower three buttons set at?

 

[kdp7462]

I've noticed it just over the last 4 days or so since its been cold and I've been burning at the higher settings. There is just smouldering ash when it goes down. I am pretty anal about keeping the burn pot clear, so I don't usually run with an overflow in the burn pot.

The 3 lower buttons are set at 5-5-1....but that shouldn't impact it at heat setting 7, right?

 

[imacman]

I've noticed it just over the last 4 days or so since its been cold and I've been burning at the higher settings. There is just smouldering ash when it goes down. I am pretty anal about keeping the burn pot clear, so I don't usually run with an overflow in the burn pot.

The 3 lower buttons are set at 5-5-1....but that shouldn't impact it at heat setting 7, right?

Sounds like you're not getting pellets on a consistent basis. Have you shut the stove off when the hopper is almost empty, and cleaned/vacuumed it of excess fines? Or maybe even remove the augers motors & augers and make sure everything is nice & clean?

As for the bottom 3 buttons, I have it on pretty good authority (a senior Tech at Englander) that something some of us have suspected for a while is true....the bottom 3 buttons DO have an effect on heat settings above 2.

Is 5-5-1 the original settings the stove came with from the factory? What year is the stove? New or used?

 

[kdp7462]

Sounds like you're not getting pellets on a consistent basis. Have you shut the stove off when the hopper is almost empty, and cleaned/vacuumed it of excess fines? Or maybe even remove the augers motors & augers and make sure everything is nice & clean?

As for the bottom 3 buttons, I have it on pretty good authority (a senior Tech at Englander) that something some of us have suspected for a while is true....the bottom 3 buttons DO have an effect on heat settings above 2.

Is 5-5-1 the original settings the stove came with from the factory? What year is the stove? New or used?[/quote]

I cleaned out the hopper yesterday when I did my weekly vac through. I did a motor pull this summer before the start of the burning season. Late last year was the last time I had the augers out. I do chip carbon away from the bottom auger tube weekly with my maintenance as well. Maybe there is something restricting in the top auger? Looking at it, the bottom turns freely.

The stove was purchased in 06. This is my 4th season with her. Most of the time all is good...I did have a lower auger go on me last year or the year before.

 

[Lorne41]

Sounds like you're not getting pellets on a consistent basis. Have you shut the stove off when the hopper is almost empty, and cleaned/vacuumed it of excess fines? Or maybe even remove the augers motors & augers and make sure everything is nice & clean?

As for the bottom 3 buttons, I have it on pretty good authority (a senior Tech at Englander) that something some of us have suspected for a while is true....the bottom 3 buttons DO have an effect on heat settings above 2.

Is 5-5-1 the original settings the stove came with from the factory? What year is the stove? New or used?

I cleaned out the hopper yesterday when I did my weekly vac through. I did a motor pull this summer before the start of the burning season. Late last year was the last time I had the augers out. I do chip carbon away from the bottom auger tube weekly with my maintenance as well. Maybe there is something restricting in the top auger? Looking at it, the bottom turns freely.

The stove was purchased in 06. This is my 4th season with her. Most of the time all is good...I did have a lower auger go on me last year or the year before.[/quote]

Hello, I think MACMAN and others are right on the mark and that your problem is the top auger not feeding pellets consistently. I have an Englander 25PDVC and the same thing has happened to me 3 times in the past 2 weeks, each time I found the top auger was clogged with fines or sawdust ( I don't sift as much as I should). After removing all the pellets and vacuuming out the auger ( make sure you get all of the fines around it front and back) and my problems went away and I got a roaring fire. You may even have to pull the top auger and motor if it's really packed in around the top auger. I also got a error code of S 3 on the control panel display when it happened. You might also check for over long pellets bridging across the hopper above the auger, that's happened to me also.----Lorne.

 

[Panhandler]

Sounds like you're not getting pellets on a consistent basis. Have you shut the stove off when the hopper is almost empty, and cleaned/vacuumed it of excess fines? Or maybe even remove the augers motors & augers and make sure everything is nice & clean?

As for the bottom 3 buttons, I have it on pretty good authority (a senior Tech at Englander) that something some of us have suspected for a while is true....the bottom 3 buttons DO have an effect on heat settings above 2.

Is 5-5-1 the original settings the stove came with from the factory? What year is the stove? New or used?

I cleaned out the hopper yesterday when I did my weekly vac through. I did a motor pull this summer before the start of the burning season. Late last year was the last time I had the augers out. I do chip carbon away from the bottom auger tube weekly with my maintenance as well. Maybe there is something restricting in the top auger? Looking at it, the bottom turns freely.

The stove was purchased in 06. This is my 4th season with her. Most of the time all is good...I did have a lower auger go on me last year or the year before.[/quote]

Something else to check since you just cleaned the hopper is the slide plate in the bottom of the hopper over the auger. It is possible it got bumped toward the closed position while cleaning. This would restrict the amount of pellets and/or crate a bottleneck in the feed to the auger area. I had a similar thing happen yesterday when playing with this plate. It looked like pellets were bridging over the auger.