Englander PDV 25 problems!!!

[Brettsdaddy2010]

Okay, now this stove doesn't owe me anything as it's been rock solid and heated our house fine since about 2012. The only thing I've had to replace on it was the igniter this year. The problem is that it's been dying out on me lately. I have the blower speed set at 9 and the pellet feed speed set at 3. The fire will star off going great and a little while later you'll notice it and it's died way down until almost embers with no pellets coming out into the burn pot, wait a minute or two and the pellets start to come out of the auger opening again and catch fire and bingo you have a nice healthy fire going again. I have never noticed this before in the 7+ years we've owned this stove but then again I've never sat down and watched the thing for hours at a time but law of averages says that within 7 years i'd have seen this type of thing happen before at least once but i cannot recall it doing so. What is going on? I did swap the auger motors a couple of years ago as it appeared the bottom motor (the one that runs constantly) might be getting tired. I did clean out the chimney pipe before the start of the season so it shouldn't be that (thinking vacuum switch here). I do know that if i set my pellet feed level above 3 the fire does seem to go out and stay out so I leave it at 3 even though these past few sub-arctic below zero nights have made me wish that i could set it up to about 6 or 7...any ideas? I don't want to go blindly ordering parts but would rather assess what is wrong even though I am not very mechanically inclined. The stove is my primary source of heat in my home and right now I'm struggling to keep the house at 62 degrees (granted we have had several sub 15 below nights lately). Oil is of course outrageous right now as $2.72 per gallon is the cheapest I've found. Any info on how I could get my stove running properly again would be greatly appreciated

 

[Ssyko]

Give the insides a good cleaning behind the impingment plate and combustion motor. Check your vac hoses and make sure the ends arent cracked or split. Check your vac port right side inner wall by the door hinge area pipe cleaner or toothpick the port. If it still acts strange we can go from there

 

[Mt Bob]

England auger motors have been known to act strange,even seize/stop for a bit,when hot,till they cool down.If they are original,I would replace both of them,I see pellethead still sells them as a two pack at a discount.

 

[Pellet rick]

Clean the convection blower! Sounds exactly what was happening to me over the weekend Ssyko

 

[Brettsdaddy2010]

Clean the convection blower! Sounds exactly what was happening to me over the weekend Ssyko

So the convection blower is the small blower on the left side (If looking at the stove from the front) right? The room blower is the big fan on the right inside (and a real pain in the ass to take out and put back in again...lol)? I've hated to stop the stove and it's been going 24/7 since the week before Thanksgiving with only the occasional stoppage to clean the burn pot. I did shut it down before Christmas and vacuumed out everything in the front, removed the big plate and cleaned in behind there and all over the front chamber including beneath the burn pot but it's definitely been running without stop for over a week as we've been in a real deep freeze up here in good ol' VT. It has been making a high pitched squeel too on occasion...not all the time but enough so it's not just a fluke...any ideas there?

 

[scotthershall]

It dies out when you go above 3 on the feed rate? That's an odd one. Does the fire just get smothered with pellets? This would indicate to me that not enough air is getting pulled through the stove (but enough to satisfy the vacuum switch). Or does it not feed enough to keep the fire sustained? This would indicate an auger issue. I know I get carbon build up at the tip of the auger tube; I have to chip it off every two weeks. If I don't I'll hear squeaking then eventually the auger will jam.

How is the flame when pellets are burning? Moving fast? Lazy? I'd say this random Youtube video I found shows a healthy flame:



If your flame is lazy it might be time to check and replace door/glass gaskets; check on the condition of the blower (and auger) motors; etc. If it were me, I'd start with a good cleaning/vacuuming of the fire box and an old fashioned leaf blower trick if you can. That'll suck out any soot and ash and give it back to mother nature.

How about your air intake? Do you have an outside air kit installed? Is it free of obstruction (I recently found the screen on mine partially blocked)? If no OAK have you changed something inside your house like sealing up drafts or installed something that's pulling air out of your house making it difficult for the stove to get air?

I hope this helps...

 

[Pellet rick]

No the convection is the room blower on the right side looking from the front. What was happening to mine was . It was dirty dusty and not moving enough air Thur the heat exchanger. You need a certain amount of air moving Thur the exchanger to keep it from over heating and shutting off the top auger. Ounce it cools after a few minutes the auger turns back on and repeats the sequence over and over. Drove me nuts this weekend. It’s simple to get out. 4 - 5/16 machine screws. Look at the screen on the side . Mine had pet fur on it and a thin layer of dust on the squirrel cage . Now it move a ton of air

 

[Brettsdaddy2010]

No the convection is the room blower on the right side looking from the front. What was happening to mine was . It was dirty dusty and not moving enough air Thur the heat exchanger. You need a certain amount of air moving Thur the exchanger to keep it from over heating and shutting off the top auger. Ounce it cools after a few minutes the auger turns back on and repeats the sequence over and over. Drove me nuts this weekend. It’s simple to get out. 4 - 5/16 machine screws. Look at the screen on the side . Mine had pet fur on it and a thin layer of dust on the squirrel cage . Now it move a ton of air

I'll definitely do this one night this week! It's supposed to be brutally cold this weekend with -13 as the HIGH temp on Saturday...yikes!

 

[Brettsdaddy2010]

It dies out when you go above 3 on the feed rate? That's an odd one. Does the fire just get smothered with pellets? This would indicate to me that not enough air is getting pulled through the stove (but enough to satisfy the vacuum switch). Or does it not feed enough to keep the fire sustained? This would indicate an auger issue. I know I get carbon build up at the tip of the auger tube; I have to chip it off every two weeks. If I don't I'll hear squeaking then eventually the auger will jam.

How is the flame when pellets are burning? Moving fast? Lazy? I'd say this random Youtube video I found shows a healthy flame:



If your flame is lazy it might be time to check and replace door/glass gaskets; check on the condition of the blower (and auger) motors; etc. If it were me, I'd start with a good cleaning/vacuuming of the fire box and an old fashioned leaf blower trick if you can. That'll suck out any soot and ash and give it back to mother nature.

How about your air intake? Do you have an outside air kit installed? Is it free of obstruction (I recently found the screen on mine partially blocked)? If no OAK have you changed something inside your house like sealing up drafts or installed something that's pulling air out of your house making it difficult for the stove to get air?

I hope this helps...

My flame looks like the one in the picture when it's going good. I don't have an OAK installed. The fire did seem to get smothered with pellets. I'll give the convection fan a good cleaning and see if that helps.

 

[Pellet rick]

My flame looks like the one in the picture when it's going good. I don't have an OAK installed. The fire did seem to get smothered with pellets. I'll give the convection fan a good cleaning and see if that helps.

When the fire goes out are there I burnt pellets in the pot? My pot would burn almost empty and just as the embers we’re getting ready to go out the auger would start feeding again.

 

[Brettsdaddy2010]

When the fire goes out are there I burnt pellets in the pot? My pot would burn almost empty and just as the embers we’re getting ready to go out the auger would start feeding again.

That's what mines does...the pellets remaining burn right down to embers and those ar about ready to go out when the auger starts spilling more pellets into the burn pot. If I set it above level 3 though the fire seems to get smothered by too many pellets.

 

[tlc1976]

I don't know your stove, but just some other suggestions:

Does the auger turn normally when it should be feeding pellets? Or does it just not turn?

If it turns - Mine would turn several empty cycles when I had a bag with a lot of long pellets. Sometimes to the point of the fire going out. I'd break all the long pellets I saw. Until I got a different brand.

If it doesn't turn - My hopper switch would sometimes act up and disable the auger temporarily. I ended up just disabling the switch, it just made it a pain to load a bag anyway.

 

[Pellet rick]

That's what mines does...the pellets remaining burn right down to embers and those ar about ready to go out when the auger starts spilling more pellets into the burn pot. If I set it above level 3 though the fire seems to get smothered by too many pellets.

Tic 1076 has some good suggestions to . But I would definitely check that blower sooner than later. It’s not good to keep throwing the unit into over heat plus if yours is acting up on setting 3 your worse than I was mine was acting up on 7 -8

 

[Ssyko]

Only takes at most 45 min to shut down clean and fire back up. Most every brand of pellets up here in the northeast have significantly more ash and s#*t in them. So the cleaning cycles need to be bumped up. The longer you run it dirty the higher chances are to do damage to parts motors and circuits.

 

[doghouse]

I would add the LBT (leaf blower trick) to your next cleaning. Perhaps the combustion motor just needs a good cleaning.

 

[Pellet rick]

I would add the LBT (leaf blower trick) to your next cleaning. Perhaps the combustion motor just needs a good cleaning.

I agree doghouse. I usually hook it and let it run while I clean the stove and scratch around the crevasses behind the burn chamber that you cannot vacuum out . The flexible rod off the vent brush from Lowe’s works great from that . Plus a bonus is the leaf blower keeps the wifey happy if it’s running while cleaning because it is continuously sucking the dust out of the house .

 

[Brettsdaddy2010]

Well l cleaned the combustion (room blower) fan last night...wow, what a difference! I didn't realize how dirty it was, the screen literally had like 1" of dust, debris on it...know wonder the poor thing was hardly blowing any heat. I gave it a thorough cleaning and the difference is night and day. My house was at 62.5 degrees last night when I trepidatiously shut the stove down. My stove takes a solid 30 minutes to shut down completely. The removal of the fan and the cleaning of the fan took about 45 minutes (5 minutes to remove the fan, 10 minutes to clean the fan and 30 minutes to re-install the fan which made me realize I desperately need magnetic tipped sockets as I would get the damn screw about 2" away from the holes to mount the fan and it would fall to the bottom of the stove...grrrrr). Needless to say the house was down to 59 degrees by the time I had everything back up and running. I cranked her right up to 6 after I saw the difference in the amount of heat the blower was putting out and this morning when i woke up the house was 71.5 degrees and the outside temp was 10 degrees so I'd say the stove did a fine job pulling it up 12 degrees while the outside temp was so low. Thanks for all who commented and offered their advice...greatly appreciated!

 

[Pellet rick]

Well l cleaned the combustion (room blower) fan last night...wow, what a difference! I didn't realize how dirty it was, the screen literally had like 1" of dust, debris on it...know wonder the poor thing was hardly blowing any heat. I gave it a thorough cleaning and the difference is night and day. My house was at 62.5 degrees last night when I trepidatiously shut the stove down. My stove takes a solid 30 minutes to shut down completely. The removal of the fan and the cleaning of the fan took about 45 minutes (5 minutes to remove the fan, 10 minutes to clean the fan and 30 minutes to re-install the fan which made me realize I desperately need magnetic tipped sockets as I would get the damn screw about 2" away from the holes to mount the fan and it would fall to the bottom of the stove...grrrrr). Needless to say the house was down to 59 degrees by the time I had everything back up and running. I cranked her right up to 6 after I saw the difference in the amount of heat the blower was putting out and this morning when i woke up the house was 71.5 degrees and the outside temp was 10 degrees so I'd say the stove did a fine job pulling it up 12 degrees while the outside temp was so low. Thanks for all who commented and offered their advice...greatly appreciated!

Good to hear

 

[Ssyko]

Put a little piece of masking tape over the hole of your socket then insert the head of the fastener that will hold it while you install. old mechanics trick before magnetic sockets

 

[Brettsdaddy2010]

Okay, reviving this post unfortunately! So after thinking I solved all my problems and having the stove run like a champ and setting it up to 6 on pellet feed with no problems all of a sudden today it started doing the same thing as far as the fire will die way down to almost embers before the auger spits out more pellets and the fire comes roaring back to life. I though well maybe I need to clean my stove pipe so much to my derision I shut the stove down even though it's like -35 with the windchill out and i cleaned my stove pipe. It was dirty and i got a pile of soot/ash about as big around as a basketball. I recapped it and started the stove back up but after a while it's doing the same thing...dying way down to embers for a couple of minutes before more pellets arrive and it roars back to life. What is going on now?

 

[Pellet rick]

Okay, reviving this post unfortunately! So after thinking I solved all my problems and having the stove run like a champ and setting it up to 6 on pellet feed with no problems all of a sudden today it started doing the same thing as far as the fire will die way down to almost embers before the auger spits out more pellets and the fire comes roaring back to life. I though well maybe I need to clean my stove pipe so much to my derision I shut the stove down even though it's like -35 with the windchill out and i cleaned my stove pipe. It was dirty and i got a pile of soot/ash about as big around as a basketball. I recapped it and started the stove back up but after a while it's doing the same thing...dying way down to embers for a couple of minutes before more pellets arrive and it roars back to life. What is going on now?

Still sounds like an overheat issue to me. Either caused by a dirty stove / heat exchanger or maybe a faulty overheat sender. Hopefully someone with more tech knowledge will chime in to help.

 

[Ssyko]

Okay, reviving this post unfortunately! So after thinking I solved all my problems and having the stove run like a champ and setting it up to 6 on pellet feed with no problems all of a sudden today it started doing the same thing as far as the fire will die way down to almost embers before the auger spits out more pellets and the fire comes roaring back to life. I though well maybe I need to clean my stove pipe so much to my derision I shut the stove down even though it's like -35 with the windchill out and i cleaned my stove pipe. It was dirty and i got a pile of soot/ash about as big around as a basketball. I recapped it and started the stove back up but after a while it's doing the same thing...dying way down to embers for a couple of minutes before more pellets arrive and it roars back to life. What is going on now?

so what your saying is you have more than enough air going through the pot, it is burning pellets faster than can be fed? do you have a plate in the bottom of the hopper?

 

[Ssyko]

Still sounds like an overheat issue to me. Either caused by a dirty stove / heat exchanger or maybe a faulty overheat sender. Hopefully someone with more tech knowledge will chime in to help.

OK reread your original post PelletRick is all over this like a hobo on a ham samich! if cleaning the convection blower does not correct your issue i would order a new one. i know they are $$$ but its an investment and worth it

 

[Brettsdaddy2010]

The convection blower is blowing strong, I cleaned like an inch of dust off the intake screen, took off the fan screen and took a toothbrush and individually cleaned each blade, reassembled everything and it's blowing air out like a champ. So why would the stove still be dying out on occasion?

 

[Ssyko]

your still on heat setting 6 and 9 fan? what mode are you in?