Subsequent Cold Starts

[kyas]

I have a Englander 25-PDVC and it states in the manual when hitting the on button on a cold start, to set the unit at a "5" setting until the room air blower begins. When I do this at them set on 5 it shuts down, but when I set them on "1" it works. I guess the manual wouldn't state to set them on 5 unless it was important. Any suggestions??

 

[Panhandler]

I have a Englander 25-PDVC and it states in the manual when hitting the on button on a cold start, to set the unit at a "5" setting until the room air blower begins. When I do this at them set on 5 it shuts down, but when I set them on "1" it works. I guess the manual wouldn't state to set them on 5 unless it was important. Any suggestions??

I believe the stove automatically goes to "5" during startup mode. The paragraph below is from the manual. It does state in the manual that the "First Fire" should be burned at the "5" setting to allow the stove to "cure".

http://www.englanderstoves.com/manuals/25-PDVC.pdf

Automatic Start-Up
When the “ON” button is pressed from a cold start, the unit is in “Start-Up” (after 3 seconds, there
will be an “S U” in the Heat Range and Blower Speed windows to verify this). While in this mode,
the unit has a preset heat range and will remain in this mode for 20 minutes to prevent the unit
from over-firing. During this start-up period you can set the Control Board at the setting you
desire; after the start-up is complete, the unit will operate at the user setting.

 

[donbryce]

As Panhandler has spelled out the manual instructions, I'm also stumped on the line " During this start-up period you can set the Control Board at the setting you desire; after the start-up is complete, the unit will operate at the user setting." I'm only on my first season with my 25PDVC, so consider myself a noob. But since I regularly shut the stove down at midnite and restart in the morning, and often down and restart again in the afternoons, I'll share my observations.

I have noticed that if you press the 'on' button, the first things that light up are the feed and blower lights, at the settings you last left them. If you don't touch them, that is, adjust the fuel feed or blower setting, the lights will change to 'S' and 'U' as you describe, then go out after the startup cycle is complete. I found that if I changed the settings during this cycle, the stove would shut down. But if I changed them, then pushed the 'on' button again, the cycle would complete OK. I believe it has to be 'rebooted' if you change the settings during the startup cycle, which is preset anyway, I think, to 5 5.

So, either wait until the startup has completed to change the settings, or push the 'on' button again if you change them during the initial start period. I don't know if waiting for the S U makes a difference, or if this only applies during the first 5 seconds or whatever before the S U lights come on. Please post back with your findings.....

 

[kyas]

What do they mean about this sentence. Page 10. Subsequent Cold Starts: In a cold start situation, the unit should be operated at a “5” setting
until the room air blower begins to operate. Basically this is what I have been trying to follow. I will shut the stove down to do a cleaning. Once I'm done I will hit the on button and hit both buttons to read 5 and once the room air blower begins I turn the buttons down to either 1-1 or 2-2. So is this wrong? I see what you are saying about the unit being preset and all, but it seems to be Contradicting. So correct me if I am wrong. I should leave my settings on 1-1 or 2-2 when I start it back up after it being shut down and cold?

 

[donbryce]

What do they mean about this sentence. Page 10. Subsequent Cold Starts: In a cold start situation, the unit should be operated at a “5” setting
until the room air blower begins to operate. Basically this is what I have been trying to follow. I will shut the stove down to do a cleaning. Once I'm done I will hit the on button and hit both buttons to read 5 and once the room air blower begins I turn the buttons down to either 1-1 or 2-2. So is this wrong? I see what you are saying about the unit being preset and all, but it seems to be Contradicting. So correct me if I am wrong. I should leave my settings on 1-1 or 2-2 when I start it back up after it being shut down and cold?

I'm hoping Mike H. from Englander might catch this thread. I always try to put 'Englander' in the title to catch his eye. Anyway, to answer your question, "I should leave my settings on 1-1 or 2-2 when I start it back up after it being shut down and cold?", that is exactly what I've been doing all winter, and have had no start-up problems.

I will shut the stove down to do a cleaning. Once I'm done I will hit the on button and hit both buttons to read 5 and once the room air blower begins I turn the buttons down to either 1-1 or 2-2. So is this wrong?

All I can think of here is that manually changing the settings to 5 5, per the manual instruction, isn't wrong, it's just not necessary since the start-up cycle is already preset to 5 5, which gets 'triggered' when you press 'on'. I don't know for sure, but from my experience, this gets cancelled if you change one or both of the settings after pressing 'on' (unless the changes are to 5 5 or above).

To explain the premature shut down you described in your initial post, here is what I think is happening. Pressing 'on' and immediately, or during the start-up cycle, changing fuel and blower to 1 1 or 2 2, without subsequently pressing 'on' again, seems to cancel the pre-set 5 5 setting of the start-up cycle. At 1 1 or 2 2, there isn't enough fuel fed to the burnpot to allow start-up, so it shuts down.

If you leave the settings alone, from the previous burn, and press 'on' to initiate startup, it should go into 5 5 for the 20 minutes of startup cycle, automatically, no need to change the settings to 5 5. This doesn't appear in the LED windows, but the feed rate and fan level during the startup cycle would seem to be at the 5 5 setting. It could be that the older control board didn't have this pre-set feature, and the user had to manually set up a cold start to 5 5 to allow enough fuel and air to guarantee successful startup.

So, IMO, forget the manual's instruction to set the fuel/fan to 5 5. Just let it go through it's cycle and if you want to change the settings for after the startup, either do it right away after pressing 'on', then press 'on' again, or wait until the S U lights go out to change them.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

the unit does not "adjust itself" to a 5-5 setting , the cold start procedure is actually a "leftover" from the old manual start procedure that predated the autostart units. the unit when the on button is pressed goes through a predetermined sequence that is not altered in any way by the heat setting, the preselected heat range will be what the unit will run at when it comes out of "startup' (S-U) after the 20 minute autostart sequence. it does not matter what settings you select to run the stove at during a cold start in actuality.

now, during the "first fire" it is suggested that the unit be run at a heat range of at least 5 for approximately 3 hours to "cure" the unit , which involves burning the oil out of the steel, this usually produces a hazy smoke and an acrid smell for the first hour or so , so we recommend that windows be opened to ventilate the room during this first fire, i persoanlly also recommend anyone who suffers from asthma should find somthing to do elsewhere for this curing fire as it does produce this hazy smoke , i do not know if it can adversely affect an asthmatic person , but i try to err on the side of caution.