Englander 25-PDVC low heat output woes

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
  • Super Cedar firestarters 30% discount Use code Hearth2024 Click here
Are you absolutely sure you don't have a mouse house in the venting somewhere?
As I was taking the dog out, looking at the chimney and intake tube, it occurred to me you may have been referring to one of those. They both leave the house from the second floor, and I've had the chimney completely off of the house to clean it out since I began having issues. I haven't, however, inspected the intake tube other than to make certain it was on the air inlet of the stove completely.
 
My intake is screened just for that reason. Is yours?
 
I've learned over the years that mice like to set up house in strangest places. Why I have barn cats actually. They can play hell on farm tractors and equipment, love to chew on wiring. Especially wiring that has insulation made from orgainc materials.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Washed-Up
You are not kidding. Between working in car repair and living in a rural area, I've seen them wreak havoc. We buy wire loom wrap from the local Honda dealership when repairing rodent based wiring issues. They've developed a loom tape wrap that contains something that repels rodents, and it works pretty well.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Washed-Up
Polyurethane housing is what rodents do not like, we have packrats out here and once we switched to poly, they don’t chew them
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ben in Maryland
You are not kidding. Between working in car repair and living in a rural area, I've seen them wreak havoc. We buy wire loom wrap from the local Honda dealership when repairing rodent based wiring issues. They've developed a loom tape wrap that contains something that repels rodents, and it works pretty well.
For me, a couple hungry barn cats work well.....
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ben in Maryland
It's very hard to find a cat that will live in an engine compartment o_O:oops:

I burned the stove for about 18 hours set in C heat mode, 6-4-1 left to right across the bottom three buttons. Those settings should produce the hottest fire for this stove, or at least something pretty darn hot, correct? The control board is model PU-CB04 if it matters.

After it first fired last night I ran it on 5 heat/5 fan for about 3 hours then bumped it up to 9/7 for about 3 more. That raised the temperature of the room about 20 degrees, making it to 63 degrees before I went to bed. Let the stove run on 3/3 for 6 hours then another 6 hours at 5/4 before my wife turned the stove off around 1pm. Burned about 20 lbs of pellets in 18 hours. When I got good heat from the stove I'd go to bed for eight hours with the stove on 1/1 and it would burn through at least 30 lbs of pellets. Since I'd leave the stove running while I wasn't home, my wife's been keeping an eye on it with me. She commented about the stove not needing many pellets, and also thought the flame hasn't been as high as it had been in the past.
 
In the searching I've done about my heat issue, I've run across a couple posts where people's 25-PDVC would run like they were stuck on heat setting 9. They commented about the pellets dumping into the stove despite very low heat settings. To rectify this, a reset on the control board was performed and it took care of that issue. Those posts caught my eye because it seems as if I'm having the opposite issue with my stove, low pellet consumption despite being set at high heat settings.

This post describes the factory reset procedure, can someone confirm this is the correct way to do this with my 25-PDVC built in November 2014 with control board PU-CB04?
 
I thought you reset the board before?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ben in Maryland
I thought you reset the board before?

I did one of the reset procedures I found posted in this forum. As I've continued searching posts, I've seen the reset process explained slightly different ways. At this point in my journey, I just want to make certain I performed it correctly.
 
No harm always good to double check. Have you contacted ESW yet? I was thinking you have done everything that I would have. It may be a control board issue,.i had one, years ago i was refurbishing and it was acting similar to yours and ended up being a corrupt prom chip
 
I have not contacted Englander yet. Think it's a waste of time calling them without being at the stove? Work's pretty slow today...
If you do call, most likely put on hold, I'd sent them an Email with problem and everything you have done... Used to be a Englander Stove person that used to help out here...
 
Best time to call support is first thing in the AM. Email will work to but very slow compared to talking through steps.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ben in Maryland
Best time to call support is first thing in the AM. Email will work to but very slow compared to talking through steps.
Looks like that call will need to wait until Monday morning. M-F 8-5 schedule for the tech support is tough for a weekend stove warrior like myself. Can't help but think it's going to be a control panel issue like you said, especially after getting a good look behind the baffle plate.
 
Just got off of the phone with a tech at Englander. After explaining my concern, what I'd checked, etc. they came to the conclusion that my stove is working correctly now. Reason I say it that way is, they explained that they had a run of auger motors a while back that had worked but were putting way too many pellets in the stoves. Since I replaced the upper auger motor with one that works properly recently, the pellet output is now where it should have been in the first place. She wasn't concerned that I needed to run the stove in heat mode C to get what I feel to be a good amount of heat out of it. Apparently my expectations were skewed by the hyper active upper auger motor that was in the stove when we first started using it.
 
That does make since now. I didn’t know how far back the motor issues went.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ben in Maryland
;)