25-PVDC upper auger barely working...

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kharrisma

Member
Dec 21, 2018
38
Bristol, NH
Hi Forum Folke!

I have an Englander 25-PVDC that came with the place when I bought it. It's been troublesome since day one... At different times, I've had to replace the igniter, the upper auger drive gearbox/motor, the combustion exhaust blower, the vacuum hose that goes from the exhaust blower to the vacuum switch, one of the vacuum switches (don't remember which one... burn chamber, I think)... you get the picture.

Since I found the split in the vacuum hose and replaced it, the thing's actually been running pretty good... no more constant E-codes. Ran great for the last half of last Winter, and has been fine since we fired it up some time in September this year.

Today, though.... I push "ON," and wait for flame to appear in the burn pot, then go about my business. Come back about an hour later... and the thing is dark, cold, and dead. No fire, no codes, display is dark. Sucked out the burn chamber (and under the burn plate), tried it again... same result.

Long story short, what's happening is that for some reason, the upper auger runs for only about half a second, then is still for about 12 seconds, then another half-second turn... doesn't matter what the burn settings are on the control panel. Since I couldn't get it to start, I got the thing burning by manually keeping it burning until the room circulation blower came on, then dialed it up to 9 & 9. No good... still have that half-second run, then 12 second off.

Put it into diagnostic mode, and everything works just fine... except for the upper auger. Nothing; doesn't even try to turn. That's odd. Unplugged it to get it back into normal run mode, hit "ON," and suddenly, the upper auger turns for almost ten seconds, then off for around 10-12 seconds. Did this several times, and I started to get my hopes up... then it stopped the long turns and went back to the little half-second runs with the 12 second pauses.

Sucked out all the pellets, pulled the auger motor off and turned the auger by hand (well, with water-pump pliers until the pellets already in the pipeline went through,) then it turned easily by hand; no binding, scraping, nothing. It showed no signs of binding with the motor attached, either; no lifting of the motor off it's rest or anything like that. I'm beginning to suspect that the control card has failed in some manner. I'd really appreciate your input, anything I've overlooked or should try, etc. I really appreciate it !
 
Try a factory reset. Unplug the stove and wait a few sec. plug back in and within 5sec hold the bottom 3 buttons down for 5 sec then release. You should then see F5 in the windows that has put your board back to its original settings. Now un plug the stove again and this time when you plug it in push the room blower up-down buttons down for 5 sec then release. That will tell you which mode it is in, if it is not showing a D push the up or down arrows till it does. (I do this twice to make sure it stays in D mode. The lower 3 settings should be 6-4-1 (factory) i like 5-4-1 Now with the stove cooled down give it a real good cleaning. Behind the impingement plate and combustion blower. Check the vent pipe and make sure thats clean too. Then plug in and see if it works properly.
 
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