Advice requested - dialing in Englander 25 PDV

[sam08861]

Hi All,

One the start of my 2nd season. Using Greene team platinum from lowes. The bags burned so far have been stored indoors, so should be dry.

Here's my experience so far. Was getting about 8 hrs or so from a bag of pellets at the 4/5 setting. Getting plenty of heat, so good there.

• Dialed down to 3 and even 2 on warmer days, but getting no more than 9-10 hrs.
• Had cleaned out the insides and the stovepipe in the spring, and have run about 8-10 bags so far.
• On the last clean, realized that I'd removed the lower burn box plugs during the spring clean, so replugged those.
• Had a much nicer, less lazy flame to start and was running at 2, heating the house.
• This morning, huge pile of black nuggets in the burn box and very lazy flame at the very rear of the burn plate only. Clearly not enough air getting in.
• Lower settings are 1/2/1 and was running 2/9.

+Some other info...

• Stove is 2018 model (manufacture date)
• Installed as follows: Adapter to T; T; straight up 6 feet, elbow into exterior wall, 1' horizontal section, shiny exhaust grilled 1' section
• I have a door gasket kit on hand, and can try installing that. Not getting any "E" codes this year, but last year, did have to pick at the rope to get it to seal.
• There is a carbon monoxide detector 3' from the stove and getting no warning.

Open for suggestions for a process to follow to try and get this dialed in.

Going to be a bit warmer this weekend so I'm thinking the following:

1. Blow out / brush exhaust pipe, because this last burn was super sooty. (I can see the smoke wisps on my security cameras)
2. Do the annual clean again.
3. Get the proper hillman plugs and install the new door gasket.
4. Do a reset on the control board and make sure I'm in the right mode (d?)
5. Try again... Open to suggestions on starting settings for the retest (both lower and upper)

Some other questions:

1. Is 2 just too low?
2. Can I turn up the combustion fan more using the lower settings?
3. I've got a T with cap ~ 1' off the ground, so not so easy getting brush up there with out feeding lots of 1' sections.. Is there a flexible shaft for the brush available? Used a duct taped, flexible dryer vent from the leaf blower, but wondering if this is strong enough.
4. For plugging the holes, used wadded aluminum foil, so wondering if the excess is blocking other holes internally? Perhaps this is a thing to try first? (replacing with proper hillman plugs)

Thanks all and any advice appreciated!

Glad to post pics or answer any questions.

 

[sam08861]

PS... Will a reversible leaf blower on the outside be as good as blowing from the inside?

 

[kenora]

Don't blow from the inside.. HUGE mess...


I put the intake over the exhaust tip.. and suck the ash out.. make sure the stove if off and cold and the door is open to let room air onto the stove..
I fashioned and airtight adapter for the intake of the leaf blower put of an empty roll of tyvek tape..
It looks like a diesel truck rolling coal when I clean the pipes.. about twice a year.

Check YouTube for videos.. search leaf blower hack for pellet stove

Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk

 

[Pellet rick]

Yes on what kenora said . Suck it out unless you want your wife to kill you. My bottom 3 numbers are set at 461 so yes turn up the air. And the mode setting on a PDV is C. D mode is for the PDVC model. Also try blocking off the perimeter holes on the burn plate and drilling out the holes directly in front of the lower auger on the burn plate. You do not need drill them out much bigger but increase the holes size and that will put the air directly under the pellets as they come out of the tube

 

[sam08861]

Thanks all!

Coming home this evening to a cold stove, the big collection of pellets in the burn pot were more of a birds nest, so few clinkers and the front glass about half to 2/3 covered in fine white ash. The 'birds nest' itself was more of a compacted black cake, and not so much unburned nuggets.

Cleaned up except for burn pot and combustion blower removals, which I'll tackle this weekend in daylight, along with hitting the back panel and burn plate with a wirebrush/drill.

Resetting to factory and ensuring C setting. Will burn a few at factory settings and plugs to see how I fare as a starting point and report results.

Will tackle the plugs, full cleaning/blower thing, door gasket, burn plate mods Saturday morning. Also found a flex rod for the pellet vent brush, so have ordered that too, along with the motor and burn pot gaskets.

 

[Ssyko]

I would like to suggest getting a couple bags of different pellets. take the leaf blower and get it adapted to your vent pipe outside and clean the daylights out of that stove. open the stove door and then turn on the leaf blower. then take a small rubber mallet and tap the back of the stove(in the firebox) to loosen up any caked up ash.

 

[sam08861]

Thanks again ssyko. That gives me a game plan for Sat. Also thanks for the advice on the different types of pellets. I think I read somewhere (Pellet rick, maybe one of your posts?) that the PDVs like softwood?

Did the reset (holding 3 lower buttons) and the lower settings changed to 5 - 4 - 1

Then did the mode check (both blower speed buttons) and the mode indicated was 'a' after the reset

Changed to c and firing back up until the full clean/gasket changes this weekend.

 

[sam08861]

After a few hrs... On 3, getting a ton of heat. Not sure if it's feeding too many pellets, but really filled the burn plate before it lit up, and temp is dang hot! Reads 550 with a magnet thermometer on the door.

 

[Ssyko]

Thats a large lazy fire. Try putting the heat on 2 fan on 6 and the lower 3 set to 2 6 1. At least till you get to thoroughly clean it out.

 

[Pellet rick]

Yes I agree with Ssyko. Lazy flame . Looks like you need a good cleanout and more air which the mods help with.

 

[sam08861]

Thanks gents, making the changes now.

 

[sam08861]

And just after making the changes...

 

[Pellet rick]

Looks a little more active. What numbers are you running now? flame still looks big. at least in the picture

 

[sam08861]

I ran the 2,6 (heat, blower) settings with lower at (2,6,1) as suggested all day. Kept the house (open plan, lots of windows, some rooms with 20' ceiling, ~2700 sf) at ~72 most of the day with outside temps ~40.

A full hopper (bag and a third?) still only got ~8.5 to 9.5 hrs.

However, as you can see in the picture, the big birds nest in the burn pot may have not helped things.

Waiting for a proper cool down now, since I don't want those nuggets that are up against the glass to create a problem, if they're still glowing. Will clean out burn pot and inside stove, and plug holes, give it another shot.

Combustion motor and leaf blower clean will have to wait until Saturday, unfortunately as the motor gaskets are en route, as is the door glass gasket.

 

[sam08861]

One more question. With the leaf blower 'suck out' do you also run the brush inside the pipes? Or, is that redundant with some banging of the pipes.

btw, searching 'leaf blower hack for pellet stove' also showed some enterprising folks using he blower to move pellets!

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[Ssyko]

if you run a brush before hand it certainly wont hurt. I wouldnt bang on your pipes to much they will dent up very easy.. I would just tap inside the stove after you remove the impingement plate

 

[Pellet rick]

Thought I’d show you my flame for reference. This is on setting 2-6 and the bottom 3 are 461 with no lava pole up

 

[sam08861]

Thanks Rick, Ssyko,

That's helpful. That last set of burns was the dirtiest I'd ever seen, lol! Have never seen so much dark, unburnt carbon.

Replaced the door gasket today, since it needs and 24 hr cure, and the glass gasket arrives tomorrow, along with the combustion motor gasket. Hopefully after a full clean and new gaskets, I'll be able to get something similar.

 

[Pellet rick]

A little advise . Mine will burn crazy like that to if I have the hopper gate that is in the bottom of the hopper open to far. You or at least I have to adjust the every time I switch pellet brand. If the pellets are on the small size and the gate is open to far you will feed more pellets for rotation of the auger then you want. People say more pellets equals more heat but with the PDV that is not always the case. Sure more pellet fuel means more BTU but you still need to burn them efficiently or they will pile up and you get a lava pile or it chokes the air off to the burn plate. Its really a balancing act with these stove's but when you have them dialed in they burn great and like the more expensive stoves. Another thing look for air leaks around the glass. Even with a new gasket mine would still suck air. I now use a permitex high temp sealent or gasket maker. just run a bead around the edge of the glass on the outside of the stove. Made a huge difference on mine.

 

[sam08861]

Thanks Rick,

Gasket wise..

• Just installed the glass gasket and cleaned the exhaust motor and housing and put a new gasket. So all should be clean. The only thing I didn't do is remove the motor from the housing, as I didn't order the round 6" gasket. Will do that next time.
• Thanks for the tip on checking for leaks, and I'm going to run a candle flame around the perimeter of the glass and door to see if there's any pull. I suspected the door or glass, as their gaskets were pretty frayed.

Cleaning wise...

• Motor housing and impeller fan had a fine layer of I'd say 1/10" black velvet looking coating. Messy work and a pain in the ass getting to a couple of the bolts, as I had to lay on the floor, since my stove is in a corner. Surprisingly, the T only had about a 1/2 inch of ash in it. I guess I expected more.
• Last clean remaining is attaching the blower to the exhaust pipe. Was able to clean the long vertical section with a brush, and it also had that black velvet sooty layer. I think the only ash remaining is in the 2' of horizontal pipe.
• One item of note, is that, inside the stove, a lot of ash collects above the door on the ledge, so using one of my kirby attachments on the ash vac took care of that. (now need to run my attachments through the dishwasher though!)

With regard to the hopper plate, it's installed all the way forward, so no more adjustment left on the plate slot to move it more closed. Wondering if I have a defective manufactured plate, or one that is not long enough. I have had problems where a 'tent' forms and the stove has shut down in the middle of the night, but that may be because of some long pellets, I'm not sure.

Still have to get the hillman plugs and haven't done the burn plate mods yet either. Will follow up with those and the leaf blower treatment.

Giving it a run again at the same settings as last night.

 

[sam08861]

About 10 minutes after startup. No wispy smoke coming from the vent pipe, so burning cleaner. The pics look lazier I think as in reality, it's not so wavy. Might see if I can take a video to help better show what's going on.

A very faint smoky smell, but smoke detectors, CO detectors not having a problem. Think it's possibly the stove cement I used to hold the motor gasket, door gasket, or window trim piece. Seems to be dissipating, so hopefully just a 'curing smell.'

Tried the lighter on the door, but realized that with the blower fan on, not going to work! Will have to check next time it's in startup, before the room blower kicks on.

 

[Ssyko]

Here is a 25PDV (mid refurbishment) with mods. for an idea. Heat 9 fan 9.

 

[sam08861]

Thanks Ssyko, Would love one in my garage for the winter months!

As an update, this morning, giant pile in the burn pot, lazy flame at the back of the plate only, and tons of fluffy ash, so definitely getting too many pellets fed or not enough air to the proper areas. Bag lasted ~8.5 hours and it was pretty warm last night @~40 degrees F.

I am starting to think I have either a faulty control board or badly made hopper plate.

Any suggestions appreciated. Before jumping to that, I'm willing to do the hole plug/burn plate mods, and will also withhold judgement until I leafblow the vent.

 

[Pellet rick]

Just curious , what type of pellets are you burning? Hardwood or softwood. Makes a big difference on how it burns.

 

[sam08861]

I'm burning the Greene Team Platinum from lowes, which are 100% hardwood per the specs.