Burning an Englander on very low setting successfully.........

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I usually run my 25-pdv at low heat/blower speeds such as 1-2, 2-4 and the last couple nights at 3-6.

The bottom 3 buttons I keep them at 4-6-1
 
DeriusT said:
....I love the thing, just having trouble with that flame........The problem is that the fire is seeming to be more concentrated around the auger than last years burn......And the higher I turn the second bottom button, the smaller the flame. The lower the air, the more fierce, and hot the flame, nearly looking like a bonfire!......

The second button is low burn air, and the higher you set it, the more air gets fed. A pellet stove flame is NOT supposed to be tall....it's supposed to be shorter, and active.....that's what gives the most heat. Just like a welding/cutting torch....add more air, flame gets shorter & hotter.

I think your mistaking a lower air setting with a hot flame....tall "bonfire" flames are not as hot.

I seem to remember you saying that you have the bottom 3 buttons at 2-9-1?? Way too much air (9)....that's where the very short flame is coming from, and too low on the fuel (2). I'd try 4-6-1, or maybe 5-6-1.
 
First off great thread. This is the first pellet stove I've owned and I bought the 55-SHPEP. After I installed it, it was running great. Shortly after though the flame became huge, curling up around the glass and into the baffles. It was eating a bag of Clean Energy pellets on the 1 feed rate in less than 12 hrs. In fact if I increased the feed rate at all it would back pellets up into the feed shoot where they would just sit and smolder. I called Tech Support and they sent me a new control board saying mine was bad. I literally just got done installing it when I found this thread. I checked my new bottom button settings from the factory and they're 1-4-1. I plugged my old board back in and it's 5-1-1. That seems to explain why it fed so fast. Now I wonder why they just didn't have me check those bottom settings before sending me a new board. It must be either myself or my girlfriend in the dark adjusted it on accident.

I have a few really novice questions about the stove .

What exactly does the heat range and blower speed setting do? Heat range seems to be feed rate of pellets and blower speed is how often the blower comes on forcing hot air into the room? Does that mean after I let it cool down and clean it out then turn it back on I want to crank the blower speed up to 8 or 9 to get the temp back up? Then after the house is warm again fine tune it down to where it keeps it a nice even temp. Do those bttons control how well the pellets burn also. I read in the book they don't recommend the blower speed high than the feed rate. Why is that?

For the bottom three buttons the low fuel feed seems to be set how much fuel the auger feeds? Low burn air is the air intake? Whats air on temp?

I just burned 4 bags of Clean Energy pellets. The burn pot was just 1 big clinker and it had a tacky feeling to it when I cleaned it. Is that the pellet or the way I had the settings?

When does everyone clean theirs out? I've been shutting mine off before I leave for work in the am to empty and clean it then turning it back on in the evening. During the day when we were gone I'd let the forced air keep the house at 62. I didn't trust that flame curling around under the baffles like it was. Now I want to run it full time.

Also so anyone have the thermostat for the stove? How well does it work? We're thinking of getting one and just wondering if its worth it.

Thanks
 
Amateur Adventerist,

Yes. I'm suprised that Mike & his crew there never asked you to try a different setting...strange. That "5" setting on the LFF is the reason for sure. I have my 10-cpm set at 1-4-1, and seems good....

As for the other questions:

Yes, heat setting is what controls how many pellets go into the burn pot. Blower button just speeds air up or down. BTW, you can't go lower than the heat setting....for example,.heat setting "4"....blower can't go lower than "4", but can go higher. Yes, you CAN raise the blower up after cleaning if you want.

Yes, you are correct on the bottom 3 buttons. But they ONLY affect the stove when using the heat setting 1 or 2.....above that they have no affect. Air On temp is the temp that controls when the blower turns on after turning the stove on....unless you burn corn, it stays in the "1" setting always.

As for the clinker you got, could be the pellet, could be the settings you had, or a combo of both. Run the stove w/ the new settings, and if you still get a clinker, try different pellets.

Cleaning is a personal preference type of thing. I clean my firebox & burnpot every 3-4 days. I do a bigger cleaning (as per the manual) after about 20 bags. Entire stove, blowers, & pipe should be cleaned after each ton.

Don't be afraid to let it burn all day...these stoves have a LOT of safety systems. And yes, MANY people use stats on their stoves....makes using it so much easier, and more comfortable.

Hope all this helped.....keep us informed.
 
Amatuer Adventurist

macman made a lot of good points. As for cleaning, I open the door ion the morning, after work, and before bed with the stove running and clean it up with a tablespoon, removing ash, clinkers, etc. to improve airflow and efficiency of burning. Then once a week(or more often when burning at high settings) I'll shut it down and give it a good cleaning.
 
mac, have you tried different setting, for example 4-6-1, or those numbers only apply to the englander model you have.

I think I tried 1-4-1 on my 25-pdv and for whatever reason I don't remember I went back to 4-6-1

..
 
geek said:
mac, have you tried different setting, for example 4-6-1, or those numbers only apply to the englander model you have.

I think I tried 1-4-1 on my 25-pdv and for whatever reason I don't remember I went back to 4-6-1

..

Geek, we have totally different stoves. The 10-cpm is a single auger top feeder, and has the stirrer. Actual original settings were 1-1-1, but it was a dirty burn on heat 1 & 2, so i raised it to 1-3-1, and then 1-4-1, and that seems good with the Premier pellets I'm burning right now.

1-4-1 on your stove won't work, I'm guessing. I think your better off with the 4-6-1, or 5-6-1.
 
roger that..!!
 
Any further luck on info about those mysterious englander settings?

Still having flame issues, and have tried lower air. The flame is constantly a bonfire, reaching the top of the stove regardless of air setting.
 
DeriusT said:
Still having flame issues, and have tried lower air. The flame is constantly a bonfire, reaching the top of the stove regardless of air setting.

What did you change your settings to? Are you sure you don't have an air leak somewhere else? Hopper lid, door gasket, etc? Have you done the dollar bill test on door gasket? Is hopper lid latch adjusted correctly?
 
It is a brand new window and hopper gasket this season. I failed to find any air leaks.

I will continue to test. Maybe we could get someone from englander to explain these other settings? They could be useful.
 
billybono said:
these settings only have an effect if your running the stove on 1 or 2 ......... on 3 and above these dont get used

Billy, I think he's referring to another set of "mystery" settings that Derius talked about in post #18 of this thread, not the lower 3 buttons.
 
Correct macman. Holding down the up and down blower speed buttons and plugging in the unit will cause a letter to appear in the blower speed window, just like when you check the settings on the lower 3 buttons. However, this will be a letter instead of a number. A,B,C or D, (but in lower case).

As an update I found what 'may' be causing some of my flame issues. We get a very fierce wind at times in this part of the country, and it seems like that wind, when coming from just the right angle, can possibly be blowing very hard right into my cold air intake pipe. Enough to actually feel the air blowing thru the stove when the door is open and the fire is out. I may have to put an upward or downward facing elbow on my air intake pipe...

Will update again once I do to see if this fixes the problem.
 
DeriusT said:
.....I may have to put an upward or downward facing elbow on my air intake pipe...

Downward ONLY!

Now that we know HOW to get those a,b,c,d letters in the display, what do they mean?
 
Yeah. HAHA! I thought about upward facing as soon as I logged off......

I wish some enlightened individual would explain these settings to us. I actually tried to call englander, but the on-hold time was horrible.

I was under the impression that englander employees and servicemen frequented this site?
 
DeriusT said:
.....I was under the impression that englander employees and servicemen frequented this site?

There are 2 Englander people that are on the forum, but mainly Mike Holton who is the Senior tech @ Englander. He goes by the name "stoveguy2esw". He is a GREAT guy, and is ready to help anyone, even people that have competitors brand stoves.

He is on here occasionally these days, and I can only figure that it's because with the heating season in full swing now, they are pretty busy. But if you need to get in touch w/ him, send him a PM, or email him at his office: [email protected]

Since Englander also makes wood burning & gas stoves, he does spend some of his time in the Hearth Room and It's A Gas forums too.
 
[quote author="macman" date="1260429593]

Now that we know HOW to get those a,b,c,d letters in the display, what do they mean?[/quote]


i have been playing around with this the last couple days. i unplugged the stove and plugged it back in holding both up and down arrows for the blower setting when i release the arrows stove displayed a "d" in the heat range window. so i changed it to c with the heat range down arrow. i figure i can change it back if something goes wrong.here is what i found. on c my stove burns very hot i burned it that way for 2 days then changed it to b. on b the igniter didn't even come on to light the fire. so i tried a. a lit the fire but didn"t produce much heat the pellets were barely being fed into the burnpot on heat range 7. i think this setting may be to set the control up for different model stoves. maybe someone else on here can check to see what letter comes up when you plug the stove in holding down the blower arrows to see if it changes with models or not
 
DeriusT said:
Any further luck on info about those mysterious englander settings?

Still having flame issues, and have tried lower air. The flame is constantly a bonfire, reaching the top of the stove regardless of air setting.
mine does the same thing. As for your worries I also was worried and called Englander they said that as long as your hopper gasket and all gaskets are tight and there is no air going into the box it is impossible to catch the hopper on fire it would die out. I would like to add that I think it is ALMOST impossible.
 
i have been playing around with this the last couple days. i unplugged the stove and plugged it back in holding both up and down arrows for the blower setting when i release the arrows stove displayed a "d" in the heat range window. so i changed it to c with the heat range down arrow. i figure i can change it back if something goes wrong.here is what i found. on c my stove burns very hot i burned it that way for 2 days then changed it to b. on b the igniter didn't even come on to light the fire. so i tried a. a lit the fire but didn"t produce much heat the pellets were barely being fed into the burnpot on heat range 7. i think this setting may be to set the control up for different model stoves. maybe someone else on here can check to see what letter comes up when you plug the stove in holding down the blower arrows to see if it changes with models or not

there is the answer i think....same control board installed on different stoves

the a,b,c or d denotes the stove your running that board on

a tech might have you change this setting if they suspect the board was programmed to the wrong stove...if the stove acts wildly its a real liability issue


im sure mike has not answered because this is a setting you should not mess with

my 2 cents
 
macman said:
billybono said:
these settings only have an effect if your running the stove on 1 or 2 ......... on 3 and above these dont get used

Billy, I think he's referring to another set of "mystery" settings that Derius talked about in post #18 of this thread, not the lower 3 buttons.

im following the conversation. every one is talking about changing the low air, low feed, low blower settings. i was making sure everyone was aware after you put the stove above a 2 they dont matter. the way the conversation sounded to me there were a few posters unaware of that fact.thats all
 
My stove did not default to d, and neither did my buds. I believe ours defaulted to a or something. I changed it to d on the recommendation of an englander tech some years ago, then forgot about it until I got on this board and saw people play...er..uhm...testing their settings, ahem....and decided to try to remember what those other settings meant, as I had seen no one yet mention them.

If I remember right, (and thats a big if considering my memory skills) the tech told me that setting had something to do with overall room size or some such. I PM'ed the lead tech for englander that hangs out on the forum as MacMan suggested, but have not gotten a reply yet. I asked him to kindly post his knowlege about it in this thread, so we wait....

I messed with the settings a bit, but did not notice so drastic a set of changes as the other user mentioned. (my stove although a 25-PDV, predates the igniters so I don't have that function)

PS. As a side note, I am burning Somerset Premium Hardwood Pellets. This brand burned great last year, but this year so far, a lot of pellets burning black but not to grey ash, and a lot of sticking together in a huge solid mass in the burnpot. Is this what you all refer to as clunkers? The same brand burnt much better last season. They are what the local TSC carries.
 
DeriusT said:
My stove did not default to d, and neither did my buds. I believe ours defaulted to a or something. I changed it to d on the recommendation of an englander tech some years ago, then forgot about it until I got on this board and saw people play...er..uhm...testing their settings, ahem....and decided to try to remember what those other settings meant, as I had seen no one yet mention them.

If I remember right, (and thats a big if considering my memory skills) the tech told me that setting had something to do with overall room size or some such. I PM'ed the lead tech for englander that hangs out on the forum as MacMan suggested, but have not gotten a reply yet. I asked him to kindly post his knowlege about it in this thread, so we wait....

I messed with the settings a bit, but did not notice so drastic a set of changes as the other user mentioned. (my stove although a 25-PDV, predates the igniters so I don't have that function)

PS. As a side note, I am burning Somerset Premium Hardwood Pellets. This brand burned great last year, but this year so far, a lot of pellets burning black but not to grey ash, and a lot of sticking together in a huge solid mass in the burnpot. Is this what you all refer to as clunkers? The same brand burnt much better last season. They are what the local TSC carries.



Just wondering if you heard anything yet.
 
I am going to go home and play. I have sat down and timed every heat setting in regards to top auger time on and time off, as well as bottom auger time. I have a chart made to determine what settings replicate what settings. Such as, heat 2, lff 5 is equal to heat 3 settings (within reason anyways). I am interested in seeing if changing these letters might not change bottom auger speed or possibly combustion blower speed. I currently have the issue where I have a dirty burn on low heats. The flame will go out then about 20 to 30 seconds later the new pellets arrive and re ignite. my low heat settings on heat 1 are 5, 1, 1 just to keep it lit. I want to be able to turn her down even lower but have way to much air moving through the burn pot. I just hooked up the thermostat and love it, however I am striving on max efficiency and hate the fact the fire goes out every min or so. I will keep youins updated.
 
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