Englander 25-EP Ignition Woes

[Rainman]

This is the first season with this stove purchased from Lowes at the end of last fall. I have run approximately 1 ton through this new stove and I must say its been quite a struggle. I installed it myself in my sun room using the OAK that came with it and have a short exhaust run with only one 45 bend going straight through the wall. The settings are set at 1-4-1 and I usually run it on 3-6 or 3-5 for heat and fan settings. There are no discernible air leaks and I keep it very clean as I clean all three of my stoves every weekend. The pellets I use are the HD Stove Chow which I realize are not the best but seem to do well with my Quadra-Fire stoves. I never have a misfire with either one of them. The 25-EP when it ignites runs reasonably well, but I'm constantly coming home to a cold room as it piles up pellets in the burn pot after yet another unsuccessful start. The ignition process takes a long time IMO and if it misses that small window of opportunity the pile up and E-2 error are always the result. I use a thermostat to cycle for heat and lately I have resulted to using the hi-low mode to avoid having the stove restart itself every time it calls for heat. When running on hi-low mode it seems to to always run at the set settings (3-6) even after the thermostat is satisfied the flame stays up as if it hasn't change to low. Many would blame the quality of the pellets which could very well be the issue, but when I have two other stoves that use the same without choking on them its hard to blame it on that. Perhaps I should chalk it up to "you get what you pay for". At any rate I'm very disappointed with this stove since it requires constant looking after, so this may be something to consider for those seeking to purchase a new pellet stove. After spending many hours reading through the forums here and learning a great deal and trying many different ideas from the forum, it seems I'm not the only one having these issues with this model. And yet there are many others who swear by them. More often then not it seems that air flow problems appear to be a common thread as well as the auger issues (which I'm glad to say I haven't had any). I realize the unit uses hot air to ignite the pellets and wonder if the ignitor was a little closer to the burn pot, would that make a difference and increase the ability for the ignition to take place.
Just a little venting here, I'm not trying to flame the Englander stove (no pun intended) as it does seem that many others have success and love their stoves.

 

[kofkorn]

Usually the ignitor works better if it is a little bit away from teh back of the stove. Normally you need a gap of 1/4" - 3/8" between the back of the stove and the front of the igntor. The air needs to flow around the ignitor, and if it is pushed up against the back of the stove you are blocking a good portion of the air flow.

Do you possibly have an air leak somewhere else on the stove? Check your door gasket and also make sure that the burn pot sits flush on all sides. If you have a significant leak, then you would be pulling less air across the ignitor and through the pellets.

Good luck!

 

[Dragonfly]

This may be a bit late, but perhaps others Englander 25-EP owners will benefit from this. I had problems with my ignitor for the first few weeks I had this stove. I contacted Englander and was told that the decorative fiberboard brickwork might be interfering with proper placement of the burn pot. I used a rasp to cut about a 1/4 inch notch in the fiberboard and make sure that I place the burn pot as far towards the ignitor as I can. I never had another problem with the ignitor for the rest of the season. I do have the stove on a thermostat and use the hi/lo option rather than the on/off option. That has worked well for me. Incidentally, I also rasped out notches at the top of the fiberboard for the tabs on the bottom of the baffle. This makes it possible to remove the baffle without removing the fiberboard. I also find that pulling the cleaning rod to the "out" position makes it easier to remove and replace the baffle.

 

[Jason845845]

Great idea with the notches, I'll be doing this to my father's stove this summer.

This may be a bit late, but perhaps others Englander 25-EP owners will benefit from this. I had problems with my ignitor for the first few weeks I had this stove. I contacted Englander and was told that the decorative fiberboard brickwork might be interfering with proper placement of the burn pot. I used a rasp to cut about a 1/4 inch notch in the fiberboard and make sure that I place the burn pot as far towards the ignitor as I can. I never had another problem with the ignitor for the rest of the season. I do have the stove on a thermostat and use the hi/lo option rather than the on/off option. That has worked well for me. Incidentally, I also rasped out notches at the top of the fiberboard for the tabs on the bottom of the baffle. This makes it possible to remove the baffle without removing the fiberboard. I also find that pulling the cleaning rod to the "out" position makes it easier to remove and replace the baffle.

 

[mchasal]

I had a similar problem with my IP when it arrived. The igniter tube should be in direct contact with the burnpot. If air can get out of the igniter tube without going through the burn pot, and the pellets, you will have trouble with ignition.

You can read comments from Mike at ESW in these posts:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/englander-55-trp-ip-s-aka-25-ip-s.113588/page-5#post-1555960
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/englander-55-trp-ip-s-aka-25-ip-s.113588/page-5#post-1556012

And the fix here, which might be a bit different for your stove:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/englander-55-trp-ip-s-aka-25-ip-s.113588/page-5#post-1557428

I've had reliable ignition since.

So if it's not the fiberboard mentioned above, check and adjust the tube.