Englander 25-PDV Anyone have experience with this Stove?

[SKIN052]

Hi everyone, I have been lurking this great site for years and have taken tons of useful knowledge out of here. I have owned a Enviro Fire "Windsor" Pellet stove in the past and was very happy with it's performance. I have recently moved to Newfoundland and the Pellet stove phenomenon is just hitting it's stride here. They have become so popular that it is hard to even find a stove to buy. The Enviro dealer is sold out and not expecting stock anytime soon. I can get my hands on a Englander 25-pdv model stove($1899) but I have no experience with this brand. Any general advice? Known problems? Any advice at all would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[pennichuck]

i like mine... nothing fancy but it puts out heat... plus you can get replacement blower/auger motors from grainger without paying the stoveshop markup just my $.02

 

[orangecrushcj7]

It is a barebones, no frills stove, but it works well. Sort of the Ford Pick-Up in the pellet world if you want a comparison. It is the big brother to the 25-PDVC that I have. Others feel free to correct me, but I am fairly certain all the parts, etc are identical, just a larger package. You need to be pretty diligent about cleaning, & maintaining it. Their customer service is excellent, and this forum has MANY users who are always willing to help.

 

[Smudge88]

Very Happy with mine...Easy to clean...and the price is right...

 

[packerfan]

I'm happy with mine, the stove looks nice, and the customer support is top notch in my opinion.

 

[webbie]

Personally, I would look at Englanders new pellet stove if I was gonna spend that much. That model has been made for many years and is not state-of-the-art. They have a new one with vastly more features and efficiency. Customer support is only by phone and email, so you will not be able to get anyone to work on the unit....locally. If you need service and support it is best to buy from a local dealer with knowledge - but if you can DIY all your repairs now and in the future, you could consider that brand.

As they said above - pretty bare bones.....heat for the buck.

 

[rap69ri]

We have two 25-PDVC's in my family and they've been great. Like Craig said, these stoves are for people that don't mind replacing parts themselves, not that it's a common occurrence. Clean the burn pot at least once a day, and a thourough cleaning 1-2 times/week and they'll keep on going. It's like any mechanical device, you need to perform routine maintenance to keep them in peak form.

 

[Trapper]

What everybody else said except to the guy that referred it to a Ford truck... It is better than a Ford! It's at least a Chevy
Dodge rules all the rest drool!

1997 Dodge Ram extended cab 4x4
360 with 357,000+ miles and running STRONG!

 

[SKIN052]

Thanks guys, If I can get my hands on it I think I will go for it. I will be doing a basement install so I need to look for the Installation kit as well which apparently is not easy to find. The Newfoundland Government is offering a rebate of 25% for professionally installed stoves however it seems a local WETT certified tech will come in a take a look at your instalation after the fact and sign of if he approves.

 

[Stihl029]

This is my second winter with my 25-pdv, and I couldn't be happier. As said before its the bare bones, not to fancy, but they put out the heat! And I have read allot of threads in here this past year, and many other brands you pay 4 grand or more to get and have installed, have the same troubles as the few threads about the Englander. I bought mine onsale at home depot for 1299, installed it myself with a sampson pipe kit (I think its called), and have about 2 grand into it. And I'm not a huge handyman. Have to admit cutting the hole in the wall for the thimble was scary.

To me the biggest asset with the Englander is customer support. You can write on here and Mike from the company with respond most times. You call them and get excellent customer support. And the best of all, the unit comes with a video on all the cleaning and repairs that one might have to do in the future. I clean the burnpot on mine daily (just shut it down and wait 5 minutes, cleaning it out takes 5 more), and vacuum it out once a week with the ashvac, and the unit purrs like a kitten. I love coming home to a toasty warm home after working outside in the cold of upstate NY all day!!.....Good luck with your decision!

 

[Trapper]

I forgot this one about the stove.
I have the PVCD-25 and the control box is on the bottom right... kinda a pain for me with the respect of where I installed my stove.
So what I did was I extended all the leads from the control box into the wall and moved my panel there which solved the problem.

 

[SKIN052]

I find it odd that this unit does not have any actual Ash Pan. I would expect this to dramaticly increse the cleaning requiered. I tended to do a quick clean daily regardless so maybe it is not an issue, just odd.

 

[Panhandler]

I find it odd that this unit does not have any actual Ash Pan. I would expect this to dramaticly increse the cleaning requiered. I tended to do a quick clean daily regardless so maybe it is not an issue, just odd.

If you grab the wear plate with a pair of channel locks (daily) and dump it into the ash storage areas the ashes are cool to vacuum when you do your weekly cleaning.