Englander 25-pdv shuts down after 3 minutes in dry run

[dananrobin]

Bought a used 2006 Englander 25-PDV pellet stove. Once home, I cleaned it out to make sure there were no pellets in unit. Plugged in, panel came up 5 and 5. Dry run for 3 minutes then shut itself off. I removed both augers to make sure there was nothing causing them to no turn. All clear. I even lubricated grease via zerk fitting. I am not getting any other signs on control panel. I pulled blower motor and made sure it was free to spin and no debris. I am kinda at a loss where to look next. Any help would be great,

 

[Ocelot]

Did you get a code where the 5 5 was after it shut down like E-2? I used to have an Englander and had a similar issue once where it would shut down after a few minutes and it was the temperature sensor that tells the stove it lit and got up to temperature. If that sensor doesn't see heat, it shuts down thinking the stove ran out of pellets, didn't light, etc. I think E 2 is failure to start and E-1 is loss of vacuum.

Edited to add: I see you said no pellets and dry run.. Does that mean you were trying to run it without any pellets in it?

 

[dananrobin]

No codes at all. When it shuts down, it is like you just pulled plug out of the wall. Reason for dry run, I wanted to make sure everything was running as it should before I started loading it up with pellets. Figured it there were issues lets get them taken care of first. I am not sure how those vacuum switches are supposed to work but the one near the combustion motor does not appear to have any vacuum at all. I am going to check hose just to make sure that are no leaks.

 

[Ocelot]

No codes at all. When it shuts down, it is like you just pulled plug out of the wall. Reason for dry run, I wanted to make sure everything was running as it should before I started loading it up with pellets. Figured it there were issues lets get them taken care of first. I am not sure how those vacuum switches are supposed to work but the one near the combustion motor does not appear to have any vacuum at all. I am going to check hose just to make sure that are no leaks.

If there's no pellets and thus no fire, it will shut down as it's supposed to. that's a safety feature. However, I would have expected an error code.
As far as the vacuum switch, there should be just one actual switch that you mentioned with the hose running off of it. I didn't have that particular model Englander, I had a 25-EP, but the general way they work is similar. The vacuum is very slight and not strong enough for you to really feel. The way it works is the combustion motor is pulling air from the fresh air intake and blowing it out the vent/chimney. This creates a negative pressure in the stove. A leaking door gasket, hopper lid gasket, etc, if it's bad enough will shut the stove down.

The room fan/blower won't come on at all until the stove reaches a certain temperature

There's probably also a switch on the hopper lid that will stop the auger from feeding if the lid is open.

You really won't know if everything is cycling properly until you put some pellets in there and fire it up. Once a fire is going, the room distribution fan will start once it's hot enough. If things don't work correctly, folks here may be able to help based on what fails and when.

 

[dananrobin]

I agree with what you are saying about starting an initial fire in it. Everything I have checked appears to be working as it should. I got this stove so I can fire it up once in awhile for my pole building when I am going to be doing maintenance on the tractors. Weather is still supposed to be nice for at least the next 10 days so doing what I can to get ready for the white stuff. Thanks for your suggestions.

 

[ericofmaine]

There are 2 vac switches in this stove, one fed from the combustion motor that is wired into the upper auger and the second from the back of the firebox that feeds to the control board. That said, for a dry run, it did what its supposed to do.

You can always put the stove in diagnostic mode (I don't remember how, but you can do a search) and try out each individual item before putting pellets in it.

Eric

 

[dananrobin]

For those that responded, thank you. I located the issue this morning. Put some pellets in, started stove and it shut down as it has been doing. Started fire manual and again started unit, same result shut down. No additional pellets were coming in. I put a mark on upper and lower auger. Started unit and watched. Lower auger shaft was moving, upper never did. Shut all down and pulled upper unit. Opened gearbox and cleaned old grease and used brake cleaner to finish. New grease put in and manually rotated gears. RE-installed unit. Checked voltage and it was good. Reconnected wires and started again. Both augers were now moving. Figured all was good. Shut stove down. Started manual fire as igniter is not working. Started unit and only lower auger running. After checking upper auger motor further discovered small gear that is inserted is locking up. Although voltage is good to unit, solenoid unit is not creating magnetic field needed to engage gearbox. Found new unit on Amazon for $50. Will be here on Nov4th. I will provide update if that fixes problem/