Englander 25 pdv start up issue

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.

donaldwilson

New Member
Dec 1, 2022
8
Vermont
I have an englander 25 pdv (2003) just had to replace the control panel and I'm having an issue . The stove and generates a nice hot flame in start up, runs a couple of minutes and then the auger feed rates drop off and the combustion/exhaust blower stops. The stove continues to feed pelllets very slowly and will burn for another minute or so until it smothers and goes out. It acts like it doesnt think it is lit and goes into shutdown. No error codes, green (on) led stays on. Good gaskets, good airflow, vacuum hose is solid and connected, stove is clean, HELP???
 
Forgot to plug in the temp. sensor into the new board?
I have checked the temp sensor connections on the board and the firewall, both good. another test burn, same result. Nice hot fire thru startup cycle and then the upper auger slows way down, pellet delivery drops off, combustion blower shuts off, fire goes out and this time I got an E1 code.
 
Resolved the E1 issue and discovered the lower 3 button settings were all off, reprogrammed to "6-9-1" and fired again. Nice hot flame build thru the startup cycle, room fan comes on at temp, combustion fan shuts off at the end of the SU cycle, stove continues to feed pellets and they burn w/o fan for some time. There were enough pellets feeding with the new settings I shut the stove down with the off switch after another 20-30 min, no error codes just a "low" burn. I'm assuming the combustion blower should not be shutting down and the stove continue to run?
 
6-9-1 seems way to high to me. I'm at work at the moment so I can't confirm what I'm running, but not that. I would double check your heat sensor. I would also take it off from where it mounts to the stove, clean both surfaces really well and remount. If you have some heat transfer paste, adding that would be good to.

If you go into diagnostic mode, I believe there is one of the readouts showing that the heat sensor is working, I think it might be in the manual.

Eric
 
  • Like
Reactions: donaldwilson
I have reprogrammed to 6-4-1 based on a recommendation for pre 2004 stoves. I checked the old heat sensor again, it gets quite hot. I changed the heat sensor to the original from the old control panel and still get a no error code combustion blower shutdown. The stove comes up to temp, room fan comes on, continues to feed pellets and runs in green light (on) mode w/o combustion blower...???
 
A pellet stove will not bun without a running combustion blower. It would smolder and go out.
That was my assumption as well. This stove continues to feed pellets and burn. This is not my real issue, I need to figure out why the combustion blower is shutting off.
 
Making sure I understand (its Monday, my brain doesn't want to start), you start the stove, the combustion fan kicks on, the stove burns, the room air fan comes on, but somewhere in that process the combustion blower shuts off? If that's the case, does the flame become tall and lazy like a wood stove?

A couple of thoughts: Do you have two vacuum switches and are they both hooked up? I can't remember if your vintage stove would have had 1 or 2. Have you tried making a cheater cord and plugging your combustion motor directly into an outlet? That would help narrow down the problem to a motor or control board issue.

Eric
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mt Bob
Making sure I understand (its Monday, my brain doesn't want to start), you start the stove, the combustion fan kicks on, the stove burns, the room air fan comes on, but somewhere in that process the combustion blower shuts off? If that's the case, does the flame become tall and lazy like a wood stove?

A couple of thoughts: Do you have two vacuum switches and are they both hooked up? I can't remember if your vintage stove would have had 1 or 2. Have you tried making a cheater cord and plugging your combustion motor directly into an outlet? That would help narrow down the problem to a motor or control board issue.

Eric
Yes, the stove works normally in startup mode, combustion motor, augers, good flame, room air.

The combustion blower shutdown appears to coincide with the switch out of SU mode to normal operation.

At that point everything else, continues to operate normally. both augers spin and feed pellets, room fan continues to blow and I seem to have enough draft to keep a less intense but tall and yellow flame in the burn pot.

The flame does not smoulder and burn out, I have let it run for as long as +/- 20 min and then shut down manually just in case...

The combustion fan comes right back on if I do a hot restart after turning the stove off but continues to shut down after SU. I have not tried to hotwire the combustion blower as it appears to be running fine, worth a try... Hotwiring the combustion blower and putting a switch in line might be a simple fix except I let the stove run overnight and the hopper load doesn't quite make it 8 hrs.

As far as I can determine there is only one vacuum line, I was getting a vacuum error code early on in the process but have resolved that issue. cracked hose end.
 
I would hot wire your combustion motor and let it go. Early on I had a short that cooked the triac on the control board and directly plugging it into the wall was an easy fix until I could replace the triac.

That said, the root of your problem would appear to be a bad control board, or at least the chip, as it runs fine at startup (a different program, if you will) but then has issues once into normal operation.

Eric
 
I am having the same issue with my 2001 Englander 25-PAF. I installed a new control board this fall. My unit was not built with a vacuum switch but had a bypass part that I transferred to the new control board. Dry/cold startup runs thru system check without issues. I just replaced the exhaust blower as one forum suggested it may be on its way out. The new control board came with a new heat sensor which is attached at the same location on the burn box as the original. Could it be an issue with the heat sensor (Control Board not receiving signal that its burning and then shutting it down)?
 
not sure if this helps, but i replaced the hole control board with a cheap chinesean timer relay board. Doesnt look at sexy as the rooginal but before i spent 250 bucks on a controlboard that only has lost the programming in the chip...no way jose...
 
not sure if this helps, but i replaced the hole control board with a cheap chinesean timer relay board. Doesnt look at sexy as the rooginal but before i spent 250 bucks on a controlboard that only has lost the programming in the chip...no way jose...
Thanks, I am going to stick with the new control board I bought for now. I finally got through to tech support yesterday at the new company that bought out Englander. The tech is convinced its a control board issue and gave me info on the settings. I was at work at the time but checked when I got home. He said it should be Program D (yup- all set). Bottom programming should be 4-1-1. (nope mine was 8-6-4) Changed it to 4-1-1, restarted, and the flame looked good like before. But the exhaust blower shut down again just before the room blower started. This time it did restart after a few minutes but shut off again.