Englander 25-PDVC Settings and Exhaust Questions

[msh227]

Within the last week I have installed my Englander stove and hearth just in time for this artic blast most of the country is feeling. I was surprised at how easily everything came together. I did run into one issue with my install. I decided to place the stove in the corner of my living room and had to purchase a 45 degree elbow to make my 'though the wall' flue system work. Problem with the elbow is it wont allow the straight piece of Dura-Vent to twist and lock into place. The elbow is also a Dura-Vent. I decided to use a little force and the two pieces went together and formed a tight seal. My only issue now is the flue system doesn't line up allowing me to have a perpendicular vertical rise outside of my house. For the time being I left the flue with the horzontal run and no vertical. I have only burned the stove a couple times and only during the evening while I'm at home. I've talked with stove stores and read some stuff that says a horizontal run is sufficient for a pellet stove. I have also heard that some vertical run is necessary. Could someone clear this up a little especially for the Englander stove that I have?

Secondly I have been reading about the manufacturers settings on these stoves. If I understand correctly they are pre-determined by England Stove Works and are pre-programed into the buttons on the bottom of the control board. It sounds like some people on this forum have changed these settings?? If so are there set-ups for certain applications or is it a trial and error type of thing??

Lastly I just wanted to see what people thought about the pellets sold at Tractor Supply Company. I bought a couple bags to try them, the local stove store also sells the same brand but are cheaper at TSC. The brand is Lignetics (spelling might be wrong) good, bad??

Thanks!

 

[esuitt]

I have ours set up with horizontal exhaust, no vertical. I have the stove connector, 4' three inch pipe and the end cap. 4' is supposed to be max for horizontal exhaust.

Heat range is pellet feed speed and then blower speed is room air blower.
Reading through the pages here. the bottom 3 buttons do not do anything once your other two setting are over 2.

I run Lignetics and love them. They burn really well for us.

 

[msh227]

Thanks for the input.

Do you burn the stove during the day while you are at work?

 

[msh227]

Thanks for the input.

Do you burn the stove during the day while you are at work?

 

[kofkorn]

Hi Matt,

These are great stoves. We love our two. For your install problem, look into a 1 foot sliding piece from HD or Lowes. They will allow you to match the dimensions perfectly and should also eliminate your twist lock problem. They slide over an existing 1' piece of pipe and allow about 10" of adjustability.

The settings are trial and error. There are three buttons, fuel feed, low burn air, and room blower turn on temp (I actually don't know what the name of the third one is, I never adjust it . The LFF and LBA only work on settings 1 and 2 for the upper fuel feed button. They adjust the amount of fuel and air in the burn pot at the lower two settings. I have played with mine trying to get the cleanest burn with the lowest feed rate for the pellets I am using. A few times I've adjusted it so low that the stove goes out accidentally. I tend to find that the LFF may need to be adjusted up or down one setting dependent upon the pellet type, size, and quality. Some can feed slower than others and keep the fire lit. Trying to stretch the pellets as long as possible

As for pellets, in my experience, the Englander's will burn pretty much everything. I've never tried the Lignetics, but I believe they are a pretty good brand. You can usually tell if they are good by the amount of ash that builds up in the burn pot. When you have a bad pellet, you'll need to scrape out the pot 2-3 times a day (get a good metal spatula) to keep the air flowing. You may find hard chunks of ash (clinkers) too. All of that prevents the air from getting to the pellets and causes a dirty burn. That just means your sending extra fuel up the stove pipe and out of your wallet . Good pellets keep the scraping down to less than once a day with no clinkers. You can adjust your settings to help this out. I've even forced more air through the burn pot by placing a piece of steel wool in one of the holes that allows air up and around the inside of the burn pot. I found a huge difference by doing this. It immediately reduced the amount of clinkers and cleaned up the amount of ash I was getting on the window right away.

Good Luck!

 

[drevoviii]

Hi Matt,

These are great stoves. We love our two. For your install problem, look into a 1 foot sliding piece from HD or Lowes. They will allow you to match the dimensions perfectly and should also eliminate your twist lock problem. They slide over an existing 1' piece of pipe and allow about 10" of adjustability.

The settings are trial and error. There are three buttons, fuel feed, low burn air, and room blower turn on temp (I actually don't know what the name of the third one is, I never adjust it . The LFF and LBA only work on settings 1 and 2 for the upper fuel feed button. They adjust the amount of fuel and air in the burn pot at the lower two settings. I have played with mine trying to get the cleanest burn with the lowest feed rate for the pellets I am using. A few times I've adjusted it so low that the stove goes out accidentally. I tend to find that the LFF may need to be adjusted up or down one setting dependent upon the pellet type, size, and quality. Some can feed slower than others and keep the fire lit. Trying to stretch the pellets as long as possible

As for pellets, in my experience, the Englander's will burn pretty much everything. I've never tried the Lignetics, but I believe they are a pretty good brand. You can usually tell if they are good by the amount of ash that builds up in the burn pot. When you have a bad pellet, you'll need to scrape out the pot 2-3 times a day (get a good metal spatula) to keep the air flowing. You may find hard chunks of ash (clinkers) too. All of that prevents the air from getting to the pellets and causes a dirty burn. That just means your sending extra fuel up the stove pipe and out of your wallet . Good pellets keep the scraping down to less than once a day with no clinkers. You can adjust your settings to help this out. I've even forced more air through the burn pot by placing a piece of steel wool in one of the holes that allows air up and around the inside of the burn pot. I found a huge difference by doing this. It immediately reduced the amount of clinkers and cleaned up the amount of ash I was getting on the window right away.

Good Luck!

Kofkorn,

I have had the same stove for a few months now and I am always looking to do little things to make it burn better. It burns good, but I think with some tweaks it could be better. Where are you stuffing the steel wool? Into the holes that feed the vertical walls of the burn pot? I am trying to find a way to get the ash to clear out of the burn pot better without having to scrape the pot. I burn Greenway pellets I got from Lowes and I am very pleased with them. Great heat and fairly low amount of nice fluffy ash.

 

[kofkorn]

Hi Drevovii,

Yes, on the 55-SHP22 (25-PDV) there is one hole on each side of the bottom of the burn pot below the plate. the hole on the right is a little larger than the one on the left. I believe they are about 3/4 - 1" in diameter. I took a piece of fairly coarse steel wool and stuffed it in the hole on the right side.

A couple of years ago, I was burning the Fireside Ultra's and having a problem with clinkers at the higher settings. I put the steel wool in and it helped significantly. I've since found that the pellets were the problem. We used the NEWP last year and they were certainly better. This year I'm running the Potomacs softwood, and I'm kicking myself for having put up with the crap for the past few years.

I've found that with the steel wool, I can get a much shorter and brighter flame, even when the pot is all full at the higher feed settings. However, in the early fall and late spring, I'm probably getting too much air. I certainly wouldn't fill both holes with steel wool, as that will probably over feed the fire. With the potomacs burning better, I've recently moved the steel wool to the smaller of the two holes, reducing the air a bit.

I've adjusted my lower settings down to 2-1-1 and found that I can just keep the fire going with these settings. I tend to go back and forth between a LFF of 2 or 3 depending upon the length of the pellets, but I can usually get about a day and a half from a bag when the stove is running on low.

I'm sure that Mike Holton is probably cringing right now, and I am certain that problems arising from this type of experimentation aren't covered by warranty, so consider yourself warned

Good Luck!

 

[drevoviii]

Hi Drevovii,

Yes, on the 55-SHP22 (25-PDV) there is one hole on each side of the bottom of the burn pot below the plate. the hole on the right is a little larger than the one on the left. I believe they are about 3/4 - 1" in diameter. I took a piece of fairly coarse steel wool and stuffed it in the hole on the right side.

A couple of years ago, I was burning the Fireside Ultra's and having a problem with clinkers at the higher settings. I put the steel wool in and it helped significantly. I've since found that the pellets were the problem. We used the NEWP last year and they were certainly better. This year I'm running the Potomacs softwood, and I'm kicking myself for having put up with the crap for the past few years.

I've found that with the steel wool, I can get a much shorter and brighter flame, even when the pot is all full at the higher feed settings. However, in the early fall and late spring, I'm probably getting too much air. I certainly wouldn't fill both holes with steel wool, as that will probably over feed the fire. With the potomacs burning better, I've recently moved the steel wool to the smaller of the two holes, reducing the air a bit.

I've adjusted my lower settings down to 2-1-1 and found that I can just keep the fire going with these settings. I tend to go back and forth between a LFF of 2 or 3 depending upon the length of the pellets, but I can usually get about a day and a half from a bag when the stove is running on low.

I'm sure that Mike Holton is probably cringing right now, and I am certain that problems arising from this type of experimentation aren't covered by warranty, so consider yourself warned

Good Luck!

Very interesting. Not saying that I will try anything that will void the warranty, but I might "investigate" a few things. ;-) Thanks

 

[esuitt]

Thanks for the input.

Do you burn the stove during the day while you are at work?

Not working right now, so it does stay on all of the time.
But even if I was I would still probably burn it just to keep the temp in the house up, it takes to long to get it comfy once it is off, even just to clean it for an hour.

 

[msh227]

I guess because it is my first stove I feel a little unsure about leaving a fire, even if it is controlled, alone in my home while I'm at work for 8-10 hours a day.

One other question I have about the stove. It says not to open the hopper lid while the stove is burning due to draft issues I guess. What if you want to check/add fuel to the stove? Do they have this warning in the manual so you don't burn the stove with the hopper lid open all the time???

 

[kofkorn]

That's the idea behind it. If anything happens and for whatever reason something backs up into the hopper, you could end with a lot of smoke in the house, or worse, the pellets in the hopper catching fire. If the lid is closed, the smoke is minimized, and any fire would be starved for oxygen and the hazard would be reduced.

As to opening the hopper, I do it all of the time to check and add. For the newer Englanders, there is a hopper lid switch that will stop the top auger, killing your fire in a short amount of time, so don' t leave it open too long. But checking and adding fuel shouldn't be an issue at all.

 

[esuitt]

I check mine about every 4 hours and refill as needed without ever shutting off our stove. So far so good.

 

[Phatty]

run mine 24/7 except to dump the pot or the weekly cleaning
open mine and fill while she's running never had an issue