Englander 25-PDVP magic button, fill-in

[Dhosh]

I've seen and read lots of threads on this and am obviously still confused on the magic buttons .. and when the settings are 'used' by the stove.

Yes, there's the 'mode' selection. Mike at Englander said mine should be run in 'b' mode .. (older unit / 2 augers, etc).

Someone said the magic buttons are only used when the stove is in 'low' mode ... like when feed rate is set to 1 or 2. So ... they really aren't used when the stove is set to say, 9? ...Seems concievable the M3 (Magic 3 ) button settings could be used as a ratio, and the feed setting used as a multiplier ??? If only used in 'low' mode, why do folks tout those numbers when they are 'getting a lot of heat'? (I assumed the latter was because they were running in a 'high' mode ... 5+ on the feed rate).

If the M3 settings are only used in the 'low' feed rate settings ....
1) what does the 1 and 2 do on the feed rate then, as the LFF is a feed rate also? Which one wins?
2) what controls the burn air rate? If you have a poor/dirty/lazy burn, and I'm told I either need a lower feed rate, or more air .. how can I adjust the air, if the M3 #2 doesn't do it?

As soon as I read a post and think I have it figured out ... I realize I don't ... or read another post that counteracts it. LOL

 

[Lake Girl]

Good luck on your journey ... sorry I have no answers for you as I don't have experience with that stove. Start off with factory settings - write them down then experiment slowly to see where you get the best results and write those down.

Have fun playing detective !

 

[Dhosh]

Thanks! ... we'll .. it's been a fun hobby, anyway, albeit sometimes frustrating. If you don't understand how things fully work, and how settings interact, you can really fowl things up. Yep .. I had it set to factory, per Mike's settings @ ESW. I got a better burn, but still lots of not fully burned pellets. As folks said it looks like I need either slower pellet feed or more air, I went from 6-4-1 to 6-6-1... we'll see how that goes. ;-)

 

[Dhosh]

Strangeness .. My wife came home to a 57 degree living room ... Yesterday, the fire had gone out, likely within an hour or less of me lighting it, and leaving. It was at full burn when I left, but anything's possible. All lights were off when I got to it .. and no error code.

Today, 'almost' the same, but the fire was still going ... 'looked' good, no ash on window, very little ash in the burn pot, and no unburnt pellets. The magnetic surface thermometer on the left side of the stove read 100 .. with the exhaust pipe reading sub-100. Go figure. I cleaned out the burn pot when I got home ... a bit too well. I didn't leave enough hot pellets to re-light, so lit manually again. It's on B mode .. Last night, I had increased low air to 6 (6-6-1, with upper controls at 9/9. to give it a bit more air in 'low' .. but (I have another thread on this) ... does that have any bearing when running at 9/9???

Tonight, after lighting, I knocked the low air down to 6 ... so it's now B 6-5-1, and uppers at 9/9. Surface temp is back to about normal .. encroaching on 300 degrees .. after 1 hour, with noticeably more not-fully-burned pellets in the pot. I guess I'll have to wait and see if they turn to ash and blow away or not. The unfinished pellets where what I was trying to cut down on.

I'm on a 3-burn pot scrape-per-day (before work, after work, before bed), and shut down and vacuum at least every 3 days .. usually 2.