Englander 25pdvc keeps going out

[Ridgefire]

My Englander 25pdvc keeps going out and then over flowing with pellets. When I say over flowing I mean over flowing, picture the entire burnpot full of unburned pellets and a large pile of pellets in the ash bin. Its happened twice now, each time while I'm not home so I cant tell you whats happening.

I did call Englander today and they went over the factory settings and had me do some adjustments, I'm at 5,4,1.....I have the burn rate set to 1 and the blower on 5. The tech seemed to be stumped as to what could be happening, the only thing he could think of is maybe its the pellets.

I dont know what to do, it ran the entire day no problems at all the house was a nice 77 all day, I cleaned the ashes out and refilled the hopper before going to work, when I left there was a nice flame and tons of heat pouring out. My wife called me saying the fire is out and she can see a huge pile of pellets again. There are no error codes showing on the display.


Any ideas???????????????

 

[stoveguy2esw]

check just to the right of the burn pot, on the back wall of the chamber (remember outside of the pot) for a small hole , it will be about 1/2 inch below the baffle plate , and about 1/2 inch right of the outer wall of the pot. if this hole becomes blocked somewhat with ash , it restricts the amout of vacuum that is pulled against the door ajar switch , if this switch opens it stops the top auger , as its thinks your front door is open.

here is the scenario, you light the unit , it burns then stops feeding , then the fire dies, then it starts feeding again, right???

as the stove heats up , the density of the air in the firebox falls off , (same thing that makes a hot air balloon rise) air density and vacuum pressure are inversly proportional, so the air gets lighter , the vac pressure lessens , and the restriction causes the switch to open , the top auger stops , the fire goes out , then with denser cooler air from the lack of fire , pulls the switch back closed and it starts feeding again , but the fire is already out so it just stacks pellets until the unit cools and shuts down.

take a toothpick , or a starightened out paper clip or similar , locate the hole , ream it out and start the stove again , see if that doesnt fix it.

if it doesnt , let me know , PM me a phone number , i'll help ya fix it if that tip didnt get it done

 

[Ridgefire]

Sorry I cant think of what your tech called it but he suggested closing the bottom of the hopper a little bit, he said all you need is a straight slot screwdriver. His thought was I'm having a problem with pellet size they seem to average 1/2 in length so he was thinking the feed auger is pushing the smaller pellets in faster than it can burn smothering the fire. He didnt mention anything about a hole. I didnt adjust the hopper cause at the time the fire was burning nicely and I had just loaded the hopper. It burned for over 12 hours with no problems so I didnt even think of it when I refilled the hopper before work.

Also I can PM you a number but I'm still at work so if you have time tomorrow I will PM it to you.

Btw Mike the tech I talked to was super friendly and he answered every question I threw at him. I wish I would have gotten his name now.

 

[Ridgefire]

One more question. Isnt there a proof of flame feature so that this shouldnt happen?

 

[Ridgefire]

Ok got home, checked out the stove. Once again the burn pot completely full of unburned pellets and it overflowed into the ash bins. Cleaned up the mess, gave everything a good vacuuming, took a paperclip and cleaned out the vacuum port like you suggested. I must admit it didn't look bad at all but I did it anyways. Emptied the hopper and closed the plate as far as it would go. Refilled everything, pressed on and we have fire. Its been going for about 20 minutes now, seems to be going ok but I just worked a 12 hour shift and need some sleep. I will let it go all day today and see what we get.

Thanks
Mike

 

[stoveguy2esw]

ok kep me informed, i'll pop in and monitor this thread, as for my techs , they are all friendly , if not i hit em in the head with a stick <chuckle> naaah , actually i have a great staff

 

[Ridgefire]

Its been running since 630 this morning, no problems so far. I'm still only gets 12-15 hours per 40# though. But I think its more the pellets than the stove. It seems like all the bags are small pieces 1/2 inch or less in length.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

Its been running since 630 this morning, no problems so far. I'm still only gets 12-15 hours per 40# though. But I think its more the pellets than the stove. It seems like all the bags are small pieces 1/2 inch or less in length.

ok, look onthe bottom of the control board , bottom left button "low fuel feed" stove must be on but doenst have to be lit. press that button and look in your blower speed window, the default setting should be 6, if you have smaller pellets you can slow the feed rate by reducing this setting, to do so , when you peress the low fuel feed , push the down arrow to lower the setting. my suggestion would be to lower it to 4 if at 6 already , based on your bag duraation of 12-15 hours. monitor the unit for at leats a half hour after it leaves startup to ensure that it doesnt starve out , if still getting a bigger fire than wanted, lower anouther number and watch it again. you can dial in your feed rate with this trim setting , just do it a little at a time ,as if you go too far , it'll go out.

 

[dien2fly]

I had experienced this exact same problem when I first purchased my englander stove. I called the technical support line and they helped me fix the issue.
The sides of the hopper are not smooth yet. This causes the pellets in the hopper to bridge across the hopper leaving an empty hole where the auger feeds the pellets. After the auger has fed all of the available pellets it continues to turn, but your fire quickly dies out without fuel. Meanwhile, the pellets that were "bridged" across your hopper have collapsed, and the auger starts feeding them again. However, since your fire has died, the pellets begin to pile up in the burn pot until the stove decides something is wrong and shuts down.

To fix this problem you need to remove all of the pellets. Take a steel wool pad or a piece of green scotchbrite and rub the sides of your hopper. You are trying to take the rough blemishes out of the paint that is in your hopper. After doing this, lightly spray the sides of the hopper with Pam cooking spray. You may have to do this 3 or 4 times, but it has worked great for me.

Good Luck!