Englander 25PVD seldom stays lit

[BaMWheeler]

This is the 3rd year I have owned my Englander 25PVD and I am about to use it as a boat anchor since that may be all it is good for. I have been around the horn and back with this POS and finally joined this forum in search of answers before this pellet stove takes a leap off a very large bridge. Bought it and installed it 3 years ago, worked great for about 2 weeks. Then the problems started. Got the professionals in here, they scratched their heads and had no answers. Contacted Englander who stalled saying it was this, that, or the other thing I hadn't checked already until the warranty ran out. Finally it was THE MOST EXPENSIVE PART, the controller board. Replaced THAT toward the end of last year (after warranty ran out of course) and was able to get it fired up 1 last time before the end of the burn season. GREAT! Unplugged the darn thing, didn't want an inadvertent power spike (like they happen all the time) to take out the controller again.
Before starting it up this year I went through and replaced every single gasket in the entire stove. Pulled the motors off and blew them out. Cleaned every nook and cranny. This stove was polished so good you could eat off of it. Exhaust vents were a thing of beauty also, so clean and shiny. This year is going to be different. This year this puppy is going to work like a champ! Boy, was I farging smoking some good stuff. Lasted 2 hours and everything quit, total power outage. BUT MY HOUSE POWER NEVER WENT OUT NOT EVEN A FLICKER! The stove just up and quit, AGAIN WE THE FRENCH (ie WTF).
ANYBODY WANT TO BUY THIS POS CHEAP??? HELP ~~~~~

 

[Ssyko]

take a look at the fuse on the board itself. if it blew it kills power. if it did blow i would unplug the stove, remove the wires from the back of the control board except the thermister(white braded wiress). replace the fuse, plug the wires in for the lower auger then plug in and see if the fuse blows. do this with each component and you will know what is blowing the fuse.if you can, put a 2amp 120v fuse in line with each component befor you power it up will protect your control board and its new 5a fuse. englander boards are real sensitive to reversed voltage(shorting a components wire)

 

[BaMWheeler]

take a look at the fuse on the board itself. if it blew it kills power. if it did blow i would unplug the stove, remove the wires from the back of the control board except the thermister(white braded wiress). replace the fuse, plug the wires in for the lower auger then plug in and see if the fuse blows. do this with each component and you will know what is blowing the fuse.if you can, put a 2amp 120v fuse in line with each component befor you power it up will protect your control board and its new 5a fuse. englander boards are real sensitive to reversed voltage(shorting a components wire)

Thank you for your feedback but you can assume I checked the obvious. It is the controller board that did an emergency shutdown on the system. All electrical including the control board green light display. It is on a UPS backup system so I know it did NOT loose or spike power. So why would the control board do that???

 

[Ssyko]

Ok assumptions noted. The only item that will tell the control board to shut down would be the thermister sensing an over temp/fire. But it will not shut down the display leds. So a component on the 120vac side of the board had a catastrophic failure, electronics can fail without ant help but heat is a contributor and the boards live in the back side of a fire box. Without having it on the bench to test i have no idea why it did what it did.

 

[Nitro-Fish]

Have you insured the vac switch hose is clear? If not, the stove will start and shut down. Disconnect it from the vac switch & blow it clear, see if it stays lit after that.

 

[Nitro-Fish]

You mentioned a thorough cleaning, you didn't inadvertently blow compressed air into the vac switch port did you? if so the diaphragm is probably toast and you may need a new vac switch; good news is the vac switch is an easy and inexpensive fix.

 

[BaMWheeler]

Thanks for all the feedback. Compressed air was blown through the lines to make sure there were no obstructions in the lines. The vacuum switches were disconnected and removed before that was done. And yes, the vacuum switches were returned to their proper locations and not switched. I had this baby apart and cleaned wanting to guarantee nothing would prevent it from running smoothly like it did when first purchased.
I do have a bench and am capable of testing it if you tell me what to test for. I agree it must be a catastrophic failure of some component but there is only the 2 blowers and the control board that could do this, correct? How can I tell if heat buildup is causing one of the blowers to fail?

 

[Ssyko]

If you have a multimeter and you can look up the specs on all the components on the 120vac side of the board and find the bad one. Most have a fuse and in series a safety capacitor then it should feed the step down transformer. As it exits the trans it will go to a SM voltage regulator you should get 7.5-15vdc on the output legs. 120vac should tap from the input legs of trans and feed the hot side of the triacs. The neutral leg will be constant with the ground.


You say you had the vac switches out. When you put them back did the hose get put on the NO side or NC? But no component in the stove will kill power. All components get power from the board

 

[BaMWheeler]

I was smart about the whole thing. Took pictures at every step to make sure every connection, tube, and screw went back where it belonged. Being a backyard mechanic of sorts I get a little anal about these things. And like I said in previous thread, I wanted it to be as pristine as the day I bought it. And when I say the power went out, I mean EVERYTHING DIED! After letting it cool I expected to find a blown fuse, nope. THAT IS HOW IT STARTED 3 YEARS AGO AND CONTINUES TO THIS DAY. Will run perfectly fine for a few hours, and then out of the blue just shuts down (often with no error code, just total power loss). That is why it was put on a universal power supply backup system. Now if it looses power for even a millisecond (well maybe not that short), an alarm sounds. As this is in my living room I am often watching TV when this happens and no alarm sounds at all, so it is not POWER SUPPLY related which is where my first year of ownership, wait until warranty expired, and then tell me the most expensive part (ie controller board) experience went. I have replaced the entire chimney stack after that (not enough venting Englander told me) to 4 inch. Still fails. Professionals all scratch their heads and offer no solutions except try this, that, or the other thing. Now the best answer I get is catastrophic failure of a major component (sounds probable). So what should a person do? Replace everything piece by piece until it works correctly or cut your losses and sink it in the ocean? I am leaning toward an anchor

 

[Ssyko]

I understand your frustration, all we are trying to do is help. PM sent.