Englander - jam

[coffeedogz3]

I seem to be in a "jam" - well my Englander stove is. Got up this morning and the stove had shut itself off. The hopper was still fairly full, I put my hand in there to jiggle some of the pellets to see if it just didn't fed them down and I did notice a faint warmth lower in the hopper - ah it must not been off too long. (Unlike a recent time it self-shut off when the shoot hadn't slid the pellets down and stove didn't get anything fed down and then it shut off due to no fuel). Then I opened the front door to peek in - the burn pot only had a small amount of ash (as I cleaned it out the night before) and no unused pellets. I removed the little bit of ash and done a start up - watching & waiting. The bottom auger moves but NO pellets come out. I did get an E2 code, but that's because there's no pellets for it to fire. Had to go to work - that's as far as I've gotten (but I have looked up on here about the jams, along with the Englander manual info). Currently, using the Lignetics pellets -love these pellets! My 1st plan of attack is to dig out the hopper. I'm not wanting to opening up the back of the stove or work on an auger. Any ideas? :-S

 

[piscassic]

the exact same thing happened to me this morning. woke to find the stove off, no pellets in the burn pot. i emptied the hopper and checked the top auger to find it jammed (hit "on" to see if it moved, which it didn't). dug lightly around the auger with a screwdriver, then took the back cover off (not a big deal) and worked the top auger assembly back and forth gently until it seemed to free up. hit "on" to make sure it was turning, then filled her up and all seems to be well. good luck.

 

[wak1954]

I have done the same procedure with my stove many times, to the point that I keep the rear panel off. Hopefuly this was just a one time fluke with your stove.

 

[coffeedogz3]

Grumble, gripe & groan!! Frustrated is an understatement. After working on the stove by myself last night for a couple hours I did manage to get the top auger to work (but my Indian dance & chant wasn't pretty). I didn't have to take the back off. I fired it up & it had a nice fire going - however after about 45 min. the fire went out. $#&@ Now what? I again went thru my process as before - and again it fired up. I watched & waited for almost 2 hours as it burned a nice fire and all was ok, so I went to bed. Woke up this morning to freezing house - stove went out again. $#&@ Hopper was full, appears it didn't drop pellets again. It was 53 inside the house and 23 & snow outside. I know nothing is easy - but this stove needs to & should work problem free for as much as we had to pay for it along with the additional extra money for the vent kit that wasn't included. Hell, an old beatup Pinto, Vega, Yugo, Chevet (no wait a Nova) crap car works better than this. I could half-way understand this happening if we had used this stove a couple years, but we have only used it a month. Not happy - far from it!

 

[coffeedogz3]

Took the back off - cleaned out the jam & fired it back up. All was good as it burned all evening. Woke up this morning to a freezing house again. Now what - why! Again, a jam. I'm thinking now it's the Lignetic's pellets, however we've burned several bags of these with no jams so why now? We opened a different bag of the Lignetic's to compare with the ones that seem to be jamming and they look identical. They are dry, smooth, and don't seem to be anything wrong. There are a few longs (about 1") only about a handful or so, but wouldn't think that would be an issue, so as I snapped them in half. I left for work and my hubby is cussing the stove as he works on it again. :vampire: gggrrrr

 

[Biglumber]

I moved from a whitfield to an englander. The englander jammed on me with the second bag. Pellets looked ok.
There is a plate that can be moved to open or close the throat to the top auger. I cranked that plate as closed as I could get it.
I also am not pouring the whole bag in at one time anymore. I sift the last 5 lbs of pellets in each bag.

I agree, clearing an upper jam is a pain with this unit.

Have had great performance since then. Not bad for a $600 stove.

Peace