I have an Englander 25-PDVC with a PU-CB04 board that is behaving strangely, and I'm looking for some help troubleshooting the PCB.
This pellet stove was brought out from under an exposed shed after sitting for a decade or more. It was given to me by a relative because we were looking for a solution to heat our home while I work on getting the furnace situation in order. We pulled the augers, cleaned out the mouse houses, rust and soot, put it back together and started it up outside to see if it worked. It seemed to run fine, augers fed, room blower turned on when temp got up. Seemed to have no real issues. So, we brought it in the house and piped it up, and ran it.
At some point while I was away, the top auger stopped feeding, and the room blower engages even when well below 70deg F. The wife, noticing that it had gone out, was able to keep it running by feeding pellets through the door. It's almost as if it's stuck in an overheating status, but does not throw an E-3. I suspect a problem with the logic or DC signal on the PCB, and am wondering if there is anyone who has experience troubleshooting at the board level. I know I can buy a new board or get it repaired, but I'm cheap and like fixing things. I know there was a member here with the Englander team, but I can't remember the name, and think I saw that their last post was in '22.
TLDR - Started up fine after a decade of storage, then upper auger stopped running and room blower won't turn off at low temp
Here is a synopsis of the current behavior:
------------------------------------------------------
-Normal display upon switching on at power strip *most* times
-Rarely display goes all wonky and blinks / does not display normal characters
-One time there was no display when switching on at power strip, corrected by unplugging / replugging
-When using "on" switch on stove, it starts the combustion blower, igniter turns on, lower auger turns, then after a few seconds, the room blower turns on, but the upper auger never cycles.
Here is what I've checked so far:
------------------------------------------
-Vacuum switches work fine. Jumped the combustion blower switch to be sure there, and the burn chamber also confirmed good by running the upper auger manually with the on switch
-Temp sensor bench tested good, but replaced anyway to be sure, still no change in behavior
-Blowers run well
-Upper auger motor/transmission bench tested good and works with on switch when vacuum switch activated
-PCB solder joints *look* good, the thing seems to be built like a tank, no clearly damaged components
-Transformer output of approx 10V for each set of outs and 20V in series
-DC voltages of approx. 12V and 5V after rectifiers and signal smoothing caps, but don't really know how to test the consistency of the signal
Is it possible that the memory in the controller got corrupted? Any way to re-flash ("Pellet Rev12")? Any thoughts on what else I can check for?
Many thanks in advance.
- noob shaking my head
This pellet stove was brought out from under an exposed shed after sitting for a decade or more. It was given to me by a relative because we were looking for a solution to heat our home while I work on getting the furnace situation in order. We pulled the augers, cleaned out the mouse houses, rust and soot, put it back together and started it up outside to see if it worked. It seemed to run fine, augers fed, room blower turned on when temp got up. Seemed to have no real issues. So, we brought it in the house and piped it up, and ran it.
At some point while I was away, the top auger stopped feeding, and the room blower engages even when well below 70deg F. The wife, noticing that it had gone out, was able to keep it running by feeding pellets through the door. It's almost as if it's stuck in an overheating status, but does not throw an E-3. I suspect a problem with the logic or DC signal on the PCB, and am wondering if there is anyone who has experience troubleshooting at the board level. I know I can buy a new board or get it repaired, but I'm cheap and like fixing things. I know there was a member here with the Englander team, but I can't remember the name, and think I saw that their last post was in '22.
TLDR - Started up fine after a decade of storage, then upper auger stopped running and room blower won't turn off at low temp
Here is a synopsis of the current behavior:
------------------------------------------------------
-Normal display upon switching on at power strip *most* times
-Rarely display goes all wonky and blinks / does not display normal characters
-One time there was no display when switching on at power strip, corrected by unplugging / replugging
-When using "on" switch on stove, it starts the combustion blower, igniter turns on, lower auger turns, then after a few seconds, the room blower turns on, but the upper auger never cycles.
Here is what I've checked so far:
------------------------------------------
-Vacuum switches work fine. Jumped the combustion blower switch to be sure there, and the burn chamber also confirmed good by running the upper auger manually with the on switch
-Temp sensor bench tested good, but replaced anyway to be sure, still no change in behavior
-Blowers run well
-Upper auger motor/transmission bench tested good and works with on switch when vacuum switch activated
-PCB solder joints *look* good, the thing seems to be built like a tank, no clearly damaged components
-Transformer output of approx 10V for each set of outs and 20V in series
-DC voltages of approx. 12V and 5V after rectifiers and signal smoothing caps, but don't really know how to test the consistency of the signal
Is it possible that the memory in the controller got corrupted? Any way to re-flash ("Pellet Rev12")? Any thoughts on what else I can check for?
Many thanks in advance.
- noob shaking my head
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