EP-25 Shutting itself down

[JTman]

Hi everyone, I'm a newbie to the pellet stove world and wondered if anyone here can help me.

I purchased an EP-25 at Lowe's about three weeks ago and installed it per the instructions that came with it. I've been using it off and on for probably the last week and a half. It hasn't been very cold so I've been running the heat on 1 or 2 and the fan on 2. Last week one morning I woke up and it wasn't running. The power hadn't gone out and the hopper still had plenty of pellets in it so I thought maybe I hit the off switch when I went to turn it down before I went to bed (although I was pretty sure I hadn't). Finding nothing wrong I turned it on and it started without a problem.

Then this morning when I woke up it wasn't running again. Then hopper was almost full and the power had not gone out here. The burn pot was full of pellets (it wasn't last week when it had shut off). Once again when I hit the "On" button it fired right up.

I tried calling the tech support number (800-245-6489) probably 15 times today and it was busy every time. I will try again Monday but figured someone here may have some insight for me.

Thank you

 

[slvrblkk]

It could be a lot of things BUT I'm guessing since you are running it on a low feed rate, your fire might be getting "snuffed out" so to speak because you don't have enough pellets feeding to keep a good fire going. Have you tried just running on a higher feed rate?

BTW...what are your bottom 3 numbers set at?

LFF LBA AOT

 

[JTman]

I haven't tried running it for a long period at a higher feed rate but for short periods I have. I'll have to try that and see what happens if this continues.

My numbers are 141

 

[slvrblkk]

Yes....1-4-1 is factory setting so that's good. BTW....Mike Holton, Englanders Senior Tech, is a member here and will see this post too and will probably chime in.

 

[JTman]

I had done some reading on this site before I bought my stove and saw that when someone asks a question or has a problem he doesn't hesitate to jump in and share his knowledge (that's part of the reason I bought the stove I did).

It just seems kind of funny that I'd ran the stove on the low settings for 2 - 3 days continuously and then last night it goes out.

Thanks you for your thoughts.

 

[slvrblkk]

Yeah, it's hard to say but you could have just gotten an inconsistent pellet feed at the wrong time and the fire snuffed out then the pellets started/kept feeding again....hence the pile of pellets in the burnpot. Easiest thing first is bump it a little higher and see what happens for a few day. All pellets stoves have somewhat of a learning curve until you get it dialed in.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

suspect either the hopper had "bridged" possibly dropped the door switch due to a bit of restriction in the stint.

look inside the stove all the way over to the right , just outboard of the top corner of the right side ash trap cover. there is a small tube there which connects to the door switch, make sure it hasn't gotten a bit of ash in it.

if you are still fighting this , PM me monday when im at the office , if you cant get through i can work with you that way or get a number i can call you at

 

[JTman]

Thanks stoveguy I will check that, I just shut it down and am going to give it a good cleaning today. Unfortunately I don't have access to the internet where I work Monday thru Friday nor can I get receive phone calls. If i continue to have problems and can't get thru on the phone I'll PM you here. It did run fine from the time I restarted it Friday morning until just a few minutes ago though.

Another thing I noticed is that the ash seems to collect more around and above the burn pot than in the ash pan (right around the door frame). In fact after running for these last two days straight there is hardly any ash at all in the ash pan. Is that normal?

 

[stoveguy2esw]

Another thing I noticed is that the ash seems to collect more around and above the burn pot than in the ash pan (right around the door frame). In fact after running for these last two days straight there is hardly any ash at all in the ash pan. Is that normal?

actually its normal for ash to collect on the cradle (means the seal around the pot is good 9if the ash is blown off there it means air is shooting out around the flange which is a less than good thing. surprised its not getting to a certain point and then heading to the ash drawer. my pah (same basic pot and cradle) builds up about an inch at most then settles in, after its run through a hopper load i still have that "volcano" but its only about as tall as it was a few hours in(but then a hopper load for me is 3 bags so its a couple days or more per loading)