Error with Smoke back in Englander 25-PDVC

[Tvo-2]

A little background info first. I am relatively new to pellet stoves as we bought a home in June 2015 with two already installed. One the aforementioned 25-PDVC and the other a Breckwell Big-E. Both have outside/cold air intakes and I am burning Barefoot pellets in both. The breckwell runs like very clean and hardly leaves behind any ash after burning. The Englander on the other hand leaves a fair amount of ash behind and i am constantly cleaning the black soot off the window.

This past weekend we experienced what I would consider significant smoke back from the Englander stove. Unfortunately my wife was the first to catch it and unplugged it before I could note the error code (if one was even displayed). Looking inside the unit while door still closed I discovered a smoldering burn with no flame and smoke pouring out of the hopper and out the lower front (just below the main unit on each side of the door). Oddly enough there were a couple wet spots on the stone slab just under the two spots (below the door) where the smoke was pouring out; there continued to have some water drip out of these 2 spots.

Once everything was cleared and cooled, i inspected the exhaust vents expecting to see a blockage of some sort but that was not the case at all. I then called customer support and went through all the diagnostics and everything checked out ok. After sending them pictures of stove and install, they were nice enough to send me a new lower auger motor and told me that would solve the issue since even though troubleshooting found nothing wrong, 'that must have been the issue'. They also commented that my stove would benefit from a new exhaust set up. My current setup includes 2-90 deg elbows (one to run up and the other out the exterior wall) but the rise is too short in their opinion and at a 45 degree angle and they prefer straight up. I have since shown install to a local pellet stove retail and they do not believe the exhaust install is an issue. I also purchased new gasket braiding and will be replacing that as well in the hopes that this will help my stove burn cleaner.

My issue is that while I dont know much about pellet stoves, it just doesn't seem logical to me that replacing the lower auger motor will eleviate the issue and/or prevent this smoke back from happening again. I just want to make sure I am not compromising the safety of my family by running this stove again with just a new auger motor installed. Thanks in advance for any insight and I apologize for the long-winded post...

 

[Cedarjunki]

Seems to me the power to the combustion blower was shut off or it died for some reason. Those 2 holes you meantion are the air wash for the glass.

If the combustion was running the smoke would have been exhausted out regardless if the auger died or not. So you might want to pull the combustion motor and give everything a good full cleaning inside and out and retry it.

Pulling the plug is a no no unless you want the house to fill with smoke. But anyways, check the combustion motor

 

[Tvo-2]

Seems to me the power to the combustion blower was shut off or it died for some reason. Those 2 holes you meantion are the air wash for the glass.

If the combustion was running the smoke would have been exhausted out regardless if the auger died or not. So you might want to pull the combustion motor and give everything a good full cleaning inside and out and retry it.

Pulling the plug is a no no unless you want the house to fill with smoke. But anyways, check the combustion motor

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Chrisnow86]

If the bottom motor died would would of had a auger jam.. Also make sure you hopper lid latches tight.. So after you latch it closed you shouldn't be able to push it down

 

[Dr.Faustus]

it could be the bottom auger died. when this happens, the fire can travel back towards the hopper. if your gaskets are in good shape, limited air can get in. This would cause the smolder and smoke. After a while, a smolder is not enough to convince the stove that there is a fire in there and it begins to shut down with an error code. If it got to a point where the stove cooled enough, it would have turned off the combustion blower. Thats when smoke got in your house.

 

[Cedarjunki]

Ok i think we may have overlooked something here.
So smoke back occured right?
Was the wind blowing that day???? I bet the smoke that scared your wife into unplugging the stove was a little blow back from a gust of wind. And the reason the smoke was coming up thru the hopper and everywhere else is because she unplugged the unit.
Am i close?

 

[MRangelo]

Ok good day new to forum have a question have a new england pellet stove 25-pdv replaced exhauxt blower gasket and combustion gasket as well snogged the nuts fired up the stove a few time still smell smoke usex a flash light and found out that when first lighting up there smoke going in a circluar motion under the exhaust tube ? Why and not sure ? Dont think the combustion gasket working or if thats the problem ? Could i use high heat silicon instead and or should i double up on the combustion gasket or is the blower fan bad starting to aggravate me

 

[Pellet rick]

Are you talking about the connection between the stove and the pellet vent? If so you can use a hi-temp gasket sealer on it if you want. My PDV 25 will puss a tiny bit of smoke until the vent warms up. Then there is nothing.

 

[MRangelo]

Thxs for the quick reply were the exhaust combustion meets the extension to the adapter the bend under the

 

[MRangelo]

See we’re the two female clips are the smoke circles right under the elbow

 

[MRangelo]

Could it be the exhaust blower not working correctly and need a new one

 

[Pellet rick]

Are you referring to the adapter from square to round?

 

[MRangelo]

Not sure ? When I serviced the stove I hooked a shop vac to the fresh air pipe to clean any pellets that fell down into the pipe from removing the ash pot and noticed that the exhaust fan blades we’re moving pretty quick, and I don’t hear any bearing noise either how else would I know

 

[MRangelo]

Yes square to round under neith saw smoke moving in a Circular motion Forgot if smoke was going clockwise or counterclockwise I think it was going clockwise but not sure

 

[Pellet rick]

That is somewhat normal there until hot. Take some hitemp rtv and coat the joint and run it. As stated before I think your main issue was your wife unplugging the stove. Always push the button and let it go through it’s shut down process or you will see smoke out side the stove.

 

[MRangelo]

That is somewhat normal there until hot. Take some hitemp rtv and coat the joint and run it. As stated before I think your main issue was your wife unplugging the stove. Always push the button and let it go through it’s shut down process or you will see smoke out side the stove.

Thxs but I jumped on thread I’m knew and I don’t have a wife that’s someone else and yes unplugging the Unit with stop all motors from exhausting fumes out that’s a NO NO

 

[Pellet rick]

Sorry about that.