Help Me! Englander Unburnt Pellets in Burnpot

[joefraser]

I am getting a little frustrated with this. I am having a bunch of unburnt pellets build up in my burnpot causing me to need to bring the feed down to nothing and mix to burn off when they stack up. The flame burns mostly at the back of the burnpot so once the pellets are pushed further up (by horizontal auger) they stop burning and pile up. Currently I am running on medium to hhigh settings so the bottom three buttons (air and feed adjustments) do not come into play. I don't believe it to be the pellets it has happened on both brands I have burned recently. I am currently burning Okanagans which for the record to not smell like a dead animal or cat piss

I just recently did a good cleaning: scraped vent pipes and did the leaf blower trick and vacumed out the inside, scrapped the walls and behind the baffleplate. Problem occcured before and after the cleaning. The stoves is new and has only burned about 60 bags.

Any ideas?

 

[imacman]

Joe, has the stove burned like this since it was new?

Can you describe your vent set-up (length, number of elbows, type of install, etc, etc)?

Did you remove the combustion blower during your cleaning to make sure it isn't caked-up with burned-on ash & soot?

In general, it sounds like a lack of burn air.

 

[Excell]

Looks like the same problem that I am having . I think we need more air but I don't know how to get it . I guys talk about pellets dancing in the burn pot i don't see that happening in mine .

 

[imacman]

Looks like the same problem that I am having . I think we need more air but I don't know how to get it . I guys talk about pellets dancing in the burn pot i don't see that happening in mine .

Yeah, the "dancin" pellets are more easily controlled by stoves that have manual air controls, like my Astoria had. Some of the newer stoves have to be re-programmed on the control board to increase air.

If your SURE everything is clean, and the exhaust vent set-up is flowing well, then I'd say a call to Mike Holton & his techs is in order.

 

[joefraser]

Joe, has the stove burned like this since it was new?

Can you describe your vent set-up (length, number of elbows, type of install, etc, etc)?

Did you remove the combustion blower during your cleaning to make sure it isn't caked-up with burned-on ash & soot?

In general, it sounds like a lack of burn air.

Vent: out the back 6 inches, t with 90 degree elbow, 3 feet horizontal direct vent. OAK is hooked up.

I didn't remove the combustion blower. Not exactly sure how to do it. Can I do it without removing my vent piping and exactly where should I be cleaning?
Wouldn't think this would be an issue this quick but I'll give it a shot. I'll check the video maybe they show it. I am getting exaust air outside (I could see the heat radiating out this morning as it was freezing out).

How exactly does the exaust and burn air go together? What blows the burn air to the burnpot? I was trying to figure out if I was getting an blowing but couldn't find a good way without sticking my hands in the fire.

I'm not too sure if I've had this issue since new or not. I was burning mostly on low with cheap pellets. Lots of clunkers. I did burn 3 bags each of Spruce Point and Okies about a month ago. I don't remember if this occured or not. I was hoping it was an issue with the other pellets but it did not get better when I switched. Am getting more heat though.

 

[imacman]

Vent: out the back 6 inches, t with 90 degree elbow, 3 feet horizontal direct vent. OAK is hooked up.

I didn't remove the combustion blower. Not exactly sure how to do it. Can I do it without removing my vent piping and exactly where should I be cleaning?
Wouldn't think this would be an issue this quick but I'll give it a shot. I'll check the video maybe they show it. I am getting exaust air outside (I could see the heat radiating out this morning as it was freezing out).

How exactly does the exaust and burn air go together? What blows the burn air to the burnpot? I was trying to figure out if I was getting an blowing but couldn't find a good way without sticking my hands in the fire.

I'm not too sure if I've had this issue since new or not. I was burning mostly on low with cheap pellets. Lots of clunkers. I did burn 3 bags each of Spruce Point and Okies about a month ago. I don't remember if this occured or not. I was hoping it was an issue with the other pellets but it did not get better when I switched. Am getting more heat though.

Well, first of all, Englander recommends in the install manual that you have a minimum of 3' of vertical rise, which you don't have, but i don't think that's the problem.

Removing the combustion blower isn't hard, and the exhaust pipe does not have to be removed. It's behind the RS (left side facing the stove) access panel. Disconnect power first, unplug motor leads, remove nuts around blower. Try to be careful, as the gasket rips easily. Scrape/wirebrush the fan blades carefully, including any ash buildup underneath on the motor housing. While the blower is out, vacuum inside the blower housing on the stove.

Burn air and exhaust air is done with the one combustion blower. The exhaust blower pulls air into the burnpot through the OAK, through the burning pellets, and pushes out through the exhaust.

As for the pellets, you were burning some really good pellets with the Okies and Spruce Point, so I don' think those are the problem. Hard to help at this point if you don't know if things have gotten worse since new, or it's the same. Try cleaning the blower and the entire stove while your at it, and then try burning again. if it doesn't improve, I'd recommend a call to Englander Tech service.

 

[Panhandler]

I had a problem with a massive amount of not completely burnt pellets in the PDVC. Massive amounts of only charred pellets being pushed out of burnpot. If you just did cleaning, see if you accidentally changed the third lower button on control panel.. Also check the vacuum hose that attaches to the combustion blower. The end of this hose can get brittle over time and crack. You can usually cut off the end and reattach this hose. If not a piece of replacement quarter inch hose can be bought at local auto parts store (fuel line hose).Let us know what you find.

 

[imacman]

.....see if you accidentally changed the third lower button on control panel.. Also check the vacuum hose that attaches to the combustion blower.......

I don't see how you can "accidently" change this setting...it involves 2 separate steps to change it. As for the vacuum hose, if there's a break in that, it stops the top auger so no pellets will flow....that's not what he has....he has too many.

 

[Panhandler]

.....see if you accidentally changed the third lower button on control panel.. Also check the vacuum hose that attaches to the combustion blower.......

I don't see how you can "accidently" change this setting...it involves 2 separate steps to change it. As for the vacuum hose, if there's a break in that, it stops the top auger so no pellets will flow....that's not what he has....he has too many.

Not sure how it happened, but mine got changed, probably from rubbing it while cleaning and I read on here in the last week it happened to someone else. Also, my auger didn't stop when the hose had a crack in it, I had similar problems. It happened twice. First time I just cut an inch off and second time I replaced it.

 

[blanc12]

I had a PDVC and I took the back panel off of it and left it off. When doing so I also left out the screws that held it onto the stove. This created a loss of vacuum in the stove and gave me all types of problems. These included poor burning and my auger shaft melting in half.

Check the seals on the door and hopper lid. If the air doesn't go in from the right place and exit the right place the stove will run poorly.

Hope this helps

 

[littlesmokey]

First I am not familiar with this stove, but have seen this problem. Obviously there are more pellets than air to burn them. The question is, where is the air and why is it not in the burn pot? In some stoves that have a set in pellet burner/basket/pot, they need to be seated. A break in the seal will allow burn air to go around the fire. The other cause may be the build up of crud in the burn pot. This requires scraping the pot and cleaning the air holes. The third possibility that I can see is a failure in the combustion air system. I would check to see that all door, chambers and block off plates are where they should be. When I first started I was a little timid about cranking down the ash drawer locks. Had a lazy tall flame that looked great , but didn't burn right. Your flame should be short and active.Kind of like little welding torches. The flame in your stove may be OK for that stove, but in mine, it would be a poor burn. I would simply increase the combustion air by openning the damper. When things were popping, I would decide if I needed to reduce the feed rate, or rework the settings completely. At the point you need to adjust the setting, my advise is to call ESW. They will take the information about you stove, not one similar or sort of like yours and give you the technical advise you will need to reset, even walk you through it.

I wish I had that advantage, to call, but the guys who built my stove are all dead or well retired.

Just my pet peeve, based on years using machines and motors. I am not a fan of the "Leaf Blower Cleaning" I think there are setting and switches that can be affected by excessive air being forced through the airways. Even pneumatic tools I use very clearly state the maximum air pressure they are to be run at, not that they can't handle the extra pressure, but the regulators react to the pressure not volume and the extra volume can damage a tool. I know, I had a $700 sander rebuilt because an employee thought it would run better at 125psi, than the 60-80 recommended. Those air motors are expensive.

 

[joefraser]

I took out the exaust blower this morning and cleaned the fans and surrounding area. It didn't seem too bad. Fans were black but seemed like they should have worked fine. We'll see how it goes from here.