I have and Englander PDV25/55-shp pellet stove and I have run into a new problem with the Hopper Auger binding. The auger bound to the point the motor bent the stop plate under the motor. I removed the motor and the auger and check the bearing and auger and they appeared to free though there was a lot of lateral play in the auger. There was nothing binding in the pellet tube. I reinstalled the auger and aligned it and it seemed to be spinning free. I ran the stove for about an hour and it appeared not to be binding. I started the stove and let run with some pellets and it seemed OK. Once the stove heated up, it started binding again. I am leaning towards the bearing assembly and have one on order. Just wanted to get a second or third opinion.
Hopper Auger Binding
- Thread starter bduce
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sounds like a blockage in the drop chute , pull the lower auger and look in and up the chute , see if you have debris there , long pellets can sometimes cause this
sounds like a blockage in the drop chute , pull the lower auger and look in and up the chute , see if you have debris there , long pellets can sometimes cause this
Yeah; I checked the chute and it was fine and and I aligned the auger several times. It seems to run fine until the stove heats up. The auger then begins to bind. My thought was the floating bearing seems not to float when heated and as I said it has a lot of lateral play unlike the burner feed auger. I think the bearing is locking up and forcing the auger to turn elliptically jamming the auger once heated. Once the stove is to temperature, I can remove all the pellets from the chute and it still binds. This is a poor design for a feed system because if you have a power outage or the lower auger motor fails, the pellets can smolder all the way to the hopper. It has happened to me once and in speaking with my Fire Chief, he has been to at least 4 homes this year with Englander stoves with the hopper smoldering filling the house with smoke.
bduce said:
Thats a scary thought. I wonder if there is a fix to this. I know this stoves are very "inexpensive" but man, when dealing with fire and things with a lot of parts..well. I like Mike from Englander. I'm sure he will help you with this issue.
Best of luck
I recently went through a series of upper auger jams myself on my new install. Check this thread to see if it helps: https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/52208/
I think you are on the right path checking all the things you have. Don't forget to also check the surfaces. On my stove the cast iron had a rough pimpled surface almost like it might have slipped through QC.
Just curious do you know how the first jam may have occurred? I'm thinking bad pellets could have caused such a serious to have damaged something. IMHO I think this design might not be as forgiving with bad pellets as other designs.
I think you are on the right path checking all the things you have. Don't forget to also check the surfaces. On my stove the cast iron had a rough pimpled surface almost like it might have slipped through QC.
Just curious do you know how the first jam may have occurred? I'm thinking bad pellets could have caused such a serious to have damaged something. IMHO I think this design might not be as forgiving with bad pellets as other designs.
I am running the Pennington pellets and they do have fines which have never been a problem. The stove is 10 years old and I have replaced all auger motors and fan assemblies this year. I will pull both augurs and run a cylinder hone into the auger tubes to make sure there are no burrs. I guess I will start removing the fines. We have a manufacturer in Jaffery, NH but the pellets are 60% softwood and the fines are even worse. They also burn very quick. I use 1.5 bags of Pennington a day and over 2 bags of the Jaffery pellets. I also use different motors made by Dayton that are better quality than the motors offered by Englander. The design of the feed tubes and auger is poor and does lend it self to burn back to the hopper should the bottom auger jam. Most of the other stoves use an inclines auger which feed the pellets up the tube where they fall into the burn pot through a chute. This design separates the burn pot from the pellet supply eliminating the chance of burn back and they only need one motor to feed the pellets. Stove does a good job in heating the 2500 SF home and it's hard to find a pellet stave that puts out 48,000 btu's. Support has been great from Englander even on an old stove. Thanks for the help. I really appreciate it.
I agree, the single auger chute design is definitely simpler and safer. My Jamestown J1000 has that design and it is a very reliable stove capable of burning almost any junk pellet.
One problem I see with the Jamestown chute design is that the pellets don't always fall exactly where needed into the fire, and so don't catch as quickly. This causes a noticeable oscillation in the flame height and fire intensity. Englander's dual auger design pushes the pellets right into the flame each time with a more even and consistent burn. I don't know if this is the same for all chute designs, but this may explain why Englanders have a high BTU rating.
One problem I see with the Jamestown chute design is that the pellets don't always fall exactly where needed into the fire, and so don't catch as quickly. This causes a noticeable oscillation in the flame height and fire intensity. Englander's dual auger design pushes the pellets right into the flame each time with a more even and consistent burn. I don't know if this is the same for all chute designs, but this may explain why Englanders have a high BTU rating.
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