I have a 2003 Englander 25-PDV. Does anyone make a hopper extension for it? I’m gone long hours for work and I’m tired of a cold house when I get home.
Hopper Extension
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bogieb
Minister of Fire
There is an aftermarket extension, that says it will work for the 25 PVDC. Whether it will work for your PVD is a matter of the dimensions, which are shown in the description down lower on the page. Do a search for aftermarket englander 25 pdv hopper extension and there are Amazon, Ebay and other site links to choose the best price.
I have seen some on SleazyBay if you care to check there.
If I was considering an extended hopper I would contact a local Welder to make one for me.
Reproduce dimensions on paper and they can build it for you.
You may want to bring in the hopper lid so they can build it to those dimensions.
Bill
If I was considering an extended hopper I would contact a local Welder to make one for me.
Reproduce dimensions on paper and they can build it for you.
You may want to bring in the hopper lid so they can build it to those dimensions.
Bill
I fail to understand why a 'hopper extension is even necessary. Biomass stoves are supposed to be for 'an alternate source of heat', not a primary source, Every owners manual specifically states that. You never depend on a stove as your ONLY source of heat, what your central furnace is for.
Consequently, coming home to a cold house is not necessary, set the thermostat on the central furnace to come on when the stove is out of fuel. Problem solved. Besides that is a good time to clean it (when it's out of fuel).
How we do it. Central furnace is always on the ready, in case the stove shuts down from lack of fiel or some other reason.
I never depend on our biomass stove as a primary heat source, because it isn't. In essence, it's only a 'space' heater and our space is way too large for it to sufficiently heat anyway.
Like this AM. it's 18 outside and the central furnace is cycling every few hours to keep it comfortable in here.
I use ours (and have for years) to offset the central furnace's fuel consumption, not eliminate it.
Consequently, coming home to a cold house is not necessary, set the thermostat on the central furnace to come on when the stove is out of fuel. Problem solved. Besides that is a good time to clean it (when it's out of fuel).
How we do it. Central furnace is always on the ready, in case the stove shuts down from lack of fiel or some other reason.
I never depend on our biomass stove as a primary heat source, because it isn't. In essence, it's only a 'space' heater and our space is way too large for it to sufficiently heat anyway.
Like this AM. it's 18 outside and the central furnace is cycling every few hours to keep it comfortable in here.
I use ours (and have for years) to offset the central furnace's fuel consumption, not eliminate it.
I have extensions on both of my stoves. Makes it so I only have to refill every 1-1.5 days. Furnace stat set at 65 incase stoves go out. I only shut down to clean every 2-3 weeks or if I need to shut stove down because house is to warm I will give it a quick sweeep out and wash glass. The Harman I run it until ash pan is full then shutdown and clean 3-4 weeks.
ARC
Minister of Fire
A lot of the new stoves only come with 25 lb hoppers saying "The 25 lb. hopper will last 13 hours between fillings and because of this smaller amount, there is less maintenace due to auger jams caused by crushed pellets " do not know if that is true or just a selling point.
That to me is not a selling point. I would prefer to only add pellets
once a day or less. Half a bag at a time would be a huge pain in the butt
Why are you heating your house when your not home? Toss the stove on a programable thermostat and have it come on a hour before someone gets home. Thats my plan for ours but in the mean time i turn it on when i get home and the main living area the chill is gone within about 1/2 hour and cozy within the hour. My furnace is set low to only come on if the temps get really cold to keep pipes from freezing... Running this way i have cut 3/4 of my gas bill and 1/2 my hydro...
tlc1976
Minister of Fire
I agree. I don’t know why stoves the size of mine now come with smaller hoppers. Mine holds just over a bag and a half, will run 35-40 hours on a hopper. I don’t know if it was coincidence or smart design, but the first bend line in the hopper is the 1/2 bag mark, and the 2nd bend line is the 1 bag mark. So it’s easy to know when I can put on a full bag and still have 12-13 hours of burn time if I don’t.
I use mine as my primary heat source. My LP boiler will kick on at 50f to keep pipes from freezing if the stove goes out for whatever reason. I prefer to not use it because it’s expensive, and I don’t like the thought of having a pipe in every room that could potentially leak. But it’s there for backup. So if I wanted to add a safely built hopper extension to maximize my most economical heat source, I don’t see a problem with that.
If I’m going to be gone long enough for the hopper to run out, I’ll have a neighbor or coworker check the house and put in a bag and whatever. Good to do anyway.
In my situation, I keep a couple hundred pounds of mix (corn and pellets) at the foot of the deck steps and use a 5 gallon pail to fill the stove 2 times daily, once in the morning after my AM coffee and once at night before I retire, My 6039 holds about 60 pounds or so of mix and depending on where it's set (PPH delivery and ambient temps) 2 pails does it for me.
We run ours 24-7 in the winter except for my 2 times a week cleaning. Needs to stay warm in the house home or not, the cats need to be kept cozy warm....
We run ours 24-7 in the winter except for my 2 times a week cleaning. Needs to stay warm in the house home or not, the cats need to be kept cozy warm....
Ssyko
Minister of Fire
think about this! You leave for work. stove is shut off. everything!! In the house gets colder And colder as the day goes on. You set stove to turn on 1 hr before you come home. So when you arrive it is “ “cozy” but in reality the contents of the dwelling are still warming up. Now you shut it off to go to bed and the cycle starts again. The amount of energy it takes to maintain 68
is less than what it takes to cycle your heating.
Why ??? Oh wait a minute they want your moneySsyko... I think the NG suppliers would disagree with you.....
Im renting an old house that doesn’t have central heat/air. I rely solely on my pellet stove for heat which gives me about 16 hours of burn time with one bag. My work shifts are 24 hours straight. I would like not to have to have someone stop in and fill up my stove while I’m gone. An extension would make that possible.
Pellets are my sole source of heat, so I need a warm house all the time. Especially when it’s 10 degrees outside.
Ssyko
Minister of Fire
The one bogieb posted the link to will work but you will have to install a gasket on top and the hopper lid moved to the top of it
bogieb
Minister of Fire
A small-ish hopper, that I couldn't put an extension on is the main reason I started looking to replace the St. Croix Hastings I used to have. The specs said it would hole a bag (40 pounds), but in reality, even at the first filling I could only get 30-35 pounds in there.
So many times in the deep of winter I would get home (13-15 hours away for work) and the hopper would be empty, or just running out. Sure, I had the propane boiler as back up, and the basement stove helped too. But at $3.50-$5.50 per gallon for propane (seriously, never paid less than $3.50), that gets very expensive very quickly - which is the whole reason I went to pellet stoves to heat my house.
I've never had an auger jam in any of the stoves I've had. Granted, I've only been burning pellets since January 2014, but since my stove are are used as if they were sole sources of heat, I would expect if that were a problem, it would have happened by now.
bogieb
Minister of Fire
Good points. Have to do that even with OEM hopper extensions for my Harmans, so I never thought to mention it.
Cannot wrap my thoughts around an auger jam caused by pellets (or corn) for that matter. Considering the reduction ratio of a typical auger gearbox (compound triple reduction), even the miniscule torque a shaded pole drive motor produces, is multiplied 4 times before the output shaft that is driving the auger turns, consequently, the torque applied to the auger should 'crunch' about anything short of a foreign object (like a bolt or nut or washer) in the feed tube, No pellet or corn kernel would survive the torque applied to the auger. Try running a drive and gripping the output shaft. You cannot, the torque is too great so I don't buy into fuel jamming the feed auger unless the reduction gearbox is lubricant dry inside or the drive motor has dry bearings which would reduce the output torque to a point where it might (and I say might) jam. Highly unlikely though. Sounds to me like a typical salesman's BS. Like the air wash thing. Air wash my butt. All viewing windows collect fly ash and / or carbon, depending on the firing rate.
tlc1976
Minister of Fire
Several times a day I can hear my auger snapping a long pellet. I’ve only had twice, several years ago with the old pellets, and within weeks of each other, jam the auger. And it didn’t stop the motor but instead sheared the pin, that’s what it’s for. It wasn’t a huge jam because a new pin and it started running again, didn’t have to clean out the auger.
tbear853
Feeling the Heat
Yeah, with an output shaft RPM of 1/4or so rpm, and the speed of the motor shaft, there's a huge amount of gear reduction there. My uncle Alex once said a washing motor would move a freight train if geared low enough as he was explaining something to a child which I was, maybe 10 years old or younger then. Pellet Auger Motor with gear box is an excellent example.
If you want to experience how much torque that tiny shaded pole motor imparts through the reduction gear box, put your finer in the auger flighting and when it amputates the end of your finger (as it gets to the end of the exposed part, you'll know how much torque it makes. Why on newer stoves, there is a wire grate over the auger, so you don't put your fingers somewhere they don't belong.... 
tlc1976
Minister of Fire
Mine has a door switch that stops the auger when it’s open. But I disabled it because half the time the fire would go out if I didn’t load a bag fast enough. The auger is so far down that I couldn’t put my finger in it by accident. Besides it’s just me here, or anyone else who has common sense. If I really had to dig into the auger and the stove was plugged in, I’d use a stick of some sort. Treat it like a food grinder.
ABusWrench
Feeling the Heat
Reminds me of a guy at work. He was one of our "technical service advisors". College educated. Saw him in our shop one day, arm in a sling and his hand heavily bandaged. Seems he was running his 2 stage snow blower and it plugged up. Yeah, that's right, he reached into it to unplug it. And yes it was still running, auger engaged! Takes all kinds!
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