I think my 25 ep control board is bad....

[Jason Knapp]

Hello all, Its me again! I hope everyone's New Year is off to a great start.
As the title states, I believe my control board has expired or is about to. If I set my fan speed at or above 7, It goes right to max fan speed!
Furthermore, My stove is still filling the burn pot in a short period of time. The ash is VERY compacted. I have to use a scraper to break the mass of ash apart to get it out of the pot. I think my pellet quality is the root cause of the situation, as I have cleaned and cleaned and cleaned this stove from front to back with the thoroughness of a madman! I adjusted the Low Air and it helped with flame activity and a large deal of ash is accumulating outside of the burn pot, but these pesky "clinkers"? are driving me nuts!
I am burning Penningtons..........I know,I know, but they came with the stove......
I tried Somersets and they seem to make a considerable difference. My next step is to check every gasket on this thing!
Any ideas???

 

[heat seeker]

If your speed control is a potentiometer, I'd suspect it. It can be checked with an ohmmeter.

 

[slvrblkk]

Per Mike at ESW.....on the EP's, 7 is the highest blower speed....no difference between 7 through 9......he said blower is running flat out at that point....something about the data dump on the prom chip.....btw, throw the Pennington's out....lol

 

[imacman]

I agree with the comment about getting rid of the Penningtons, or at least mix them with another good pellet 50/50 to get rid of them.

BTW, what are lower 3 buttons set at? How many bags of pellets have gone through the stove since new, or from last FULL cleaning?

 

[Jason Knapp]

My stove always had a difference in blower speed between 7 and 9 until two weeks ago. Believe me, I'm working on getting rid of the Penningtons. I'm going to try mixing them with Somersets.
The lower 3 buttons were 1,5,1. I upped it to 1,6,1 and it seemed a little better. I just went to 1,7,1 and it got better still, even though 7 probably isn't the best thing for efficiency. I have run about 5 bags through the stove since I completely cleaned the stove. Complete meaning EVERYTHING. brushed, hammered everything I could. Removed the exhaust blower and housing and brushed that too. Brushed the blower motor fins, ran a brush through the exhaust piping too. I can't figure out what else to clean. I checked the gaskets on the stove using the dollar bill method. All is tight. The OAK pipe is clean, straight and not too long.
Is it possible that it's just the Quality of the Penningtons creating these massive clinkers?

 

[slvrblkk]

Check with Mike on the blower question, his response was what I posed above about the data dump...I asked him why there wasn't a difference on my blower speed from 7-9....maybe your stove is newer or older than mine and board was programmed differently...idk....

BTW....those Penningtons, unless they are the all "oak" pellets, are more than likely causing your problems (a GOOD cleaning can't hurt either)....I will never, ever, buy those pellets again...even if they were the last available pellets on earth! (bad past experience)

 

[Jason Knapp]

They are an oak hardwood pellet. Some bags burn better than others. I noticed that the bags that have a light colored pellets burn well. The bags with dark and light colored pellets burn like crap. Maybe there's a bunch of bark ground into the pellets?
And trust me! I can't clean this stove any better! It's absolutely spotless!

 

[slvrblkk]

They are an oak hardwood pellet. Some bags burn better than others. I noticed that the bags that have a light colored pellets burn well. The bags with dark and light colored pellets burn like crap. Maybe there's a bunch of bark ground into the pellets?
And trust me! I can't clean this stove any better! It's absolutely spotless!

That would not surprise me what-so-ever!

 

[Jason Knapp]

O.K. I have an update on the never ending battle to get my stove dialed in using these absolute garbage Penningtons. Aside from the original issue, I did what some might consider risky. I upped the Low Burn Air to 8!. Before you scream, it ended up helping immensely. The stove has been running since Friday Morning, 11a.m. and the burn pot is still 1/4 full. If I had a good brand of pellets, I wouldn't have done this. What are your thoughts?

 

[slvrblkk]

You gotta do what works for ya....and if that works, GREAT! Can you get a hold of better pellets? Maybe you can mix the good with the garbage to get rid of them and have a less of a headache?

BTW....congrats on the soon-to-be baby!

 

[Jason Knapp]

Thanks for the congrats! My wife and I are very excited.
I'd like to get some better pellets, but I don't want to invest in more junk. Furthermore, I've been trying to get Somersets, but they are nowhere to be found
I'd rather wait until they come back in stock then risk getting more junk.

 

[imacman]

Thanks for the congrats! My wife and I are very excited.
I'd like to get some better pellets, but I don't want to invest in more junk. Furthermore, I've been trying to get Somersets, but they are nowhere to be found
I'd rather wait until they come back in stock then risk getting more junk.

Try Lowes for some Greene Team...they have been a good pellet for me. I'm pretty sure the Newburgh one near me still has them, and are getting more in within a week or so.

They also had Timber heat, which are re-bagged Dry Creek....they burned real well for me too.

As for the LBA being at 8, probably helps burn those Penningtons, but you're sending a lot of heat up the exhaust....I understand why and agree w/ it for now. But if you get better pellets, I think you can get it back down to 5 or 6.