Loss of heat

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kyas

kyas

Member
Hearth Supporter
Dec 9, 2008
23
Southern MA
Last year I bought my stove. A 25-PDVC/55/SHP10 and ran it at settings of 1-1 or 2-2 and actually had to open the basement door to let heat go down because it was so hot in my living space which is approx 1000 sq ft. This year I purchased the same pellets and I can't seem to get the temp in my living space higher then 68 degrees. Also is it typical to have only the left side of the stove hot and the right cool? Help!!!
 
Have you checked all your pipes and made sure they are not clogged with something (nests etc..).. I have heard and read that pellets may differ from year to year for some reason. Try a couple bags of other pellets and see.
On my stove (facing it) the left side blows hotter than the right side so I to am not sure about that one.
 
the left side when you look at it is normaly a little bit hotter because the exhaust is pulling it that way, but you shouldnt really notice it.
 
I checked for nests etc, and found nothing. I checked to make sure the baffle plate was centered. Which by the way, should that rest flush up against the back wall, or lean forward some? My 3 lower buttons are on 4-4-1. I can't for the life of me figure it out. Last year I was dying from heat and had to open my basement door. I will trry a different kind. Oh one more thought, when I need to refill my hopper, I don't shut it down. I open it and quickly fill it back up again. Could this have messed it up some how. Do you really need to shut it off and not have it running when you go to re fill it?
 
kyas have you checked your heat exchangers for build up, that would definetly reduce your heat output?
 
I don't think so because I don't know where they are! Or is that the metal lip that goes across behind the baffle plate. And if so why would they refer it (exchanger(s) when there is only (1) that runs across.
 
Im not that familiar with your stove but when you open the door to your stove look up inside there should be a removable plate, once that plate is removed you should see a row of tubes,those are your heat exchangers, and if there dirty you heat output would drop. ;-)
 
I sure will. I hope this is the fix. I love this stove (Englander 25-PDVC/55/SHP10). All though I can't seem to get through to their service department. The phone is busy from 8-5. This is only my second season and in the spring time I did the maintaince of replacing two gaskets and cleaning it all out. Being a woman and all, the machanics are really simple to understand. I will check back and let you know how I made out. Thanks again!!!!
 
My heat exchanger, it's not tubes. It's a piece of metal welded inside and goes across. I will clean all inside that area and see if that helps. I wanted to attached a photo but I do not know how.
 
kyas I did some research I went to englander's wed page from what I could see the air comes out on the sides of your stove not the top, your stove has whats called an impingment plate above your burn pot its 12" x 13" if you have your manuel its illistration 6 they say to clean back there atleast monthly.Hope this helps.BTW its #4 inthe diagram
 
Your the best!!!! I cleaned my heat exchanger and the whole unit out, ran it on 1-1 and once again I had to open up my basement door. The start of the season I did use some awful pellets that actually clogged my upper auger due to so much saw dust and I never did give it a really good cleaning. Especially behind the baffle plate/heat exchager. So thank you so much!

I do have one (hopefully last) question. I was told last year that I could set my bottom 3 buttons from 5-4-1 to 3-4-1. This was to help with going through pellets so fast. That would be the low fuel feed button to 3. Right now they are set at 4-4-1 and I have a good consistant medium high flame running it on 1-1. If I put it back to 3, the flame fluxuates from medium high to no flame for a few seconds and then comes back. Is this not good or is it ok? :red:
 
well im glad to have helped you, I dont own the stove your running but I would say that if the fire doesnt die out and the stove is producing enough heat you should be fine. :-)
 
kyas,
a lot of the guys in here clean their stove either daily, or every 2nd or 3rd day, I use a shop vac every 3rd day, and clean everything I can with the shop vac. I have only had my stove a month, but I will shut the stove down soon, and check my exhaust pipe for soot buildup to try to get an idea how many times a winter I have to do a major cleaning. My stove has a pull out lever that cleans my heat exchangers, and I get quite a lot of soot build up every other day. Isnt this a great site for learning about pellet stoves,,,,,,,,good luck
 
Thanks glassman. This site is wonderful! I have the very basic of a pellet stove. I hear alot about the heat exchangers being tubes but mine is only one piece of metal welded to the inside back wall. A let me tell you it was layered with approx 1 1/2 inch of soot. I cleaned everything and now it works great! Trust me, it makes a difference in what pellets you are buring to determine the frequency of cleaning. Thanks again all!!!!!
 
I am having the same problems with my "Englander". I also had some bad pellets earlier in the year, which may have caused excessive ash buildup. When I pulled out the baffle plate from the rear of the stove and rapped the steel, a lot of ash fell down from the top and in behind the lower part of the stove baffle behind the burn box. How can I access this area to vacuum out the ashes? The gap is only about 3/4" front to rear and several inches deep.

My stove also blows much hotter on the left side than on the right. Sometimes it seems to blow cold air from the right. The stove pipe feels much hotter than I think that it should. The heat output doesn't seem to change much when I boost up the settings. I have to wonder if there is a lot more ash insulating the heat exchanger.

If you are out there Mike, or anyone else, I could use some suggestions. I have cleaned and vacuumed the stove almost daily, including the exhaust pipe. The only thing that I haven't tried is the leaf blower treatment.
 
wak1954 said:
I am having the same problems with my "Englander". I also had some bad pellets earlier in the year, which may have caused excessive ash buildup. When I pulled out the baffle plate from the rear of the stove and rapped the steel, a lot of ash fell down from the top and in behind the lower part of the stove baffle behind the burn box. How can I access this area to vacuum out the ashes? The gap is only about 3/4" front to rear and several inches deep.

My stove also blows much hotter on the left side than on the right. Sometimes it seems to blow cold air from the right. The stove pipe feels much hotter than I think that it should. The heat output doesn't seem to change much when I boost up the settings. I have to wonder if there is a lot more ash insulating the heat exchanger.

If you are out there Mike, or anyone else, I could use some suggestions. I have cleaned and vacuumed the stove almost daily, including the exhaust pipe. The only thing that I haven't tried is the leaf blower treatment.
Click to expand...

what i use is a short (about 20 inches) piece of garden hose that i wrapped duct tape around to make it fat enough to stuff into the end of my ash vac hose, its smaller and flexable so you can feed it down into the areas you cannot get your regular hose into, works just ducky on my pdvc
 
Thank you Mike. I will give that a try. Is there anything above the burn box that can be cleaned to improve the flame path for more even heat distribution. If there is a better cleaning manual available, with illustrations, it would a great help to me and probably others. Thank you, William
 
Other then what Mike suggested, I know what you saying. The ash must be going down those holes. I will try with a small hose. Thanks Mike
 
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