Hi Forum Folke,
Have a puzzle... Englander 25 PDV, came with the place when I bought it. Had seen a fair amount of service. WAS troublesome for a time until I learned how the thing operates and typical problem areas. Despite it's issues, it would blast out enough heat that I'd have to check it every few hours to make sure the place wasn't up to ninety degrees! (It's in an adjacent building, a workshop, about 20 x 40')
Did the pre-seasonal thing, full cleanout and this time I opted to replace the sheet gaskets (not the woven ropes/ribbons, not yet.) Trimmed crunchy sensor tubing end on exhaust blower to get rid of too-frequent E1 codes, was getting a lot of no-start E2 codes, so I pulled the igniter, blew out the bore it lives in, installed a new one and adjusted it properly (~1/8" gap between end of igniter tube and back of burn chamber plate.) Big find was the gasket that was on the room blower. There's a divider in the air output cavity, a bit to the left of center. The left-hand side has always pushed out more air and much hotter air than the right side, which has always puzzled me. Pulled the blower, and the gasket was in terrible shape, and wasn't even fully on the flange, so it was doing a really crappy job of sealing. Fabricated a new one and ensured it was fully over the flange, tightened everything up, and fired it up.
Wow... pushing a LOT more air now! The left-side output is about the same, but the right-side output is very much higher, and is actually nearly hot instead of lukewarm as it was before.
Sounds good, right? They why am I getting LESS heat from the stove? I had that thing running literally ALL day yesterday (in parallel with 2 electric space heaters), nd it barely made 67 F (prior to this big "fix" it would have been pushing 80 F.) My wife told me it wasn't getting as warm as it did before I 'fixed' it, and I was unfairly dismissive of her claim, until I verified it myself. She's not wrong.
No obstructions to intake air, or exhaust blower output. Pipes and chimney are clean. Door and hopper seals are adequate (no changes made), no detectable auger coupling slippage that would result in reduced pellet feed volume, auger motors are cycling exactly as before... in short, I can find absolutely no reason for this sudden reduction in the amount of heat output. I'd suspect pellets, as I had about ten bags left over from last heatin season, and they're kept in a little 'blister room' off of the main building, basically a pallet platform floor with a rough-framed surround and corrugated metal roofing for both roof and walls. It's not a controlled environment and they're guaranteed picking up a lot of moisture during the summer months. That said, I've already burned through those and am into fresh pellets purchased this fall, and the reduced heat issue persists. Same kind of pellets I've been using from day one.
Anyone else ever run into something similar? Everthing I did should have improved functionality and reliability, and appears to have done so... except I'm getting less heat. Makes absolutely zero sense to me. I *did* find an air leak in the room blower plenum, where there's a small hole in the weld, but that's been there since the thing left the factory (plugged it with high-temp silicone, as I don't have a welder.)
Any/all input greatly appreciated!!
Have a puzzle... Englander 25 PDV, came with the place when I bought it. Had seen a fair amount of service. WAS troublesome for a time until I learned how the thing operates and typical problem areas. Despite it's issues, it would blast out enough heat that I'd have to check it every few hours to make sure the place wasn't up to ninety degrees! (It's in an adjacent building, a workshop, about 20 x 40')
Did the pre-seasonal thing, full cleanout and this time I opted to replace the sheet gaskets (not the woven ropes/ribbons, not yet.) Trimmed crunchy sensor tubing end on exhaust blower to get rid of too-frequent E1 codes, was getting a lot of no-start E2 codes, so I pulled the igniter, blew out the bore it lives in, installed a new one and adjusted it properly (~1/8" gap between end of igniter tube and back of burn chamber plate.) Big find was the gasket that was on the room blower. There's a divider in the air output cavity, a bit to the left of center. The left-hand side has always pushed out more air and much hotter air than the right side, which has always puzzled me. Pulled the blower, and the gasket was in terrible shape, and wasn't even fully on the flange, so it was doing a really crappy job of sealing. Fabricated a new one and ensured it was fully over the flange, tightened everything up, and fired it up.
Wow... pushing a LOT more air now! The left-side output is about the same, but the right-side output is very much higher, and is actually nearly hot instead of lukewarm as it was before.
Sounds good, right? They why am I getting LESS heat from the stove? I had that thing running literally ALL day yesterday (in parallel with 2 electric space heaters), nd it barely made 67 F (prior to this big "fix" it would have been pushing 80 F.) My wife told me it wasn't getting as warm as it did before I 'fixed' it, and I was unfairly dismissive of her claim, until I verified it myself. She's not wrong.
No obstructions to intake air, or exhaust blower output. Pipes and chimney are clean. Door and hopper seals are adequate (no changes made), no detectable auger coupling slippage that would result in reduced pellet feed volume, auger motors are cycling exactly as before... in short, I can find absolutely no reason for this sudden reduction in the amount of heat output. I'd suspect pellets, as I had about ten bags left over from last heatin season, and they're kept in a little 'blister room' off of the main building, basically a pallet platform floor with a rough-framed surround and corrugated metal roofing for both roof and walls. It's not a controlled environment and they're guaranteed picking up a lot of moisture during the summer months. That said, I've already burned through those and am into fresh pellets purchased this fall, and the reduced heat issue persists. Same kind of pellets I've been using from day one.
Anyone else ever run into something similar? Everthing I did should have improved functionality and reliability, and appears to have done so... except I'm getting less heat. Makes absolutely zero sense to me. I *did* find an air leak in the room blower plenum, where there's a small hole in the weld, but that's been there since the thing left the factory (plugged it with high-temp silicone, as I don't have a welder.)
Any/all input greatly appreciated!!
